Ride 96 - I fell off but I'm fine.

I was riding bareback for about two minutes when Chrome spooked and did a rollback. Being bareback I couldn't hang on. As I started to slip, barely hanging on by the rope on his halter he freaked and took off. We got a couple of strides and I fell. He ran to a tree and stood frozen under it like he was terrified.

I landed on the right side of my back and could not breathe. I thought I was going to suffocate right there because I was trying to breathe in and my lungs were frozen. Jackal and hubby were immediately by my side and he talked to me until I relaxed and could breathe again. He said it was seconds but it felt like minutes.

I laid there until I could breathe again. Then I got up and I was pissed. I longed the crap out of Chrome in the spot where he spooked and again in the spot where I fell. That may not have been the right thing to do but I don't want him getting away with it. I could already feel pain in my neck, back and hip so there was no way I was getting back on. I can deal with the repercussions of all that later.

The good news is I had my helmet on, did not black out and pretty sure by the whiplash already developing in my neck that my head didn't even hit the ground. The bad news is my neck, back and hip already hurt pretty bad and it's been less than half an hour.

The scary part is about ten minutes after the fall I coughed and spit blood in the sink. It wasn't much and only happened once but it scared me to death. My husband, parents and my boss who was a nurse before she retired and started running the feed store all said it was probably from my really bad sinus problems and it's nothing to worry about unless it happens again. That reassured me a bit but I'm still scared. My sinuses have been draining down the back of my throat all day. That's not new.

I'm so upset this happened. I have no idea what he spooked at. As soon as I got on I could tell he was getting frisky and I thought about getting off. Next time I'm listening to my gut instinct. Bareback and fresh horses do not mix. Anyway I'll update you guys tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed the pain is manageable... I already have a feeling I will be missing work tomorrow just judging by how stiff I am already and my history with back pain. :-(

My best friend finally got to ride Chrome!! :D

We didn't have a halter or anything so she just rode sans tack.  She couldn't stay long so she just walked him around in the pasture for a few minutes and posed for pictures.  :D

2014 Year End Review - Part I

I wasn't going to do a year end review because I thought it would be hideously boring since we never do anything, but it actually made me realize how much we did do!!  So I'm glad I did it!  I'll be breaking it up into a couple of posts because my internet is being slow and I don't want to bog computers down...

January

I rode for the first time in a while on New Year's Day!  I hadn't been riding because I fell on ice and got stepped on by Chrome so my leg was healing (to read more click here).

My only goal for 2014 was to live in the moment and enjoy every single day to the best of my abilities.  I think I did a really good job.  I still let my anxiety get a hold of me at times and worried about things out of my control, but on the whole I did a lot better with it (recently at least).

I actually got pictures so you guys could see how I deworm the wild donkey (see post here).

Chrome was back to letting me approach him and love on him when he was laying down to nap.  :D  Moving to a new home took some adjusting for everyone.

Chrome finally started dappling out!!

February

It snowed....

.... and snowed....

Sorry for no helmet, didn't have one because I honestly did not know I would get to ride.

A dream came true for me and I got to ride my best friend's new purebred Friesian mare (she's put on a LOT of weight and looks soooo much better, there will be more pictures of her later).  See more in this post.

February 24th 2014 was one of the worst days of my life because I had to put my sweet Stormy to sleep.  She was four months away from turning thirteen years old and was in kidney failure.  :(

March

It's March before I'm finally able to talk about Storm and the decision to put her to sleep (post here).

We got... more... snow.... okay it was ice, but still... weird!

I actually did a bit of riding in March, but they were short, bareback rides.  His stifles were a little sticky, but we made some progress with turning like a grown up horse instead of a wide opening rein like a baby.

I wrote out the list of CTR obstacles with great plans to work on them... and then didn't.  Mainly because I didn't have the stuff to make the obstacles.  I do need to work on them though!  Here is the post.  I did work on one obstacle though that was pretty cool!  Link here.

 Can you believe I'm 5'10" and he's only 16.1hh?  

His presence and high head set makes him seem so much taller.  :)

Another dream came true in March.  I got to meet Chrome's sire Jan!!!  Click here to see more pictures and read all about meeting him.

April

In April I started off the month well scoring some great deals at a tack sale.

I got an awesome book called Equine Fitness that helped me understand how to get Chrome fit safely and enabled me to come up with a plan to strengthen his stifles especially.  All of the fitness posts can be viewed here.

 I had the great pleasure of meeting and photographing a gorgeous Friesian foal that a friend of mine bred (I don't think I ever mentioned it but he was reserve champion colt and got 2nd premie at his keuring!!!).

I shared a video here of my sheltered Chrome on one of our hand walks past a neighbor's horses.  He gets so excited!

We finally found a new home for our Percheron Faran.  You can read about it here.  (He's still doing great by the way!!)

Be sure to check back for the rest of our review!!  I'll be posting them on rainy days so they might not be on consecutive days.