give me a 5 for dirt diving

[guest@endurance.net]

carla lawson robcarla@hotmail.com
I headed out at 7am on Sunday. 7 am is very very early for me. I usually
have to eat something that early or I get sick. I went to bed the night
before at 3am. Okay, I have a weird schedule. Ask Howard, he can back me
up on this one. Howard can be a night owl too. With buddy in tow, the
junior that I am going to help out we headed to Percy Warner Park in
Nashvegas,(Nashville) to hit the little trail down there that I was going
to meet my Huntsville, Alabama riding buddies. Ansata bounced off Pao
about the first 45 minutes, Penny who is Pao's human is very patient about
this she knows how my horse is. Ansata took lead 90% of the way spooking
maybe a total of five times only became unseated once. We were flying!!
heart rate was as high as 180 but stayed about 160-169 range. She would
drop to 129 at a fast walk. We trotted in and did a MOCK vet in she took
three minutes to drop to 60. Was a 59 at vet in. She looked great trotting
out and her vet in was good. I was very excited. Yeah I realize it was a
mocked situtaion but I was so very excited at how relaxed she was.
Actually I think she fell asleep or was recharging. Anyhoo...we scooted
off to The Macaroni Grill for Human fuel. Needless to say we were quite a
site going in there. Even had a few sniveled noses at us. I basically
wanted to walk thru the entire restaurant waving my hand under an armpit
proclaiming "WHEW...I am sooo HOT...Gawd I think I forgot my Deo agian."
but I held myself back. We ate and went seperate ways...I was in heaven.
With heaven in mind it is amazing how fast reality bites.
Tuesday started off wonderful. However, for some strange reason I was
uptight about my riding lesson tonight. I loaded..I was running late. When
I got there my riding instructor had a horse saddled. We are going to work
on the trial today she announced. I was really excited. Her Warmblood made
Ansata look like a shetland pony. She was a bit spooky, with this mental
note I told her that after about 45 min she would loosen up. It has been
over a year and 9 months since I had my riding accident. Part of me is
mentally not recouped on this. I have been getting a bit braver and
working hard on trusting my horse. It has been a challenge. But there is
that lingering thought in the back of my mind of falling again. I am
dreadfully scared of it! I mean before I could fall with the best of them
and get back up. But, the thought of actually falling terrifies the ever
lasting snot out of me. But, I know that it is going to happen. Today I
took my dive. It wasn't graceful, nothing gruesome, not really a scary
dive. I would call it the jumper dive, the one where the horse balks from
the fence and the rider comes off the side on the ARSE. That was the dive
I took. What happened? well it seems that Ansata was afraid of a patch of
grass in a newly cut corn field. (huh? wha?) I wasn't paying much
attention to the 'signals' she was giving. You know the ears raised, head
cocked, bouncy movement, the eyes popping out of the skull signals. Well I
landed on my left still had my deathgrip on the reins and have a nasty
nasty rope burn on my right ring finger. (this is going to hurt like a SOB
when I have to make pizzas with cornmeal tomorrow..I can feel the burn
just intensify thinking about it.) I cried abit, not sure if it was from
getting the snot scared out of me or my pride taking a hike. But managed
my composure, and crawled back on. For a split second I thought of hanging
it up. Instead I finished what we started went home sat in the pouring
rain and squeezed water out of the beet pulp for my goofy horse.
Apparently there was way to much moisture in this batch mom! Yep sat there
for forty minutes hand feeding my horse in the pouring rain. Am I
committed or what?
Carla (soaking my poor hand in aloe...may check on soaking it in beet
pulp)
Ansata (could you add a bit more real food next time?)
Haley (this Tiz Wiz just doesn't seem to have the umph anymore)
Rob (looking for insurance quotes)