A couple of weeks ago on Sunday evening Delaine and Anna wanted to go down to Rob Estabrooks arena and ride the horses. Rob lives just down the hill from us and owns and runs rough-stock with his son-in-law, so his place is set up pretty well for riding. I debated on whether to ride or not because I was still a bit sore from our trail ride the previous weekend. My leg and back were still hurting a some. After some kicking it around, I decided I would take Maverick down and work with him and ride him a bit. I've ridden him a couple of time in our round pen so I figured it might be good to get him out into a larger area to see what he might do. Well we rode around the arena a couple of times slowly while stopping next the several bulls Rob had in pens next to the arena. He was perfectly okay with standing there looking at the bulls and showed no signs of excitement really. He seemed pretty well settled after the walk down the hill and several minutes of groundwork so he was doing what I expected him to do. I rode him back to the end of the arena where Delaine and Anna were parked talking with Rob's daughter Amy and her two sons. We set there and talked for a few minutes then I decided to make another lap. As Maverick and I took off and were about 20' from the group headed across the arena at a walk a gust of wind blew up in our faces and it must have caused some sort of reaction in Maverick's brain when all at once he started bucking while standing in place. I stayed on for about three bucks then lost my balance and went over the left side of his neck head first. Luckily I thought or reacted to tuck my head to my chest and roll with it as I hit the ground on my left side shoulder and arm. Amazing my glasses stayed on. My reflexive reaction was to hang on to the reins and Maverick was backing away from me while I was laying on the ground hanging onto the reins. I guess he dragged me a ways until I heard Delaine, Anna and Amy hollering at me to let go of the reins which I did quickly. When I got up I couldn't breathe well because of the blow from my arm and elbow into my ribcage. Amy told me to raise my arms and breathe which I did and that helped some. I walked around a while catching my breath then got back on Maverick and rode him in circles for a while. I got off and we headed home after that. I didn't go to the doctor because I had full range of motion with my arm and shoulder so even though it was extremely sore I figured there wasn't anything broken inside except maybe a cracked rib or two. After two weeks I'm just now getting to where I can blow my nose and cough without extreme pain in my left side ribcase. It still hurts quite a bit when I sneeze though so I try to avoid that when I can.
Lesson learned? I'm not sure . . . maybe if I had recognized quick enough that he was starting to buck, I could have pulled his head around and stopped him from getting too carried away by throwing him off balance. Rob's suggestion was to add a "dog collar" to the saddle next to the horn to give something to hang onto while he bucks. He said he uses one and has never had a horse put him on the ground when he has been using it. I think I'd rather figure out a way to keep him from bucking, so he is going to get plenty of ground work before I get back on him. Then when I do if he raises his head or rear end I will promptly pull his head around to through him off balance before I lose my balance.
