beginning to wonder if the lovely Barbora, our trail leader, is, in fact, a menace! This last trail ride was organized by Slavo in honour of Roderika, who was set to fly to Florida for 3 months. Well, now she is in the hospital, although she is doing okay with no broken bones but she can't travel by air for 2 months. Serious concussion.
10 of us left Bukovec on a beautiful -1 C day. I was riding a different horse than planned so was a little nervous; I usually take Hory out but was on Suleika today. She has a habit of throwing her head incessantly that made me leery.
The ground was VERY hard and icy today. It looked normal but the horses were slipping and crunching through frozen mud layers in the first field. I've heard that sometimes people won't ride in this type of footing but apparently I am the only one : ) We even walked over an ice-sheet on a road by a parked car and a barking dog!
It was great to be out with friends and everyone was happy and chattering. We trotted for a while and then had a first canter through a brown and snow-patched field. Slavo had brought a special camera and was filming as he stood at the canter! Very agile!
We did out first gallop up a nearby hill. WOW! Suleika was super fast! Then she frighted as we passed a hay rick and I learned how fast she she could go! (or so I thought : ) ) We screamed up the hill, clods of earth flying here and there and round to the left into the woods.
We had a lovely walk/trot through the woods, watching for animal tracks.
Then, chaos!
Barbora and Paola exited the woods first and inexplicably started to run off before all the horses were out. You know where this is going. To hell in a handbasket lol.
All I knew at the time was, my horse took off suddenly at a very fast gallop before I was ready. I was still fiddling with my whip and the reins when she started running so I just grabbed mane and hit the ol' half seat.
Before us was a HUGE flat field heading very far into the distance. wow, it went by so fast lol.
Suleika stretched out, got low and blistered the grasses as she tore like a demon heading for the front of the pack. I heard a scream behind me and tried to stop but NO BRAKES! The wind was whistling by and the ground a blur as she galloped, desperate to reach the horses who were well in front of us. Oh my god! I was terrified! I have never ever gone so fast! I just hoped she wouldn't trip and kill us both at that speed!
Then I see a riderless horse out of the corner of my eye and another thud as someone else fell. I was yelling to the girls ahead but of course they couldn't hear me. Suleika caught up just as a small rise turned into a steep downhill field. Yes, I tried the pulley rein but she just went sideways.
The other horses had at last stopped so Suleika suddenly realized she could too. sigh. 3 riderless horses galloped towards us, stirrups swinging. We saw a dark, immobile mound in the far distance, at the very beginning of the field. We jumped down to try to catch the loose horses, which was easy. Barbora tried to figure out whose horse was empty and where was everyone. She rode back to the dark mound while the rest of us stood around calming our very excited mounts. One girl was near tears and another was white as a sheet!
After a long while, we saw the dark mound move and sit, than stand up. Then 2 people began to walk slowly away, toward the nearsest Chalupa ( a small traditional country house) Barbi came back and told us that Roderika had fallen, apparently directly on her head! LUCKILY she was wearing a helmet, which had cracked and was broken. Slavo had heroically leapt from his horse when he saw from the corner of his eye that she fell. His horse ran off to join the others as he knelt by the injured Roderika. Her eyes were glassy and she just stared straight ahead without speaking. Ony when Barbi came and was yelling at her horse to stand still did she focus. She was vomiting and didn't know where she was. very very scary for Slavo.
So, Slavo walked Roderika to the chalupa so a car could take her to the hospital. We walked our horses, 2 people walking 2 horses each, also to the chalupa, where back up riders were called. The 3rd fallen rider was Martina, whose horse was cut off by one of the fleeing riderless horses and stopped suddenly, causing her to fall. She was fine, albeit a little dirty : ).
Here's a pic of Paola leading 2 horses taken by me with an iphone. Hard to manipulate one handed with the other hand full of jigging horse : ). That is the field we ran through so fast! I later realized it was because it was flat that Suleika could pick up that much speed. We usually gallop uphill.
The back up riders came and we all re-mounted, excitedly talking about the heroism of Slavo! The horses were very nervous and high-strung and I was terrified that we would end up on some more unplanned gallops home. It was still a long way back. Miraculously, Barbora decided that to walk the whole way back was best. So walk we did, whispering calming words to the horses. I practiced the deeeep seat and slow breathing I have learned on some other blogs to great effect!
It got very cold on the way home because we were only walking but I was thanking my lucky stars when the barn came into sight!
phew!
We visited Roderika in the hospital yesterday and she is fine-ish. Just a bad concussion. She had a brain scan and was staying for a couple of days for observation. She was still dizzy a day later. poor thing and had to cancel her trip to America. Thankfully she was wearing a helmet as not all people do at this barn!
As to Suleika's head tossing: I asked at the barn and they said she does it habitually, as did her mother. I am not totally convinced because I haven't seen her do it when not bridled and will try out the Dr. Cook's bitless when it arrives just to see if it helps. I am too afraid to check for sharp teeth but will ask someone else to do so when I am there next. The bit clearly has no stopping power for her so bitless can't hurt anyway LOL!!
