In Which My Ass Meets Grass....

I came off two horses today, within the same hour. If I keep my right arm propped up on my knee, and my knee propped up in the chair, I can mostly type without screaming out in discomfort too loudly.

First I fell off Zydo, and I have to say that it was nothing short of thrilling. A dog leapt out of the fenceline, taking Zydo by surprise. So, he did the only rational thing he could think of: He reared high, high up in the air, and took off sideways at top speed.

I remember looking at his belly and his right leg, and then seeing hooves above me before I realized that I was on the ground. My right leg was above me and still in the stirrup, and as a result I was dragged for a very short distance in the grass. This is how my new show breeches looked at the end of the day:



After that, I hopped back on (Hopped being a relative term, as my legs are not that strong and Zydo is impressively tall) and finished out my ride without fuss.

Next, I hopped on Winter, a lovely little quarterhorse who was in a bit of a mood today. First she deaked out from in front of the fence. When we went at the fence again, she simply stopped in front of it.

I, however, continued on in a forward motion, such that I landed with my head in the sand, and my left hip on the fence. I daintily bounced off that, wrenching my shoulder in the process. I'm kind of confused myself as to how the whole thing went down, what with being upside down and in excruciating amounts of pain and all.

I'm not gonna lie here: I cried like a baby. After I'd done some deep breathing exercises, I shakily remounted the horse and continued on, but the pain in my left arm was too much to bear. Getting off the horse again was a whole new experience for me, and once I finally was off, I collapsed again beside the horse and began weeping.

All of the mobility was lost in my left arm, the pain was shooting down into my elbow, and I couldn't move it. We iced it, we left it alone, and an hour later I was in such pain that I couldn't speak without screaming obscenities and begging Our Heavenly Father for assistance.

I was examined briefly at the hospital and told to not move my arm for two days, and keep it in a sling for that time to a maximum of a week. If it hurts I'm not to move it.

What the doctor doesn't know is that I have my first ever horse show in TEN DAYS and, God help us all, I will be there with bells on. And whatever casting will be needed by that time.