For the most part the trail ride had been going well, except for Ben's tantrum at the beginning when he didn't want to go forward at all and it took a ton of coaxing and backing up to get him to move forward on the trail. But once we were moving in the right direction, Ben had his ears perked forward and we mostly just walked and trotted along the trail. It was very peaceful and surprisingly I didn't see anyone out on the trail, which is very rare for being the weekend. On our way back, I let Ben canter a little. Which then broke into a full on powerful gallop, but I was able to easily slow him down and keep him under control. After about 5 or so minutes of walking I decided I'd let Ben trot a little bit more until we approached a hill to go down. On our way Ben pushed himself into a canter, which I didn't want to I started to half-halt him and he didn't respond at all. He just started getting crazy began bucking while cantering. It was quite the ride and totally unexpected. I usually have a solid seat with him and have sat through many of his bucking spells, but I think since this one was out on a trail as apposed to being in an enclosed arena, he was much more excited. So I lost my balance and fell off over his neck. Darn it, there goes the "No falling" streak I've been able to hold for the past 10+ years!!
Luckily during my fall I wasn't kicked, stepped on or drug around by the stirrup or reins. Ben was also nice enough to stop dead in his tracks once I hit the ground and looked down at me like, "Duh, why are you laying in the dirt?" He then proceeded to eat the surrounding ferns. Goofy horse! I'm glad he didn't run off either after having disposed of me. I would have never been able to catch up with him.
It took me a while to stand up since I landed on my back on the left side of my pelvis. It hurt to move, but I knew that I didn't break anything, so I just took my time. I figured that someone would eventually walk by since I usually see tons of people walking their dogs on those trails, but after about 10 minutes I saw no one. So I slowly stood up and while I was in the process of brushing the dirt off of myself, I saw a couple approaching. When they got closer I recognized the woman as the mother of one of the girls (Narissa) that I went to Pony Club with when I was in High School. She was nice enough to let me borrow her cell phone so I could call my mom and let her know that I'd be slow in getting home and she then helped hold Ben while I got back on. I'm glad that I was able to get on him and ride again, since walking home would have been nearly impossible. I was a probably at least mile or so away from home and I could barely walk a few steps without it hurting.
Once I got back home, I slowly put Ben away and then laid down on the grass and did some stretches. Since I've hurt my back so many times before, I've gone through this recuperation process numerous times. I'm just hoping this time won't take as long as it has in the past since I'd really hate to give Ben even more time off. Even if I need to take the next two weeks off, that will make it two months of him being out of work. Ugh! Here's hoping for a speedy recovery and that my chiropractor will give me a green light ride again soon!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment