Back in the Saddle

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!! I can not believe I'm saying this, but I just got on my horse this morning and rode him for the first time since my awful fall in August. I was not planning to do this, or indeed to ever get on any horse ever again after what happened, but my friend rode him a few yards today and I just went for it, in the wind and the rain and totally unprepared. I was wearing jeans and wellies, but did have the hat and body protector on. It was amazing, and way better than chocolate! Needless to say, my camera was sitting on a shelf at home, so there are no photos for you to see.

Let me fill you in on some of the details. On August 5th, a beautiful sunny day, my friend and I decided to canter our horses across an open field, except something spooked Sid the Sod (my horse) and he bolted, my feet came out of the stirrups, I lost my grip on the reins and was bouncing about for a quarter of a mile as he accelerated into a fast gallop. Eventually I landed, taking all the impact in one spot, a lumber vertebra, which of course fractured. I spent a week in the hospital from hell, the first 4 days of which I was not allowed to move a muscle, and eventually discharged myself from that horrible place, wearing a back brace with metal rod up the front. This back brace was worn for 4 months. I'm told that it will take another few months for me to be as healed as I'm going to be. I remember crying my eyes out as I lay unattended for the first 2 hours after arriving in hospital, not because of the pain which was unbelievable, but because I knew I would never get on a horse again. And even this morning, I told myself that even if I was tempted, I was not going to even sit on him.

I feel as though I have achieved so much by doing this small thing, and I expect that tomorrow morning I will have a struggle to get out of bed, but it was soooo worth it!