It started out like any other day, my pony was a little more excitable then normal. In fact she was a lot more excitable then normal. One of the guys that works on my farm told me that my girl was acting “different” I asked him what did he mean different? He responded “well that’s better then saying weird” Okay so my girl was acting more weird then normal. She was more agitated, she was talking a whole lot and i was told that on turn out two days in a row my normally calm girl tried to break away from her handler and run to the field. Yikes. I thought i would just keep my eye on her see if i could figure out why she was acting up.
I saddled up and decided to ride on the outdoor ring it was fine for a while, we did a little walk trot and my girl was very distracted. I kept trying to get her to focus but i was having little luck when out of no where she spooked. I mean really spooked, I’m not sure what she thought she saw but she was at a full gallop, full speed ahead! I of course lost my outside stirrup and tried to get my balance, I was out of luck I tried to get her under control and as we came around the back side of the ring I thought for sure she she was going to jump it. I must have anticipated that and shifted my wight and she followed suit and shifted hers and pitched my one stirrup ass off and into the fence. Bam! down i went. I landed on my left hip, my left arm scrapped the fence. There I was on the ground and my pony stopped dead. She didn’t run over me, she didn’t run away, she stopped and looked at me. What a good girl, she was concerned because I was on the ground. I just sat there for a second and did a mental assessment of my body. I was fine, no major injuries, unless my pride counts. If I’m going to get pitched off my horse, landing on my ass is the way to go. I wish I could have avoided the fence because i have a pretty good case of road rash up one arm. I got up looked around no one was around to watch my fall. Phew! I led my girl over to the mounting block and got right back on and walked around for a while. I knew my confidence wasn’t shaken, its not the first time i got pitched off a horse, it wont be the last but i wanted to make sure my girl didn’t get too upset by the situation. As we walked around i thought about what just happened and what led up to it and I’m pretty sure my girl is in heat. Which would explain her being super distracted anxious and yes spooky. On retrospect i probably should have ridden in the inside right where there are less distractions. Oh well live and learn and i did learn a lot, i learned my girl is fast, i learned not to ride in the outside when my girl is in the throws of PMS, i learned that if I’m on the ground shes concerned and wont run away or worse run over me. All good lessons even if I had to be pitched on the ground to learn them.