Be Safe

Learn from my stupidity, or at least let it serve as a friendly reminder to always wear your safety gear. We're both fine, but we're pretty lucky, I think.

The other day, Midge and I were having a really nice ride. I had wanted to practice my dressage tests for the upcoming show, so we ran through those a couple of times.We played with a few transitions. She was going super well but then during a walk to canter transition the wheels totally fell off,  as evidenced by the fact that she pretty much immediately lost her balance. I lost mine as well, and fell to the side, but did not let go of the reins, essentially directing her fall right on top of me.

What a lovely feeling to be laying flat on your back watching your horse coming down on top of you! The actual impact wasn't as bad as expected as she kind of fell and rolled up on me, and the sand was soft. She was super careful about getting up, and only lightly caught me with a hind hoof before realizing I wasn't solid ground and standing on two legs so I could get out from under her. Worth her weight in gold, this pony.

Today, I'm still super sore, all the way from my ankles to my collarbone. Getting steamrolled by a 900lb pony will do that I guess. I feel absolutely horrible for my part in the drama, maybe she wouldn't have fallen at all if I had ridden it better? Or maybe I would have ended up going down with the ship...who knows? Maybe I was putting too much pressure on her? Maybe she just made a super bad decision? I have no witnesses so can't really say exactly what happened, it felt like her front end came up and her back end sort of slid under her.

So, let this serve as your friendly reminder to wear your safety gear and have a plan in case of emergency. You can be 'just' doing dressage on a nice day in a flat arena on the quietest horse in the barn and everything can still change in a second. I'm wishing I wore my vest, but super glad I had a helmet on because my head is what got the accidental hoof.