A kind word – IOTW Report

A kind word

Saturday, 15 October 2016, 19:00 MJA Uncategorized 25

If you get a chance, say a kind word for me. I’m at the Hospital ….

Today has not been a good day. I decided to go horseback riding, something I haven’t done in over 20 yrs. It turned out to be a big mistake!

I got on the horse and started out slow but then we went a little faster and before I knew it we were at a full gallop! I couldn’t take the pace and fell off but caught my foot in the stirrup with the horse dragging me. It wouldn’t stop! It just kept going around and around in a circle.

 

Thank goodness the store manager at Toys R Us came out and unplugged the machine.

*

Michael M

25 Comments on A kind word

  3. My daughters horse came home several times without her. The last time it happened she was thrown off and she broke her arm at the shoulder.

    So this really happened to me, the being at the hospital part.

  7. With your name on the byline, Ya had me going there, MJA. My heart lept at getting caught in the stirrup. ‘Oh no! Not MJA!’

    A little bit like waking up from a bad dream and realizing everything is ok.

  8. Once when I was a young teen I was horseback riding with my family…somewhere…and along the way for no reason I got a nose bleed. We weren’t at some incredibly high elevation or anything. So I’m riding a horse with my head back holding a tissue. (No galloping or cantering along the way.)

    Long story short, I lived.

  10. Dadof4- Aw you’re so sweet! 😉

    I once was thrown off a spinning merrygoround. Remember those metal things with the handles spaced every 2 feet? Covered in Tetanus and dried vomit? Yeah, one of them. Man, I went flying and bounced across the playground like a rock skipping across water.
    That was fun!!!

  15. MJA, I actually started getting a panic attack as I was reading your account.

    My instant remembrance was on a pre-ride in a wash at the Tanque Verde Ranch many years ago. The wrangler didn’t lower the stirrups enough for me, so my knees were way high – kidna like a jockey.

    Nogales took off in a full gallop and maintained for over a mile. If it weren’t for the heels of my boots, I would have flown off that dang horse. I had to near stand up and ride him to the end. All I could think of at the time was the rodeo riders who wind up riding sideways before they fall off. Horse’s name should have been Diablo rather than Nogales.

  17. I have a cowboy friend here in Nevada who has always said “Horses. You feed ’em, curry ’em, water ’em, take care of ’em and all they want to do is kill you.”

  18. I remember a horse taking off at a gallop and hanging on for dear life. I remembered I had been told if that ever happened to aim at an obstacle and that would stop or slow the horse. Well couldn’t do it as I figured he would try to jump it or even crash. Fortunately an experienced rider caught up to me and grabbed the reins. Of course a speeding horse coming up from behind first encourages a horse to go faster. I like a cantor but have never since tried a full gallop.

  19. You had me going! I was mentally recalling when we went to family camp and my daughter who was 7 at the time got on this horse that was supposedly gentle and slow. Something spooked the horse and it took off running! Scared the crap out of me. The leader who was a horseman took off after the horse and caught up to it with my daughter holding on for dear life. I never got back on a horse again. But she did. She went on to spend 5 more years at Cowboy camp. Well MJA, I’m just going to have to send this to her. LOL!

  21. Whew! Don’t scare me like that MJA!! But it was a good joke!

    I flew off a horse a few times. The first time the horse was heading toward a tree and I decided I didn’t want to die. I jumped off and landed on my head. Good thing it didn’t do any damage … derp.

  22. Oh, I once had a bad dismount from a Shetland pony when I was @ 11.

    My sister had a place out in the country next to her in-laws. A lot of farm land surrounded them so you could see several hundred yards in any direction. She had a stable with a quarter horse and a Shetland pony.

    One Summer day my brother and I went out for a ride. Him on this beautiful full-sized horse saddle and all. Socks was his name – for obvious reasons.

    Me on the Shetland pony bare back. They never had a saddle for her as she was too hard to bridle in the first place. Never having tried anything with her before, she trusted me as I walked up to her with the bridle hidden from her sight behind me. Jezebel was her name. She had a reputation for being reluctant to be ridden.

    I was not an experienced rider and horses scared me a bit. But I was brave enough to bridle her up, get on and giddy up behind my brother.

    We walked along a trail by the creek and the shade with the water nearby made it the coolest place outdoors. It was very pleasant and Jezebel was co-operative giving me no trouble.

    I was wearing a wide brimmed cowboy hat for the shade – which I would have left behind if I knew what was going to happen with it.

    When we exited the tree covered path by the creek and started heading home, my brother went into a gallop across the empty farm field. A hot, dry and dusty Texas Summer. I can still see how beautiful it looked as the dust came up from every hoof hitting the ground as he went, leaning forward a bit and looking every bit of an experienced rider even though he wasn’t either.

    I gave a light nudge with my heels and a click-click with my tongue and Jezebel went into half speed. Remember – I was bare backing it with no pommel to hold onto, no stirrups, and pretty inexperienced. Riding a Shetland at that speed is a pretty bouncy thing with such short strokes for a gait. Kind of like riding over speed bumps rapidly.

    About 10 seconds into short-bouncing like crazy, my hat slid back about to fall off. My quick reach up to catch it before it fell off completely was seen by Jezebel which spooked her and she took off like a rocket!

    Man, I thought the half gallop was bouncy but this was cranked up – there is no long gallop they break into with a Shetland – it just gets worse. On top of that, the sudden acceleration jerked the reigns out of my hand and I was grasping for her mane and squeezing my legs together to stay on her – but my feet were now on her shoulders and neck. I was sliding off to my right with every jostle. I could barely reach the bottom of her mane as my balance had me leaning back from the rocket take-off and I couldn’t get forward again. I was almost laying back on her at this point.

    Then she headed right for the only tree in that field like she was going to brush me off her with the trunk. Need I say I was getting a bit panicked at this point?

    I went ahead and stopped trying to stay on – I was going to lose that struggle at some point, might as well be before a collision with that trunk. The ground looked softer.

    I got out of gym for several weeks from my hip and lower back being injured and wore a back brace for the second time in my life. My BiL’s brother came running across the field as I lay on the ground in pain. My brother had no idea what happened to me as he disappeared towards the stable, so I was glad somebody saw it because I couldn’t get up on my own.

    He was laughing all the way as I watched him running to me. “That was hilarious! I saw it all! We’ll be talking about this a long time!”

    ‘F**k you’ wasn’t in my vocabulary at that time, but the sentiment was there.

    That was my first AND last ride on Jezebel.

  24. horses are big and scary, and when i was forced to sit on one, it never ended well……just sayin……

    even so, it was plain old stairs that broke my back, and a stupid box of styrofoam cups that broke my neck…..

    so maybe horses aren’t all that bad…..

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