my interesting ride. :-)

I went with some friends on Monday for a good long trail ride with Koko and their gaited mare, Cheyenne, who is pretty close to Koko energy-wise (she has a little bit more most of the time!) It all went really well until the very end, and I mean the very end- we had just gotten back onto their yard after riding numerous miles and for over three hours. For the record, I would do it all over again for the fun of those three hours. :) At the same time, I now have one of those good anecdotal stories for 'why to wear a helmet'.

We had just stepped foot- or hoof I should say- onto my friends' yard. Koko was gaiting at a very fast pace, it was faster than most canters on a non-gaited horse, and he caught the very edge of his right hoof on the edge of a shallow ditch. So he stumbled a little bit, which would have been fine, except that as he stumbled he drifted to the right so that his next stride hit the ditch and threw him forward. I was afraid (in that very small space of time that I had to think!) that he was going to somersault so I kicked out of the stirrups as he went down, and that action might have saved him from rolling completely over, I'm not sure. But in any case, I went over his head and hit the ground with my shoulder and helmet, and Koko fell next to me. I am so grateful for that horse, I know he had to work to avoid landing on top of me.

I probably passed out for a minute, because next thing I knew I was looking up and my friend was off his horse and holding both Cheyenne and Koko. I think I mumbled something about lying there for a minute when he asked how I was, then immediately turned to the most important question at hand- how was Koko? He smiled and said that Koko appeared to be just fine and that he guessed I wasn't TOO badly hurt since I did the horse lover thing of immediately asking about my horse! I was so relieved that Koko was okay- I have seen/heard way too many stories about horses breaking their legs from falls like that. We were both very, very blessed. My helmet was a little cracked, but my head was fine, and other than an abrasion on my shoulder and a cut chin and grass stains on Koko, we were both non-injured. Well, okay, the chiropracter had to put a couple of ribs, my hip, and my neck back into place, but pretty much, we were fine. Koko has no swelling or injuries and the day after was back to his usual bossy self, chasing Smokey around the pasture.

Other than that little incident, we had an amazing ride. We had two horses and two bike riders and a couple of nice places for races between them. It was really between Koko and Cheyenne since bicycles are no match for horses that can run almost 40 miles an hour! :) The horses just loved it, and we had lots of fun too. We went over roads, a clanky metal bridge, next to cars and trucks, by cattle lots, through woods, and over a creek bed. There were still lots of wildflowers (which the boys had to remember to pick for their little sister!) and the day was cool and sunny. It has been PERFECT riding weather! Hopefully we'll be able to get in some more rides like that- minus hitting the dirt- before winter sets in. Oh- I did get back on Koko after a few minutes too, after making sure he was okay, and rode him the few feet over to the round pen. I don't have any worries about riding after that, it was just a freak thing that neither of us could help. In fact I'm greatly looking forward to taking Koko out on some more trail rides this year. He is a lot of fun as a trail horse!