Re: Just curious/survival skills (Was: search & rescue/kicking incident)

[Naztari <Naztari@aol.com>]

With the risk of sounding like a "me too..." post

The day after a full day ride with the group from our stable, I took my horse
on a ride to keep him loose. I had ridden the day before for 8 hours bareback
and had no problems whatsoever. This day I had saddled up with our english
saddle. I was riding alone and had not told anyone where I was going. I just
rode off down a dirt road away from the stable. I had been cantering along and
came to a crossroad and slowed the horse to a trot. Without warning, a stirrup
leather broke and off I went and landed on my butt. Man, did my back hurt. I
took inventory, everything seemed to work, all my toes wiggled and I could
feel them. My horse had stopped and had put his nose down and was coming back
to me but before I could grab him, he took off toward the stable. I walked a
short distance to a paved road but there was no traffic and the few cars
wouldn't pick up this dirt covered guy sitting next to the road with his thumb
out. A short time later a car came up from the dirt road. They had seen the
saddled horse without a rider and backtaracked and found me. They took me back
to the stable where my horse was waiting. I put up his tack and drove to the
ER where it was found that I had a compression fracture of one of my lumbar
vertabrae. Had I been able to get back on the horse and ride, it may have had
serious consequences. You really have to weigh the injury versus the situation
and how best to resolve the situation.

Ed Roley
western NC