Well not from an endurance ride but ... I was riding three years ago
with Dr. Robert Dryden, owner of Fable Arabians and one of the people who
laid out the trail for the Tevis many years ago. We were going on a nice
two or three hour ride up into the mountains around Tucson and he wanted to
ride up a trail he hadn't been on in a while. Well Doc is kind of famous for
trail rides that can get a bit hairy and this one did, at a point about
halfway up the side of a small steep mountain the trail disappeared. Since
Doc couldn't find it he decided to make his own trail -- straight up! We
made it to the top all right and it was relatively flat up there and breathed
a sigh of relief, apparently I did so a moment too soon. You see my mare,
Cachet, has the bad habit when she's wet under the saddle of shaking, not
mild shaking you understand, she shakes like a wet dog! What I hadn't realized
is that my cinch had become loose on the climb up the mountain -- I hadn't
expected to go straight up the side of cliff -- yup, she shook me and the
saddle clean off! I broke my wrist. At that point it was really convenient
to be riding with a doctor, the break was signifigantly displaced and I asked
him to try to straighten it out right then because having done this sort of
thing a couple of times before (elbow, ankle, finger) I knew that it would
hurt far less to do it then while I was still in shock than later when those
lovely endorphins were all used up. He was able to do a partial reduction.
At that point he wanted to leave me there while he and my friend rode back
to the ranch with the horses and called a helicopter to come get me. Immediate
images of the HUGE bill I would get for a helicopter ride that would not be
covered by my health insurance not to mention the fact that I'd have to stay
there for at least an hour and a half made me protest. I said I wanted to
ride down. Dr. Dryden objected but I objected more, I didn't want to pay
that bill. After immobilizing my arm with his neckerchief they resaddled
Cachet and helped me up. We went slowly back down via an old rutted jeep
trail and every step of the seven miles back to the ranch Dr. Dryden talked
to me because he kept expecting me to pass out. I was fine except for the
discomfort. The hard part was waiting at the hospital later for 4 hours
for an orthopedist acceptable to my insurance company to be available to set
my wrist. They wouldn't let me drink or eat anything nor give me any pain
killers at all because they didn't know if they'd have to anesthetize me
or not.
Tracy and everybody