Mouthy Monday

It's too hot.
It's too cold.
It's raining.
They need trimming.
He looks lame.
It's snowing.
I have to mow the lawn today.
I have to take Mom shopping.
My knee is killing me.
Too many bugs.
Saddle needs cleaning.
Wrong bit.
Right bit, wrong bridle.
All my pads are in the wash.
He just ate.
His tail is blue.
I just grained him.
Too late.
Too early.
He needs a bath.
My hair hurts.
He just had shots.
My clippers are broken.

There are roughly 390 days in 13 months. Believe me when I say......I had an excuse for every one of them to NOT ride after I took a minor spill.

And it WAS a minor spill, as spills go. About the third time I rode Cisco, I decided to try my new/used english saddle on him. I'd never been in an english saddle, but I grew up riding bareback, how hard can it be???? I tacked up and headed down the driveway.

I knew Felix saw me coming, so I cut across his 4 acre lawn to show off a bit (mistake no. 1).
I nudged Cisco into a nice trot, then a faster trot.
I leaned forward to encourage him into a canter (mistake no. 2).

He stopped. That's all he did, he. just. stopped.

I, unfortunately, did not (mistake no. 3). I somersaulted over his right shoulder, landed on my feet, and then sat down.
Hard. In the process, I dropped the reins and Cisco took off like a scalded cat......right for ST HWY 44. I had scarcely staggered to my feet, when Felix pulled up next to me in his Suburban.
*Are you all right??*
*Yes. But we have to get that fool horse before he gets splattered all over the road!!!*

We didn't have to go far. Cisco had taken the nearest driveway, to the farm I grew up on, long ago sold. The house was gone, but the barn and outbuildings were there.....and so was Cisco, calmly munching on stray kernals up by the old corncrib. I walked up to him, snagged the reins, and led him to the back of the Suburban, intending to use the bumper as a mounting block.

Felix: *You don't mean to get back on him!!!!*
Me: *Well, I sure as hell ain't walking home in these boots!!!*
Felix: *BUT HE JUST THREW YOU!!!*
Me: *Dad. He didn't throw me. I fell off. BIG difference.*
(there was some throwing up of arms and muttering as he made his way to the driver's door)

I rode Cisco home, untacked him and put him in the corral, and sat down on the front steps. Instead of thinking about what had just happened, about what I might do to not have it happen again (like, oh, I don't know....ENGLISH LESSONS????)......I started to think about what COULD have happened and scared myself into the worst case of the heebie-jeebies EVER. I did not ride for 13 months.

During that 13 months, I helped the vet geld Cisco, did all his follow-up care, worked on ground manners, did the Mr. Hand thing......I brought Gabby the Nubian home in the back seat of my Beretta because Cisco was lonesome. I bought 2Sox. I made hay, cleaned water tanks, all the things you do when you have horses.......

.......except ride them. The thought of throwing a leg over one of them just stopped me in my tracks. My palms would get sweaty, my mouth would get dry, my stomach would start doing flip-flops. I actually got light-headed.
I doggedly led them back and forth to pasture.

I lectured myself, I called myself a coward seven ways from Sunday.......but I could not make myself ride. I fleetingly considered hypnosis. I tried to shame myself into it, but that didn't work either.
My riding life was pretty much in the toilet, and I wasn't able to fix it.
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I can't tell you what the turning point was, whether I had some profound epiphany or just basically decided to pull my head out of my butt. Maybe the riding fairy smacked me one up side the head while I was sleeping. All I know is one morning I was taking the horses down to pasture and it occurred to me: *THIS is not why I got back into horses, to LEAD them everywhere.*

I walked back home, and decided to try 2Sox bareback in the field. She's shorter than Cisco, the grass is high, it won't hurt as much if I come off.......so when I went down that afternoon, I bridled her up and did a few rounds of the field.
I even ponied Cisco home that night.

Was I back????

About a week later, I was on 2Sox, ponying Cisco home from the field, when Gabby the Nubian ran in front of Cisco. She managed to hook his lead line and drag it right across 2Sox's nose. 2Sox did a fantastic teleport to the right.........and I did one to the left. As I was flying through the air with the greatest of ease, all I could think was: *CRAP, woman.....do NOT let go of Cisco, because he'll run!!!*

I landed in the most humongous patch of cockleburrs/burdocks I have ever seen. Well, at least they cushioned my fall.....LOL....
.....and I still had a death grip on Cisco's lead.

The first thing I did was look around, to see if anyone had witnessed my oh-so-graceful dismount. Then I caught 2Sox, remounted and continued on home.

Yeah, I was back.

This cool story was written by Diane from Wisconsin. I loved her intro.