Gimlin: Well Roger was in the front and his horse tried to spin around and come back. I was riding behind him on the big horse leading the pack horse along. My horse was kind of spooky but not near as bad as Roger’s horse. Roger’s horse was a spooky little horse. He was a young horse of course. The horse I was riding was an older cow horse, been roped on and used for a lot of things. Roger’s horse threw all kinds of fits and when Roger got off the horse, he ran off and the pack horse jerked free from me and ran off back down the way we came.
Green: Did Roger’s horse buck?
Gimlin: No, it never did buck, just reared and jumped all around. His horse was in front of me and of course I wasn’t looking straight at him all the time. This all happened in a couple of heart beats you know. It happened fast!
Green: But then Roger’s horse didn’t go down?
Gimlin: No. It didn’t fall down, just reared up is all.
Green: Because this has been said since [inaudible] …you know that Roger’s horse fell down…?
Gimlin: No, no his horse never did fall down. No.
Green: Okay, that’s interesting. So did he get the camera while he was still on the horse?
Gimlin: Yes, while he was stepping down off the horse. Umm, a lot of people have asked me about that and they probably don’t realize the agility that Roger had. He was a tremendous athlete. Roger had tremendous agility! He had been a rodeo rider, he did gymnastics and this wasn’t a full size horse Roger was riding either. It was a pony, a small horse.
Green: Yeah, I’ve seen those little horses, he used to haul them in a Volkswagen bus…
Gimlin: Yeah, we used to haul two of them in a VW bus. Roger rode these horses because they were easy to get on and off of because Roger wasn’t a very big man. So actually when he was getting off his horse, he always kept that saddle bag ready. The saddle bag had two flaps on it to keep it buckled down. He kept one buckled and one of them unbuckled so he could get his camera in the event he needed it in a hurry and this was the case at that particular time.
