They Say if You've Never Fallen Off a Horse, then You Don't Ride Much!

I said Sherrie earned the gold medal for keeping a horse between herself and the ground this year. I didn’t. We were crossing the river back to camp one morning and Red Cloud started acting up in the middle of the river. He never acts like this in the water and I had no idea what was wrong. Sherrie was behind me and said it looked like he was kicking his back legs out. All I knew was he was lunging for the bank and humping his back up at the same time. He is a huge muscular horse and I knew once he got out of the water odds were I was coming off.

At the river’s edge Red Cloud got his head down and was doing this weird bucking, kicking jig. I tried with all my strength to pull his head back up, but it was a losing battle and the energy underneath me was getting stronger.

I could hear Sherrie in the background offering her moral support, “Get his head up, you’re doing great, hang in there,” as she positioned herself to go after Red Cloud when he got rid of me.

Finally I decided it was better if I had some control of the dismount rather than giving all the control to Red Cloud. I got my right foot out of the stirrup and was trying to swing off when Red Cloud bucked again. My left foot stuck in the other stirrup and I did the splits in the air and landed on my rear end at the water’s edge; left foot still stuck in the stirrup and Red Cloud dancing around. I managed to get unstuck and hold on to the reins at the same time. Needless to say this was in front of about twenty other people getting ready to cross the river. Some old man rode up and said, “Are you hurt or just your pride?” I managed to laugh and say, “I don’t worry about pride anymore.”

We did discover afterwards that Red Cloud was bleeding and had a cut about four inches long on his back leg. Something must have got him in the river, glass, a rock, wire perhaps. It must have stung like the devil. After my legs quit shaking I got back on and we headed back to camp. It was a nice day for the river, soaking my sore rear end and aching legs.

(Eminence, Cross Country Trail Ride, August 5-11, 2007)