This message is from: "Cheryl Beillard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Can we have a little more detail, please? without identifying the person, if it's embarrassing? While no one would wish an accident to happen, they have instructive value for the rest of us .. ie things to tuck away and try to remember NOT to do to avoid creating the same conditions. I had a beautiful fall two weeks ago, when riding Bragda up a small slope at a canter .. I think she was on the wrong lead, no doubt my fault because she is very responsive and I probably asked at the wrong moment. Anyhow, her left shoulder slipped under her and my leg went with it. Same one I broke, riding bareback at a canter up another little hill, in 72 .. no bones broken but the bruising is spectacular. Gets all sorts of sympathy. Looks like a waffle iron hit me .. I did feel like I was being "ironed" as she rolled first one way,then the other, to get up .. all in slow motion it seemed. I took Lori Albrough's advice and got some Arnica ointment to put on it and the bruises are fading away rapidly. No hard feelings and Bragda and I are working away for our driving classes at the Middleville show next w/e .. I won't be riding for a while! I should add that the big lesson from this was the value of helmets . The sound that my head made when it hit the ground was loud enough to bring people from inside the house when I was quite a distance away .. I thought it was my leg snapping, and was vastly relieved to know it was "only" my helmet. Can't imagine what damage might have been done had I not been wearing it. ps. Anyone out there using Myler bits for driving? . . I seem to recall someone mentioning something about an egg butt snaffle but wondered if anyone is driving with them .. and then, of course, which one. The book is great but I'd like some first hand experience re driving, as opposed to riding bits. ps 2. On an unrelated topic, but in keeping with the animal themes (cougars, bobcats, etc) of past postings, did others read about the black bear that was hit by a car at night in Saskatchewan last week? Apparently conservation authorities think it is the largest ever recorded -- 2.3 metres long (7.5 ft) and is estimated to have weighed about 880 lbs. Given we think a 400 lb bear is large, this must have been monstrous. The natural resource officers described it as "awesome". In addition to totally demolishing the front end of the Mazda, it actually lifted the front of the car off the ground, in struggling to get up and out from under, after the collision (caused by the bear, it seems) and then walked off into the bush at the side of the road and died.
