Well I’m glad you finally got to go! I’m looking forward to the pics. Lawn mowing pics are better than no pics at all, but trail ride pics are definitely better.
We had a good ride on Saturday too. It was our annual Saddle Up for St. Jude ride. HaveFaith and her husband Hal, my old riding buddy Shirley, my friend Elizabeth and I went. We also met up with some other friends who live up near the rails-to-trails. It was hot as usual but there was a large crowd in spite of it and lots of money was raised for the hospital. I’m not sure of the final number but over $78,000 had been raised by 1pm. We rode the hottest loop early in the morning, then took a break for lunch and to watch some of the auction of donated items.
We left out on the more shaded loop sometime after that. It’s always the prettiest because you ride down the middle of a creek for quite a ways. But we didn’t make it to that part though because Bob tripped on a rock going down a hill and fell and skinned himself all up and also rolled over on my left ankle and knee and sprained it pretty bad.
It hurt when I got up, but not bad enough that I couldn’t walk, so I got back on and we rode on. Not much choice there anyways since we were in the middle of the woods at the time, but when we came out on the road not too long thereafter there were some volunteers with a cooler and some water and they offered to call someone to come take me back to the camp.
I could tell that it was swelling in my boot pretty bad and the motion of it rocking back and forth in the stirrup was aggrivating it and I knew the trail was pretty hilly in places after that and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up to having to push back in the stirrups on the hills so I just called it quits.
Kari and Elizabeth decided to take Faith and Hope on back to camp via the short-cut and were planning on getting my truck and trailer to come back for us, but we forgot that my keys were in Bob’s pommel bag until after they were gone. But the ride volunteers showed up in a large ATV and they loaded me up in that so it worked out ok. We passed Kari and Elizabeth on the way back.
We tried ponying Bob back behind the ATV, but he was limping a little, probably because of his knees, so one of the volunteers offered to ride him back to camp real slow so that’s what we did. Once we got back to camp the medical team offered to look at my ankle, but I knew that once I got that boot off it wasn’t going back on so I just decided to wait since I already had an appointment at the bone and joint clinic on Tuesday anyways. I guess I’m trying to become their star patient or something! ;o)
So Kari and Hal and Elizabeth got the horses and tack loaded up and I made it home fine. I kept it iced and elevated for the rest of the day and all day yesterday and it’s better. It’s black and blue and about 3 times the size of the other ankle, but I can hobble around so I don’t think it’s broken.
So there’s my tale of woe. They say things always happen in 3’s, so I’d say I ought to be done for a while! ;o)
Jeepers Frog... this year has been hard on you!
Sounds a little like my crash when Bay fell on his knees a few years ago. He fell on my ankle too.
I always tell them to watch their feet going down hill!
I hope your ankle is fine with just some rest and won’t need major medical intervention, but it sounds like it’s more sprained than mine.
And Bob too... That’s a leap of faith to hand him off to another rider... on both your part and the other rider!
I’m sorry to hear about the ankle. For some reason this reminds me of the snake oil salesman in Little Big Man. Everytime you saw him, he was missing another part. Every time we hear from you, you’ve damaged another part :) Time to start taking care of yourself.
So sorry to hear about your “wreck”. I can relate to that. I sure hope nothing is broken and that Bob is ok.