Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

OY am I sore

I'm trying to link up some new loops to ride and I was out scouting places to stash water and hay on a rather dry 18 mile loop.  We started from the far end and worked back towards my planned start

I screwed up, My wife has been doing dressage shows and I've been trailer less, none the less I took Porter out for the first time in almost 2 weeks to a brand new trail solo and I neglected to lunge him first to work out his pent up energy..ackkk

can you say HOT? I think I got 10 walk steps out of him starting out before he wanted to fast trot then canter

all went well for the first 30 minutes then we passed some hikers and had open fire road in front of us so I asked him to canter and we took off flying....I should have sat it instead of 2 pointing.. a deer jumped out in front of us, Porter did the old splay the front end drop and spin. I almost made the 180 then I came off and went under him. He stepped on my left calf [thankfully I had on leather half chaps over my tights] OWWW he only trotted off 15 feet stopped and waited while I limped up [I had an audience of 4 hikers]remounted, rode off [the ol British stiff upper lip routine]....I let out a yell of pain after we were out of earshot.

I did a 12 mile loop in Skyline Sanborn park and it was quite good footing and nice trails. But the whole time Porter stayed hot so it was short reins and on guard riding. About 3 miles from the trailer we came to a small tree down across the trail so I dismounted moved it out of the way then I tried to remount...Porter started to step forward before I had my right foot fully swung over and into the stirrup so I pulled back on the rein and he just threw a fit and started bucking and spinning. I stayed on for 2 360s and who knows how many bucks..it seemed like 20-30 seconds and I was doing okay until I say the low branches coming up so I bailed off to the outside of the spin.. this time I rolled onto my back and slammed the back of my head hard into the dirt {yes I now need a new helmet} again Porter only went about 15 feet turned and stopped...Ok now there I am limping, slightly dazed and I have a horse with that wild look in his eye..so we walked for a bit with me stroking his muzzle and talking softly..Then I got back on and thankfully not hing else happened and we got back to the trailer ok.

I did drive over to the my fire station and have the Captain and the other Firefighters give me the once over before driving home...I got lucky, the back of the helmet under the hard shell is only 1/8 of and inch thick instead of the original 1/2" and I just have some good bruises and some swelling.  EasyIce leg wraps are great for wrapping your legs I have 4 in the freezer and they are doing the job of keeping down the swelling on my left leg

I can't wait to go ride Tuesday morning....[hey ya do what ya gotta do]it looks like I can hook this ride up to form loops of 18, 25, 50 or more all starting less than 1/2 mile from my front door....

 

to Sandy Holder...the bucks at the Fireworks ride were nothing compared to what he pulled on the trail today

 

 

--- Eric Drew

--- eidrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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