8 weeks ago , Monday, my unflappable Mounted Patrol Steed( hereon in MPS),Cisco, got flapped. He's the one laying down. You can see how flappable he is - CLEARLY. It stands to reason that if you spend at least 1/8th of a ride speaking of horse related injuries, you just might have tempted the Fates. All I can say is thank the sweet 8 oz Baby J , that I got in a lovely 5 hour trail ride before it all came crashing to a very interesting end.
Let me say now that this whole shabang was due to the fact that I just had to - and I mean REALLY had to - check my smart ( ha) phone whilst deciding whether I would be crossing the street and going the longer way home( as agreed upon with My Cowboy Husband - MCH ) or ..... staying on the bridle path on the super busy street that doubles as the Indianapolis 500 Speedway 24/7.
I started off strong - getting off my horse before the Elementary School - which was very close to being let out - buses - parents - you know - super horse friendly folks and equipment. I also thought my kneecaps might actually begin to remove themselves from my body if I did not change position from seated to upright. Good Ol Cisco, was doing all the right things - which we have trained incessently for - he was at least 2 feet behind me maybe even 3 feet - head down, dragging his feet. We made it past the school, air brakes, adults running across the street , a loose banner on a fence, 15 screaming children running at the fence alerting me that I had a horse on the end of a lead rope - all good - he was just about sleep walking. I get to the next street - and then my epic fail - my knees hurt - should I go ahead and break my promise to not walk down the raceway or should I cross the street and do what my gut says is the right thing to do - I think my screaming knees must have been pointed down the raceway while my torso and head were twisted towards the right way- at that moment I decided that I simply must check my text messages and at that same moment the Ginormous Black Schnauzer picked his moment to lunge at the fence forcing my MPS to go into survival mode - kick out and run like Hell - sadly for both of us I still had the lead rope and due to my dog work - I automatically planted and put my lead rope hand to my center of gravity . His head turns - and mid stride the front of his back hoof nails me right in my planted calf. OH MY GAWD - I have no words - except for whatever escaped my potty mouth at the exact moment of impact. I made it to the moment in life where I am truly grateful for my Russian side - big and strong like Ox.
Soooo - I now have the thought that he may have broken my leg, the bridle is on the ground under prancing hooves, my oh so important phone is still in my free hand ( really?)and I'm wondering if MCH is going to hear his phone because he was planning on doing dirt work with the Bobcat. The choice is now clear - thank you FATES - that I will be heading home via the Raceway. Mind you, Ginormous rude dog is absolutely rabid behind his fence, the trash truck is coming and I still have to either try to get up on my massive horse who is flapped quite badly by now, or put weight on the offending limb. I man up and put weight on the leg, delighted that it is clearly not broken and he did not get me in the joint. All of this in probably a 10 second or less span -feeling like a month of Sundays. I hoof it ( ha ha) down the road, pleased with my progress - except that my MPS is very needy now and will not remember that he is supposed to be 3 feet or more behind me. I'm 4 houses away from home - and dontcha know - there is a loose Pit Bull who is dodging everything until she lays eyes on my horse - locked and loaded - could care less about the cars - people - just wants some horse flesh - yay...... I pull out my pepper spray... place myself in front of my jacked up horse - and a kind hearted pick up truck drives in front of her, giving me enough time to ..... wait for it........... JOGGGGG home.
Good times. We make it. I can barely think straight at this point. MCH takes my horse away from me and I go into the house and Elevate and Ice - which I have been doing for the last 8 weeks and am currently doing now.
It is much better - I got really lucky.
So here is what my leg has forced me to learn - in lieu of riding or doing ground work, I groom and do low impact things like clicker training and nightly rotation turn outs. Alfalfa - while never my feed of choice - is used as a treat or to supplement wretched Oat Hay. Ever handled a hot horse in clogs or flip flops? I do not recommend it.
Yesterday was my first day on horse back - I have been able to handle doing ground work in the round pen for the last week while wearing tennis shoes. Yesterday - I wore boots. Oh - I did wear boots about 3 weeks ago for my wedding reception and I danced too - I also was out of commission for the following week and went to Urgent Care. Nice.
What I learned however, is that I was making much too big movements when doing groundwork prior to this - lots of acting up in the round pen - my leg has forced me to slow down and really concentrate - hence - the worst offenders - are surprisingly docile and willing to work. My saddle caused me a great deal of pain in the calf yesterday - so I dropped my stirrups for comfort and was surprised by the fact that my MPS followed my cues willingly. Today I used my Barefoot Cheyenne - pretty much a really fancy bareback pad - switched out the endurance stirrups for a pair of cutting stirrups and I had one of the nicest round pen sessions on him in forever.
I have very high hopes for my onery cuss Poncho now. I was pretty sure it was me - and now I know for a fact it was me.
Til next time - Happy Trails
