As my friends probably know, I have been riding a cute little appaloosa pony for a few weeks. He is the smallest, and fastest, in our barn. (And we have an ex-racehorse in our barn!!!!)
Well, the short story is my pony took off and I hit the ground going about 25 miles an hour.
The long story is, I was at work yesterday. The first lesson was my team lesson. I got to ride my favorite pony, but we were both still a little rusty/ off our game from the Holidays. (And it didn’t help that I had had to get up at 7:30 am to get to work on time, after only 2 or 3 hours of sleep.)
He was extremely spooky, and I took notice of that, but I didn’t change my riding enough.
When we were trotting, he tried to take off with me after seeing a jump-pole on the ground, which we had already passed about 10 times going that direction. I got him under control right away, and had Mr. Ned (My instructor’s brother and Sammy’s* dad) move it for me.
Then, we were cantering on the rail by ourselves, when I suddenly heard the sound of dirt, raised from his own feet, hitting the wall. I knew he heard it to, and braced myself for what I knew was coming. He took off! I have NEVER been on a horse going that fast in my entire life!
We went into the bullpen, and when he cut the turn I lost my stirrup.(I Regained it immediately, but it nocked me off balance.) (Side note: when we canter, we line up in the center of the arena and go one at a time, and we had about 5 other horses in there.)
So when I came out, my instructor stood right in front of him arms outstretched. He came until he was about a foot and a half away from her, then suddenly, and without losing momentum, he turned a 90 degree turn and headed for a 2 foot wide space between my instructor’s bay ex-racehorse mare, and a stack of hay. He soon realized, however, that he was not going to fit. So he then pulled another 90 degree turn, this time with me shooting over his shoulder. I hit the dirt about 3 feet in front of the mare, on some hard packed wet dirt, right on my shoulder, forearm, and neck.
He ran to the door and stood there waiting for me.I then continued my ride, pain, dirt and all, put him away after about 15 or 20 minutes, got on our little chestnut morgan mare (another fast pony) and schooled her for 15 minutes, put my instructor’s mare away, then got up on our chestnut sour-puss horse ( an old slow Quarter Horse that is not surefooted at all and doesn’t like moving) , who was on his worst behavior, and exercised him for 30 minutes to an hour.
It was then 3:30, I hadn’t had a bite to eat since 8:00 am, I was in pain, I had a headache, and I had to ride in the car for an hour with the boys yelling in the backseat. Then, when we got home, I had to babysit them for 4 HOURS while my parents went to a meeting.
* Sammy is my instructor’s niece. She is a member of our equestrian team, and probably my closest friend there.