Horse Wreck

I have been through many horse wrecks over the years (a horse wreck is when your horse falls down while you're riding him), but usually escape with just a few strained joints and bruises. Yesterday, I didn't fair so well.

It was a beautiful day and I was carrying out my New Year's resolution to ride a horse every day that I could. I had ridden Apache on Wednesday and decided to ride Duke on Thursday. Duke is a big Missouri Fox Trotter who isn't completely trained yet. He does okay with most activities, but has some rough edges.

I decided to work on some basic cues and just generally get used to him as I haven't ridden him in a while. Things were going okay so I tried some basic horsemanship and put him into a canter circle. As we began the turn he stumbled. Not a big deal as most horses regain their balance, but not this time. It was like being in an airplane that has suddenly lost it's lift. He stumbled, recovered, stumbled again, and then we began sinking--almost in slow motion. It was obvious we were going down, so I tried to get off.

I wasn't quick enough, however, and my foot got trapped beneath Duke as we both crashed to the ground. I assumed from the pain that I had shattered my entire lower leg. Duke got back up, but I was down for the count. I writhed in the dirt for a second or two and then pulled my cell phone and dialed 911. I quickly got the dispatcher on the line who immediately sent an ambulance.

Meanwhile, Duke had come back to see what was wrong with me. His face was as close to my cell phone as mine was while I was talking the emergency crews into my location. I told them to look for the horse standing by himself in a field. They saw Duke first and then saw me beneath him.

Figuring the paramedics would cut my cavalry boot off when they got to me, I managed to remove it in advance. Sure enough, when the crew got to me they immediately slit my jeans from ankle to crotch. They asked me if I was wearing underwear and I replied, "No, I'm in the cavalry." Everyone had a good laugh at that. What else could you do at that point?

The Buffalo Corral people came running over when they saw the emergency vehicles arrive. I asked them to put Duke away and put his tack on the front porch of our office. Meanwhile the paramedics lifted me onto a gurney and loaded me into the ambulance. I accepted their offer for morphine which eventually cut the pain in half so that at least my body stopped shaking. The ride to the hospital was okay, but for some reason the driver decided to take the long way through Old Post which features a series of speed bumps. Awesome!

They admitted me fairly quickly at the emergency room and they hooked me up to some more morphine, which I declined at that point. I don't like the side effects of pain killers and the pain had subsided enough at that point to make it not necessary. Eventually, they took radio graphs of all the parts of my leg that they thought might be damaged. Miraculously, nothing was broken. They splinted my foot, gave me some prescriptions, and sent me home. I had spent five hours in the ER.

I have since removed the splint and the foot looks predictably grotesque. I can place some weight on it and I'm getting around fairly well with crutches. Now, I just have to rehabilitate it and, of course, try not to re injure it. The sad thing is, I won't be able to ride again for some weeks I suspect. Injuries are so damned inconvenient.