Friday, June 28, 2013 - Attempted Ride Day at Hungerford

After a slow morning, we finally saddled up the horses around 12:30, doing a refit on some of the various saddlebags, as Hubby's saddle doesn't have the proper rings to carry our usual saddlebag, so I tied my old cantle bag onto the rings on my modified bareback pad and repacked things to balance. Eventually we hopped up and headed out to camp on trails with some of the best footing we've ever seen, a nice firm sand and dirt combination, no stones or gravel, and very well traveled. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn almost immediately, on a not-very-well marked trail that ended up just taking us down to the road. We turned around and headed back when Apollo got seriously startled by something, and, not having a horn to grab on to and not having enough practice grabbing his mane, I took an unceremonious trip to the ground. I landed hard on my hip, and Apollo's hoof scraped my face as I went by, which I knew would later turn into a nice shiner. It took several minutes for me to gather my wits before I sent Hubby back to camp with instructions to bring back some ice packs. A while after he was gone, I finally felt strong enough to start walking, so I headed down to the road and was almost back to camp when Hubby came out in the van to get me. I knew it would take more energy to get into the van than just keep going, as it was only a few yards away, so I kept walking. I quickly put ice on everything that hurt, hoping that later in the day I would feel well enough to try again. An hour or so later, thunderstorms moved in, nixing any chance of that anyway (which was probably for the best), so I spent the day putting ice packs, then heat, on the offended areas, which did wonders for the swelling. A couple of ibuprofens later, I was feeling at least reasonable by the end of the day, although when I moved wrong, I'd get spasms in my hip. Obviously I haven't quite yet mastered the art of riding (i.e. keeping the horse between me and the ground), but that's all part of the same package, I'm afraid. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent quietly, except for the thunder and lightning of the thunderstorms that raged for quite a while. Dropping temps (and more painkillers) promise a good night of sleeping.