Zero Days

Washing the chunks of bermuda grass out of the ends of my hair in the shower, I had some time to decide exactly where the mistake was made. Clearly, it was yesterday.

Typical spring weather, we had gone from near 70 over the weekend, back down to a high of 34 with strong winds. I worked the boys in the wind expecting a lot of silly shenanigans on their part. Riding Czech through the pasture to cool down I let my mind wander to my last fall, some 200 rides ago. I all but congratulated myself mentally on my ability to stay on boys that kept me on my toes. No sooner had I done that than the opposite side of my mind thought, "You idiot, you're going to eat dirt now".

Thoroughbred people are notoriously superstitious.

I immediately regretted tempting fate when I came down to the arena with Bandon this morning to find the neighbors that border us were working in their backyard with their loose dog. Bandon is vigilant in his suspicious-ness of their backyard anyway so spooking on the longe line was expected, but eventually he settled in and I rode him on the far side of the arena.

He was doing great and when I put his mind on the jumps at the far side, he took them with his usual work ethic. Next I pointed him to the jump more near the center of the arena, I was with him as he left the ground over the 2'3" bar.

When he landed on the other side, I was long gone and skidding across the grass by his feet. To my delight, I had bypassed that "oh crap!" moment where you lose balance and try to cling to the horse knowing you are going to fall and fear overtakes you. Nope, not this time. This time I was with the horse, then I was in the air and there was no in between.

Bandon had spooked at approach and jumped like it was over 4 feet. If you've never jumped a big jump before, grab mane is all I can say. The power and impulsion propelling the huge animal that far in the air will toss you like a feather.

Poor Bandon took a big U turn at a canter, straight back to me as I was getting to my feet. He was very startled and worried. His head went from sky high to shoved in my stomach. I know, anthropomorphism is wrong, but I'm telling you that horse was scared he had hurt me. More so than he was scared of the people clearing brush, now just a few feet behind me, he had ran towards them to get to me.

I told him I was fine and got to the mounting block once the breath was back in me. Still in that this-feels-numb-but-it's-going-to-hurt stage, I took off his saddle that had slid back too far over the enormous jump, and re-positioned it. I was back on him a few seconds later and we immediately did the jump again and cleared it fine. Two easy crossrails later, we called it a day.

I was glad to get up to the barn and find that that the stinging and heaviness to my face wasn't blood but just my cold-numbed skin being scratched up by the dirt and grass. Knee, shoulder, and hip took the brunt of the fall and of course I had my helmet securely on.

Definitely the biggest fall I've had in a lot of years. Proud of how my horse handled it, and proud that my hubby was calm when I told him, just wanting to be sure I was okay. Extra points goes to my long-distance trainer, her response was the ever cool, "Fun to know he's got it in him".

Days Riding Without A Fall : 250 0