CAUTION - NOT a fun post! I HATE WILD WEED EXTREMISTS!

A week has elapsed since the most fateful, almost worst day of my life, occurred.

  It was a day when this: 

2' Steel Stake in ground 2' from edge of country road hidden by tall Wild Weeds (nature loving neighbors planted Wild Flowers and did not want road district to mow Wild Weeds)

produced this: 

Granddaughter in hospital bed after being thrown from horse and grazing steel stake as she fell.

It began on Thursday after school.  With warm weather and later sunsetS, granddaughter wanted to ride, so I promised her we would ride Friday when she got home from school since she had not completed her homework yet that day.

Friday came.  She was so excited she wore her riding gear to school!  As soon as she got off the school bus she found me and we mounted up and meandered down the lane.  Warm day and horses with long fur coats make for lazy horses.  We rode down the road, round the corner and into the woods where we have had a longstanding invitation to ride to the river flood plain.

We met dogs.  Lots of dogs.  LOTS of dogs.  In a pack.  Which ran to greet us, swarmed us, surrounded us, and then ran off.  Granddaughter's horse stood still, planted, and stared.  NOT at dogs, but at owners yelling at dogs to return to them.  BUT, the dogs ran home, and granddaughter's horse ran with them.  And continued to run.  At top speed.  Galloping.  To the road, down the road, and stopped and twirled at top of hill when she realized her companion horse was not with her - held back by me to avoid making the horse run faster....

Hearing a 7 year old yelling "Grandpa" while riding a galloping horse dodging trees going through the woods is VERY heart rending.  VERY.  EXTREMELY!

As I exited the woods, her horse is standing at top of rise around corner, looking for me.  As soon as she spots me, horse leaves once she sees that -I- see granddaughter laying along edge of road right in area where steel fence posts are.  As I gallop across field, I see granddaughter flopping on ground.  I reach her, terrified of what I am going to find - a steel stake through the chest of an 8 year old.

But as I approach, she is rousing and crying hysterically.  I pick the life size doll up to keep her still, noticing the blood on the side of the head...  Slightly less terrified myself, my whole mind is occupied with relief that there are no holes punctured through her body (including the base of the skull) and my world becomes one of getting emergency help to the terrified flopping 7 year old and get her on the road to recovery.

One week later and she is on the road to full recovery.  Got to miss a week of school (she missed PE).  Keeping a 7 year old calm and quiet for a week for brain recovery takes a gaggle of adults to manage!

And in the end, I hate wild weed (flower) loving extremists who think it is more important to protect their wild weeds in an illegal manner at complete disregard for human safety and the township road commissioner and township board that allowed it to continue after I warned them of just such a danger!

Close to home and a GREAT Day

Two days ago.  It was warm(er) and the cold front was moving in so we (Blue, Lexi and myself) escaped for a short jaunt - into the back (West) 40 (maybe closer to 60).  They were both as good as gold, possibly more relaxed than usual because they were right next to each other (I ponied Lexi to give her exercise).

As we rounded the corner of the corn field, it was approaching sunset.  The sun was working to get through the bare branches of the trees still in winter stage, over the bridge on the road right next to our field of play and bouncing off the water for a great end of the day.  What made this day even better than normal was that it was the first time in almost 9 months I had been able to ride after getting on from the ground multiple times pain free (at least joint wise - my muscles still protested) and finish up the ride without pain lingering and making the evening only comfortable with strong drug assistance!  A great day indeed!

A horse adventure - Blue is the Star even though he is not ridden!

Wow!  That month passed in the blink of an eye!  While without a horse, I made an extended trip to the warm(er) south and enjoyed time at the beach, at NASA looking at HUGE fire breathing dragons, touring historical sites, enjoying forests and FAMILY (my sister lives in Florida, what can I say?!?)!  I had some amazing experiences and hope to post tidbits about them, but a HORSE related experience since my return has me on the edge of my seat today.

I stole time away from all sense of duty to go riding this afternoon.  After all, it's almost 70F in the middle of February - what sane horse person with the appropriate sense of priorities (to be with a horse) could resist?!  And of course, my chosen 4 legged drive unit was Blue, who else!!!???

To back up a moment, leading up to my pre-departure, I had some medical issues (and yes, weather issues) that prevented me from riding since mid October, so Blue and company had gotten pretty fat and sassy (Blue gained 6 notches on his rear girth - I think my children/grand-children were ABUSING them while I was gone - by overfeeding!!!)!  So since my return the middle of last week I have made a point of riding him every day - starting slowly with 30 minutes and working up to my usual multi-hour jaunt - for both his fitness and my fitness.

Today I went to the barn and called them in - Blue led the pack (of two) to the barn - in the middle of the afternoon.  While this seems like a 50-50 probability it really is not - he follows Lexi and SHE does not get enticed into the barn in the middle of the day for what is sure to be a period of work - I ALWAYS have to chase them in!  So when he lead today, this was a definite sign of his old self - he had been VERY cool to the reception of my return.

So having gone through the 30 minutes of grooming (ride yesterday, winter coat, warm day = sweaty horse, then rain, then a BIG roll in the MUD!), saddling, and walk out of the barn.  But NO - he is sore on his right front..  Bummer!  So, big sigh, put him back in the barn, untack and then repeat with Lexi - not quite as muddy,  but my arms were already tired!

Success!  Hop on (okay, knee creaking, groan of a mount...), go for a nice warm up ride (45 minutes, she had been ridden only once since my return), untack, put horses back out in pasture.

Still a nice warm sunny day.  My son and granddaughter are hanging around and I come up with a plan for some great bonding time - target practice!  I came back from my journeys with these neat 6" rectangular targets made out of "ballistic, self-healing plastic" (translation, rubber) that move when you hit them - sort of cat and mouse.  So we walk to the other side of the horse pasture and commence making loud bangs, etc...  Blue and company are pretty use to these things by now (we have neighbors that also enjoy gunnery), so they don't get too excited, but by the time we are finished, they have moved sort of to the opposite corner of their drylot and are looking at us - not in a sleepy fashion - as we trek back to the house.

About 50' into our 100 yard journey, Blue bounces his head up and down, sort of like dislodging a fly - no movement from Lexi.  I pause.  Something about this strikes me as unusual.  Oh YEAH!  We had not noticed fly ONE (yet).  I SPEAK to Blue in greeting.  He nods his head twice.  Pause.  I speak again.  I continue my one sided verbal conversation as we traverse the rest of the pasture.  And after each of my sentences HE nods his head - quite animatedly - expressing....?

That he is perturbed with me for riding someone else...?  That he wants to be invited to the gunnery range next....?  Or wondering what he did wrong to not be ridden...?

I prefer to think the latter!

He amazes me all the time!