Thursday, May 14, 2009

ouch; first fall


Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later (I would have preferred later).

Now sitting here trying not to move, as every little movement causes pain (dosed up on nurofen as soon as I walked in the door though) but I can feel it getting worse.

The pony was absolutely awful today.
Having had an awesome lesson wednesday being his first time in an arena. Although there were a few 'moments' overall he went well, and did some absolutely STUNNING trot work. I did find out however, that he is simply not capable at this stage of cantering straight down the long side, but that is something to work on.
He was also great yesterday, just did some trots and canters around the front paddock (which is where he was -for me anyway- unrideable one day last week).

Today....ok, let's work on straight. Jump paddock, right round perimeter concentrating on straightness....three or four times on the left...all good....then onto the right rein....first time, ok...then each time around he got progressively worse....kind of timing his skedaddles with them escalating in how bad they were.

I was so proud of myself, I simply rode him through them and carried on trotting around, concentrating on using my legs to direct him, and prevent repeats....then we had a big one that caught me unawares....ok...so then onto canter work.

Twice he anticipated and went onto wrong lead....then was just preparing him, and I dont know what happened but there was a huge head flick, he spun one way, then leapt the other (and that was one stirrup gone), then another leap forward and sideways and OFF we went....I was hanging out the side, and I am afraid I decided to simply bail out.

Not sure if it was the right thing to do or not, but I can now say, that despite trying to do it so that I was in charge of how I fell it didnt quite go to plan. Wasnt as easy to just get my foot out of the stirrup, and there was a definite delay before I hit the ground (it is a long way down). Well the new back protector now has mud all over it, as does my helmet as my head kind of banged back onto the ground also.

I can also say, that I really dont think my new back protector gives the same level of impact protection as my old stiff cardboard box one did...I definitely felt the impact of this fall !

Worst thing was having to get back on again. Which I am proud to say, I did. Yes, I was incrediblly tense, but I did ride through it and trotted and even did some canter work. Thankfully he pulled no more stunts.

2 comments:

Sharon said...

Ouch Fiona :-(
Well done though for getting back on. I hope your not too sore tomorrow.

Kristal said...

Oh no!! Good on you for getting back on though, well done you!!