Quicksand - yikes!!

[Pam M]

Four of us went out for a nice long conditioning ride this morning and everything was going great - horses were fresh, it wasn't too hot, etc.

About 7 miles into the ride is a shallow, wide creek. Our plan was to ride in the creek about a mile upstream to pick up the trail we wanted to be on. We were having a great time splashing through the water, riding way too close to each other but what danger is that in a creek, right?

Suddenly the horses went nuts! They were thrashing, rearing, hopping, slamming into each other - it was crazy. The horse next to me fell over and the rider was under my horse. :shock: It was truly scary because we didn't know what was happening. I thought we must have hit a submerged fence and they were stuck in the wire. Two of us made it to a little beach and two found solid footing in the creek.

We were still shaky, still didn't know what was going on. Then my mare and the other mare on the beach start thrashing again and sunk to their bellies! Well, at least we finally knew that we were dealing with quicksand so we were all a little calmer and managed to get them to solid footing.

No one was hurt, other than minor scrapes, but the horses were all really shaken. We walked them through the creek for the next half mile or so until they calmed down.

I'm so glad no one was hurt - we were on a 22 mile loop and were miles away from any road that we could have trailered to! It ended well though and we learned a lesson. Do not run through the creek so close that your knees are touching another horse! Had we been spread a little further apart I think it wouldn't have been so bad because we could have seen what was happening.

[CarolU]

Oh Pam...how scary!!! :shock:

Glad to read that you are all okay. Sounds terrifying to me.

Is quicksand common? Can you mark that spot or does it change with the water levels?

[Barbwire]

Holy smokes, what a scary tale! We don't have quicksand around here, but I've been in some pretty deep mud with my horse and I know the feeling of a paniced horse under me.

Glad you were all ok.

[Privatetreaty]

Wow Pam, what an experience.
I'm sure I would have been all freaked out too.
Especially, the person that fell under the horse, under those circumstances.

I'm so glad everything turned out okay for everyone.


.

[Laura S]

Wow, that is scary, I'm glad all turned out OK. Last time I rode my mare in a river, she tripped over a rock and went down on a knee. I thought I was going swimming for a minute!

[PASOFAN]

Scary!! So gald everyone is ok!!

[motorgypsy]

That had to be terrifying. A great piece of advice not to crowd during water crossings. We think about not crowding at steep rocky places but wouldn't have necessarily considered it for a water crossing.

The danger of quicksand is not what they show in the movies with the animal or person being sucked under. It's getting stuck. Cattle have starved to death when they couldn't get out. If you get stuck yourself you can actually sit/lie down in it and pull your feet out and just hooch or roll out of it because you float quite well in it. The stuff would make a great bed! I grew up a the coast and we had it right at the end of our street so we got into it all the time. I lost a boot once in it but got it back out. YUKK!

There was actually a study I think in Consumer Reports on quicksand and quickmud and it said the first thing to do is try to run out of it which horses obviously know already. If you can't then they told you to sit down in it and get your legs unstuck and roll out but you can hooch along also because that's what we did when we got our boat stuck in it and had to get out and pull it and ourselves out of the stuff.

[Minouri]

Gulp. Terrifying. I'm so glad you were all ok.

[Linda Y]

Quicksand in streams is pretty common here. When we used to ride the Bayou La Terre, we would find a patch of it almost every time. It is a very scary feeling. The horses panic and there is almost nothing you can do but hang on (hopefully) and let them work out of it.
Sure glad no one was hurt!!

[Pam M]

Hey Linda - that beach that you're standing on in your avatar - that's the same creek where the quicksand is! But we were several miles south of where you were in that photo and in a much more isolated area.

And yes, quicksand isn't uncommon here. It's usually in fairly remote areas so we don't run into it but if you go off the beaten path enough, you'll have a good chance of finding some.