Field Trips and Back Flips

Saturday morning I finally took the much anticipated adventure to J's place in Oregon. She owns the cute little bay yearling at my house and works with CJ a lot. She breeds and has consignment and project horses. Because I want to get as much experience as I can, I plan to be her "working student". This field trip was to see her place and talk about our goals for the future. I hopped on one of her personal seasoned horses to show her I am a competent rider.

The mare hadn't been legged up in awhile and while she was a little antsy, I certainly knew she wasn't a greenie and could behave. I hopped on and began adjusting my stirrups to something between hunter hack and dressage (I can't seamless cross over between the disciplines yet). As I was almost finished adjusting the mare whipped her head around (maybe to bite at a fly?) and whacked my helmet. I made an internal "ow" but the mare had startled herself. Next thing I know we are straight up in the air and heading backwards. I just prayed multiple times for her to not land on top of me. Luckily she didn't but I heard a nice crack as I hit the ground.

I basically laid on the ground an immobile mess. J had been finishing tacking her horse and was just about to head in the arena when she heard the scuffle. She rushed over to me and repeatedly asked if I was ok. I finally was able to let out a long groan.  It took me a few minutes to come to, but I determined all my body parts were working and functioning, and the crack had been my helmet.

Meanwhile, the poor more had initially taken off after falling onto the ground. But once she came to her senses she let out a loud breath and wandered over to us, her head low. I stood up and she rested her head against my chest. It seemed she was apologizing as she had no idea what had happened. 

My head was a throbbing mess and because of the incident at my sister's wedding in June, I opted to go to the clinic to get my head checked out. Safety first! They admitted me to the ER because of the recent head injury, but after some testing it was determined I was ok and just needed to be monitored for the next 48 hours. Phew! 

J and I talked and we both don't know what the hell happened. Shes had the mare for years and has never had her go up. Heck, she told me her kids hop on her all the time! Weird, freak accident. 

I am now in the market for a new helmet and unfortunately am taking a few days off from riding until my head stops throbbing. Its not too bad though, its surpassing 100 degrees this week. I am so thankful I was wearing a helmet. #MindYourMelon