The Electric Cowboy

You're anywhere and you're sitting astride a horse in a lightning storm. You are going to be hit by lightning if you don't get your butt out of the saddle.

Go back and read "Caught on the Fairway," so you'll be familiar with what makes a good and bad conductor of electricity. You are a good conductor of electricity and hence a good conductor for lightning, but the horse is even a better conductor and it is well grounded with four hooves sunk in the moist earth. Far too many cowboys sitting on horses have acted as lightning rods.  Standing in an open field a horse has a very high probability of getting hit in a lightning storm.  The horse is a very large mass of well-grounded, conducting flesh (salty plasma) and bone; and if you're sitting on one get off and get off quickly. Cowboys on horseback are more likely to get hit by lightning than even sub-par golfers standing on the fairway holding nine irons high over their heads.

If you're on a horse in the open in a lightning storm dismount, tether the horse to a low bush (not a tree), get at least 40 feet away from it, and squat down low.  Cover your ears so you won't hear the noise of an exploding horse.

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