Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Not all obstacles that grab you and flip you off your horse come from above.

I did a ride a couple weeks ago and found myself on the ground looking up.

I was trotting along nicely on a pretty, but somewhat technical trail

through a beautiful wooded area. This was at the NW Labor Day ride in

Washington. It has been rainy in the NW so there were puddles here and

there. As I was trotting along I noticed two things ahead of me. One was a

small puddle on the trail, the other was a good sized branch about 3 inches

in diameter that was probably about 4 1/2 feet above the ground that was

pointing out toward the trail. It looked like someone had cut the end off.

It probably was across the trail and had been cut back for clearance. The

puddle and branch were pretty much right together. Since you never know

what your horse is going to do at a puddle, I slowed mare up just a touch,

which may have been a mistake. She did a nifty little two step over the

puddle, at the same time the branch caught my right leg. The branch had

give to it, so my leg was flipped back launching me over mare's left

shoulder. I grabbed her neck as I was sailing over, kind of did a flip in

the air and landed on my butt looking up at mare's face. Of course she had

that what are you doing down there look about her. I won't tell you what I

was saying as I was flipping through the air, but it was definitely a SPLAT

incident.

Becky R. - Montana