In my brief professional career, I have come head to head with some terrible ponies. Okay, one in particular named Z. From what I lacked in experience with combining veterinary medicine and horses, I made up for with a knowledge of ponies and minis in general. I know that they are a pain in the butt! When they misbehave, they really misbehave! And twiches never quite fit like you want them too. Often, I do luck out. The minis that are supposed to be bad often respond very well to the 'on my knees' approach I take with them.
However, I never expected my own well behaved, well trained ponies to be bad.
Until today.
It was a typical Wednesday where I go out to work Nell after work. I had only stopped by to pet and groom them on Sunday because of the rain and Rug Doctoring on Tuesday. (And a smelly corgi that needed a bath ASAP!)
It was quiet at the farm despite a couple of cars parked around. I caught Nell after fooling her by petting the other horses in the pasture and took her to the barn. I got everything ready and then lunged her. She was being lazy about it which is actually pretty typical. So I went ahead and tacked her up and line drove her. She was doing okay with her normal turn around and go the other way or look at you routine in the 'spooky' corner. Against my better judgement, I tied her up again and hitched the cart to her. Nell did very well for this except for actually moving her and the cart away from the fence. All and all she didn't try to kill me or run off which was a dramatic improvement over the last time. I drove her with the cart and then got in after a few passes.
Nell was a little more spirited than I wanted which was okay because I was actually going to drive her for a rather long time in preparation for hopefully a trip outside of the ring this weekend. Everytime I asked her to trot, she did so a little faster than she should have.
Now it should be noted that they have mowed the arena which was needed. In doing so, they had moved a barrel out from the fence about six foot-enough for a cart to just get through. However, I was indeed wise enough to avoid this obstacle and stay on the inside of the barrel except for once at a walk. Nell did great. She also did great when I stopped her and opened a mailbox.
Anyway, Nell was just trucking along. The sun was playing in and out of the clouds and did so just as we made a turn at the far end of the arena. The play of light and shadows must have caught wrong in Nell's eyes behind their blinkers because she bolted! There was little time and little way of getting her stopped so head first she crashed into the barrel previously noted.
The cart shafts made a sickening crack (but were ultimately okay!) and Nell jumped away bucking frantically because the cart was still firmly attached (thank God!). I, however, was being bucked and bounced as the cart went airborne with every buck. I had already partially slid from my seat and decided that now was a good time to bail. So I did. Onto the hard ground. Nell at this point continued bucking around the arena narrowly missing the fence at the other end. I knew better than try to stop her. That's how people get hurt. I've seen it. I'm a vet. What ever happens, happens. I can fix it. Mostly.
So I stood in the middle of the arena near all the crap and watched as Nell went from the nastiest looking bronco with a cart attached to madly galloping to frantically trotting. I called her name and called out 'Whoa!' which you would think would bring people running but no, you'd be wrong. Eventually, I stepped out and she trotted around me and then finally stopped.
I lead her around once and past the offending barrel before unhitching and taking her for a walk. She was very winded. The fat pony.
I have some scrapes that are bruising on my knees, road rash on the side of my belly and one scraped elbow-its probably the worse. I eventually did clean up the elbow and eventually put on some expired antibiotic cream on the elbow and the road rash.
The unfortunate parts of this is 1) I don't know when I can hitch her again because I don't know when I can get some assistance (Joe), 2) I just ordered some new harness parts which need to be tried out and 3) my plans for taking her out on the road have been crushed.
Oh well. At least no one was hurt. Except my pride. (But I bought a purse to make up for that. That and the cow kick I received earlier in the day.)
No comments:
Post a Comment