| I have not ridden a horse for six months. And that ride | | | | hurry around horses. But, I quickly threw a saddle on |
| was definitely less than eight seconds. I've learned | | | | Elvis. I tightened the cinch part way and asked him to |
| many lessons in the months since, but one of the | | | | move a little bit to make sure everything is OK. Then, I |
| biggest is to not take shortcuts when checking my | | | | tightened the cinch the rest of the way, and went off |
| tack. I was preparing to ride our Percheron-cross | | | | to look for a mounting block. Elvis is so tall, and my |
| gelding, Elvis. He is big and very gentle, so I took his | | | | knees are so bad that I can't mount him from the |
| demeanor for granted. When I threw my leg over him, | | | | ground. I ended up on an overturned watering tub. |
| it was two steps at a walk, two at a trot, and then a | | | | I asked Elvis to step over so that I could get on. I |
| couple of big bucks. | | | | noticed that the saddle was a little loose. I tightened the |
| When I landed, I broke my right radius bone just above | | | | cinch a bit more, and didn't move him around to check |
| my wrist. The surgeon pinned together nine pieces. | | | | if he was OK. Big mistake. In retrospect, I remember |
| Four months later, I had my biceps tendon re-attached. | | | | that Elvis flinched a bit when I did this, but I didn't pay |
| There was so much misery around the wrist that we | | | | attention. I must have pinched something when I |
| didn't notice that that tendon was torn. | | | | tightened it that last little bit. |
| So, six months and two surgeries later, people ask, "Do | | | | Less than thirty seconds later I was in the dirt with a |
| you still have that horse?" Or, worse yet, "Is that horse | | | | smashed wrist. |
| still alive?" I tell them that it was not Elvis's fault. It was | | | | The lesson is that a horse can't check his own tack. |
| mine. | | | | Elvis told me the only way he knew how that his |
| I was in a hurry. I had been driving my tractor and | | | | saddle was not fitting him correctly. When I got on him |
| decided to take a quick ride before I had to run off | | | | and hurt him, he was in his rights to get me off. I can't |
| and do something else. It's usually a bad idea to be in a | | | | sell him or send him to the knackers for my mistakes. |