Sunday, March 21 - More Work and a Crash

Another short but very good session this morning, seems he's getting close to mastering the basics when he puts his mind to it, and when a script is finally complete. Spring is overwhelming the capital, with some of the blossoms blooming, but not the cherry blossoms quite yet. Took a detour toward the Tidal Basin to see how they were coming along, but gave it up when we got stuck in pedestrian traffic with an immigration rally. Lots of people protesting (although I got the impression it was just an excuse to be outdoors on a beautiful day), so we turned around and let Gracie get us back to Lorton. It was early enough that we decided to have lunch at the Indian restaurant there, and get a ride in this afternoon. Lunch was fine, more crowded than we'd ever seen it. We decided on the buffet, which is unusual for us, as we avoid them because we always overeat, but we decided that would be our big meal of the day, and I managed to restrain myself (and Hubby) from having seconds. We headed home, saddled up the horses, and headed out for a ride. We didn't get very far. Once again, we keep learning the hard way. After so much time off, and after having eaten so much oats and grain, we should have realized how frisky the horses would be, and I should have lunged them around a bit, but I didn't. Then Hubby decided to try out a new saddle blanket, but for some reason didn't tighten the girth as well as he usually does. Anyway, about a hundreds yards down the road, both horses started trotting, then his horse started cantering, and when Hubby tried to stop her, his saddle slipped. It turned almost to her belly, and he hung on as best he could, until he had to let go. He fell onto the tarmac, landing on his side and back, and his horse kept going, heading into the woods toward the main road. Fortunately, she stopped just a few feet off the road, having gotten caught in the brambles there. A car came by and a couple asked if they could help, so I asked them to help Hubby get out of the road and see to him, and hang onto my horse while I caught the mare, which they gladly did. Clio was waiting, so I moved her out and resaddled her before returning to Hubby, who was now sitting up. He said he didn't think anything was broken, just bruised, and insisted on getting back up in the saddle. I said fine, but I was leading the horses home, to which he reluctantly agreed. He started stiffening up almost immediately, and was very slow in moving around and putting things away. We promptly put ice on the bruised area in his lower back, and he said his ribs hurt a bit too, so we spend the rest of the day resting and tending to his aches, with some Tylenol, ice and aspercreme. I suspect he'll feel like he's been in a car wreck for some time! We had already decided to stay until Tuesday, as the van had been making some noise (sounds like a wheel bearing) and we wanted to have it looked at before we took our next long leg to Bristol. Hopefully by Tuesday morning he'll be recovered enough to move. Not that he has a choice, we have to get moving by Tuesday to stay on schedule! Stayed up long enough to watch our country vote itself out of freedom and into socialism, then went to bed, somewhat depressed about the future of our country.