My husband and I enjoy riding our horses through the open range near our home and frequently trailer our horses to other locations.

One beautiful spring day, we set off for a camping weekend in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest with our two dogs and three horses. Getting to the horse campground involves multiple hairpin turns and long runs up and down steep hills. On one of those runs, we were on a downgrade headed toward a sharp right turn marked with a very wide and tall rail fence, which was white with numerous red hash marks to caution drivers. Beyond the fence were open space and a long drop. And we were gaining speed—rapidly.

I usually try not to be a backseat driver, but I couldn’t help but remark to my husband that I really thought we should be slowing down. He said, “I can’t—the brakes aren’t responding.” He was downshifting to try and reduce our speed, but it didn’t seem to be working. We were approaching this hard right turn way faster than we should have been.