Road trips in particular. They are fun... things happen on road trips that don't happen any where else. I took two road trips recently that were quite entertaining. One road trip that I took ended within the first ten minutes of the show! I was driving down the interstate, going 70mph ... pulling my horse trailer going to a horse show. When all of the sudden the hood on my truck comes flying up at me!! I yell CRAP and throw on my flashers - slow down, use my mirrors to pull off to the side of the road. You know what I did? I called my Daddy :) He came and we hammered the hood back down because the hinges were busted and the hood was bent up. We took a hay net (because we didn't have a rope or a chain) and tied the hood down. As for the horses and myself and the two other girls - we called the owner of one of the horses and she came and picked us up and took us on to the show. The show went great once we got there! I mean, if anything was going to happen that day it was going to happen to us!! But besides that the day was great. The horses were really good and we placed in every class we went in. Yay for us! Yay for my little sister especially - this was her third show and it was the horses first show and they placed 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th in their classes!! The pair looked great!
Max and I didn't look bad either!!
OK, so on to the next road trip. We take the truck with the hood that is wratchet strap tied down. We take the horse trailer and we head down the road. We being me, my Dad, and my little sis. My truck is a single cab... and it has a bench seat in it that isn't adjustable. So we head down the road and the trip is supposed to take 3 hours. And about an hour into the trip - we started to lose feeling in our sitters. Sitting straight up and down for three hours is tough. We would know because that's what we did! We arrived at the horse's location around 8:00 so it's dark. And I get out of the truck and I see this horse who is flipping out breaking his rope that has him tied!! So now he is loose and running around. I'm thinking "great this horse is a freak". So, we are talking to this lady and she is like "he's super cool and quiet" and then I look at the bit she is putting in this horse's mouth and it happens to be a very strong bit that we call an elevator bit! Again the word "great" runs through my head. The lady gets on him and rides him around her back yard, in the dark. He doesn't care about the pool, the swing set, the dog, the cat, the picnic table... the train that blows past us!! So he was really super cool. I get on him because my little sister is freaked out about this whole thing - and what does he do? The horse flips out on me! I'm still not sure why, but oh well. I ride through it and start trotting him around. He was super cool, so my little sister got on him did walk trot... and she decided she liked him. So we brought him home!! The ride home was just as pleasant... and then we had the unloading of the horse! He did not like backing off the trailer. He would put one foot on the ground and leap back onto the trailer. We did this over and over... finally I had to just shove him out of the trailer. So now, my little sister is the proud new owner of a thoroughbred gelding, named Fly!!
So that's it for road trips... now lets talk about falls... like falling off of horses! I took a trip off of a horse... my horse Max. There we were Saturday, jumping a jumper round... cantering the jumps (that's a big deal), not bucking so much!! It was going great... but we started having a problem... he would go off to the side on lines. So I circled him once, came back around and started the line again, the first jump went great, the second jump in the line came up fast and he was headed straight for the standard (which is the part of the jump that holds the poll up, so it is quite a bit taller than the actual jump itself!). I didn't want to ride out a refusal so I let him jump it... and he made it over... in a twisted sort of way - me on the other hand I hit the ground!! After that point... I don't remember what I happened! I kind of hit my head and had a concussion with memory loss. Apparently I fell off, got back on (like a good trainer does) and did the whole course again then stopped to ask my little sister what the course was!! Did I mention that I had jumped this course like 12 times; I made up the course!!! After that my little sister asked me a bunch of questions that I couldn't answer, so she called 911. Problem was that once she called 911 she couldn't get me off of the horse because I wanted to jump some more! Of course I remember none of this, this is just stuff that I have been told! I apparently asked what day it was like 6 different times, to different people. Someone did finally get me off the horse by telling me that my ride was over!! I apparently walked into the barn that was filled with horses that I either own or train... and I asked "Who are these horses"!! The ambulance got there... and there were all these mother's there that were freaked out and all these kids that were freaked out... and the ambulance driver doesn't concern herself with me... she starts talking to them!! Luckily her side kick did find me and asked a bunch of questions... which I also don't remember! I remember getting into the ambulance and riding to the hospital. Then I spent the next couple of hours in the hospital ... being entertained by my dear ol' Dad!! Who would not leave things alone... it's a wonder I don't have heart condition. The Doc says it was "just" a concussion with some strain to the neck. Pain relievers out the wazoo!! Yesterday was horrible... I felt like a train had hit me. And today I find out that every one that knows me, knows that I fell off and had a concussion!! Like the people down at the feed store know about it. I haven't been to the feed store... I guess that's what you get for living in a small town!
Well, that's about it for trips and falls.
Peace ya'll
