February 18, 2012 - On the longe and in hand

Today I longed Rory before doing some in-hand work with him.  He was full of beans again, but once he'd had a little work on the longe he was able to settle and concentrate on the in hand work.  We did a little leg yielding and he was very good from the left.  From the right he wasn't as sure about what I wanted, and there were some noises from outside that distracted him, but he tried.

If you're wondering, yes, I'm wearing my helmet and no, I didn't ride or have any intention of riding.  I decided to wear it just in case Rory was spooked and bumped into me.  He doesn't tend to invade my space, but I really don't need another bump to my brain after getting knocked out just over three weeks ago.

January 24, 2012 - Off with a bang... maybe that should be "Out with a bang"

Well Rory finally bucked me off yesterday. I'd expected to come off him a whole lot sooner, but he's been good. I don't know what got up his butt yesterday - he hadn't even kicked his heels up on the longe line.  He was a little fussy when I first got on, tossing his head non-stop for the first half circle.  Then he settled, I turned him onto a circle to the right and off he went.  It took him five bucks and a deke sideways on the last to unload me. Head down, bronco bucks (people do this for fun??) too.  He was going in a straight line and I was landing right back in the saddle each time, so on the fourth buck I tried to pull his head up but just succeeded in pulling myself out of position.  That made him go sideways on the fifth buck.

I got knocked out - a first for me. It was weird. At least I know I was out for about four minutes because I had the video camera on, and he dumped me in full view. Rory was a little freaked out by the whole thing, and didn't go anywhere near me while I was down, but he came back quickly once I started to get up.  He was a bit panicked by being in the arena all alone, and didn't recognize me as me until I was walking again.  When I patted him he heaved a sigh of relief and completely relaxed.

Totyo and Rory

I am mostly okay. Sprained (probably) wrist, bruised (hopefully) tailbone (from him smacking the saddle into my butt), and a couple of other stretched or bruised spots. Head is okay if I don't move it too fast - and yes I got a nurse to check me out right afterwards.  Probably minor concussion.

Aaand now I need another new helmet.  I should have ridden the brat first... I won't be riding anything for a few days at least.

I don't remember the "oh crap, I'm off" moment from yesterday - you know that moment your brain recognizes that you're coming off and you can't do anything about it. I don't remember the first hop, only the three bucks in between. And those bucks only came back after I'd gotten up and was walking Rory back to the door.  No, I'm not going to post the video of my fall - that's something my mother definitely does not need to see.