Ride 61 and I finally fell off.....

The pictures and story are going to be in order of how it all happened.  You have to read the whole thing lol.  I'll try to not talk too much and just let you see the pictures... key word try!  Okay so we finally got the brush hog fixed so hubby spent the day mowing the pasture.  My best friend wants me to ride horses with her next week so I decided to ride Chrome and see how my back was feeling.  Feeling totally lazy I just put his bitless bridle on and since I was in shorts I put my black dressage pad on to keep my thighs from getting all hairy and gross.

 My sidekick.  That white blur is Chrome's tail lol.

 Chrome likes to follow Jackal. :D

 Sorry for sharing a poop shot (but look at that fat hiney!), but this is the only one that shows the saddle pad I was using... it's important for later lol.

Checking out the process on mowing.  He's having to cut it really short because the weeds are bad since the pasture hasn't had regular maintenance in a while.  The flies were making Chrome crazy even though I covered his WHOLE body in fly spray (that's another hint)!!  He was feeling kind of up and kept trying to break into a trot, but listened when I asked him to walk.  My back wasn't up for trotting yet.

 Sorry for the pup shots, but he's so cute!!

 What's he looking at?

 Oh it's the tractor!  No big deal.

 Drinking.  I LOVE the reflection and ripples in the water!!

 He was thirsty!

 We went to the back pasture to see how the mowing was going.  See how grown up it was??

 Jackal rests when we stand still.  When the flies got really bad I asked Chrome to stand still so I could smack them or he could bite them.  It was so cute because at one point he bent his head around and touched my bare leg with his nose.  I pulled my leg up and he proceeded to chew on his ribs where he was itchy.  Such a sweet, polite boy!

 Love this guy!  That expression!

He is losing weight on his diet btw.

As we were walking around in the front yard I saw the salt block my dad put out for the deer and decided to see what Chrome would do.

He licked on the salt block for SEVEN minutes!!!!  Yes I timed it!!  So after his salty seven minutes in heaven I decided to see if he wanted another drink.  He did.  Then on a whim I asked him to walk into the pond because before when I've asked him he did not want to go in.  He walked right into the pond!!!

And started pawing (which is why I'm pulling on the reins), so I decided to turn him around and get out of the pond ASAP before he decided to lay down.  As soon as I got him turned around, with no warning at all he went down!!!!  I screamed (loud) in surprise and my hubby heard me halfway across the pasture over the sound of the tractor (I scared him!).  I kicked Chrome asking him to stand back up since I was still sitting on his back with my feet on the floor of the pond, underwater.  He lunged to his feet........... and I didn't go with him!  I got dunked in the pond... camera and all!  Damn!  I should have just stepped off of him, but I didn't think about the saddle pad causing me to fall.  Oh well.  He didn't mean to.  It was totally my fault because I should have known he would want to roll with all the flies bothering him, not to mention I had the saddle pad on his fly spray slicked back (in my defense when I sprayed him I had no intentions of riding).  I didn't get mad at him because I was laughing the whole time.  Even though my camera is possibly destroyed (I won't know for a few days) I couldn't be upset with him because it was all my fault and when I was asking him to walk into the pond I had a gut feeling something like that was going to happen (one day I will learn to listen to my gut feelings since they are rarely wrong).  When I fell into the water his leg hit my thigh and it's bruising, but otherwise I was unhurt thank goodness!  For my first fall off of Chrome I can't complain lol.  Better the camera than me!

The last picture my camera took before getting dunked.

When he realized I was standing in the pond and he was free he trotted off to go graze in the front yard (jerk! I shouldn't have left the gate open, but he'd been out there all day and I was riding back and forth).  He proceeded to step on his reins and break my bridle in half.  :(  I'm so sad.  That was my awesome yard sale bridle that I got for seven dollars and it's a Kieffer!  So I fell off, possibly destroyed my camera and totally destroyed my bridle.... I think I learned my lesson about riding with an uncinched saddle pad!!  Oh well.  It happens.  :)  Besides it makes for a really hilarious story to tell!!  Hey on a good note my helmet didn't get wet even though I got splashed in the face!  Yay!

And just to rub it in... here is a picture of us after we went "swimming".  :D

Those shoes and socks will never be white again LOL!  Chrome is happy though!  

I put his other bridle on because I had to get back on for a few minutes... because you know, that's just what we crazy equestrians do!

So how many of you managed to guess where and how I fell off before I finally said it?  It was a total surprise to me and even now I'm grinning because it was so hilarious!  

Also we rode thirty five minutes total at the walk only and my back doesn't hurt!  Yay!  Thank goodness I landed in water!!!  :)