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Well, I had grandiose plans for this summer. I had called up the local Mounted Orienteering group, and they sounded friendly. Cheryl was interested, too. We were eager to try out our mounts outside the arena.
We had had several uneventful rides inside the riding ring, and in Kai's pasture. Now, we wanted a bigger challenge: the back trails behind the property.
Laurie had come to see her horses and had taken them into the stable to groom them. This left their large pasture open, and that was conveniently the shortest route to the trails. Cheryl and I decided to ride through Traz's pasture and into Laurie's horses' pasture. If all went well, from there we'd access the trails.
The horses were "feeling their oats" and on unfamiliar ground. We decided, after riding a few circuits through the huge field, that we'd forgo the trails for that day. We did circles for awhile to calm the horses down. As I was asking Kai to circle, he started and kicked out a bit in the direction of Traz, so I reprimanded him verbally and gave him a slight tap with my riding crop. Cheryl told me that Kai wasn't kicking at Traz, he had merely unearthed a piece of wire from the muddy field(fortunately not barbed) and was untangling himself. I felt terrible for assuming that Kai was guilty! (We got rid of the wire.)
We should have quit while we were ahead, but we were having an enjoyable time. That is, until Traz got wind of the fact that Laurie was FEEDING her horses up at the stable. He wanted the ride to end right then!
Cheryl and Traz were behind me, and all of a sudden, I heard Cheryl yell, "He's out of control!" The next thing I heard was a horse galloping up behind me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cheryl fall off of Traz, who continued galloping, reins flying and nostrils flaring.
I had asked Kai to stand, which he did, but he was prancing in place. Traz was racing around. Fortunately, Cheryl only injured her finger (it was broken.)She said it didn't hurt very much. She wasn't sure how that happened, as she landed on her posterior, and not her fingers!
Cheryl held onto Kai while I dismounted (I was afraid we'd have two loose horses if I tried to dismount while Kai was poised to charge), and we caught Traz. Our next ride will be in the arena for sure (and we'll lunge Traz for awhile beforehand.)
I would like to thank Kai for being such a great horse! he listened to me, and followed my instructions. This made the whole situation a lot easier to handle.
We feel very lucky that nothing terribly bad happened, as we both know people who have had terrible accidents while riding.
Moral of the story: Wear a helmet. If you must fall, land on your rear end. And never ride alone!