Not Broken

    And that is how it came to be that a trip to the emergency room was needed to make sure there were no broken bones but that the ego was somewhat kept in tact. After all, a warning had been issued, “If you run that mare, watch that she doesn’t buck you off!” What does an adult know that a teenager doesn’t? Apparently, a lot when it came to the sorrel mare because about a mile from the barn the words were to be proven.

    On a gravel road surrounded by friends riding saddled horses, the challenge was issued as to who could get back to the barn first. The race was on. That was about the time that the teenager, who preferred to ride bareback, encountered an upside-down view of the mare’s shoulder. Unceremonious, airborne antics ended with a solid landing on the gravel road. Seconds split in half could not have anticipated the quickness by which that mare deposited her rider elbow first into a world of hurt and headed to the barn. 

     The look of disgust on the sorrel’s face when she was caught and brought back to carry the teenager home was priceless. It was almost as if she knew she was expected to fulfill her part of the old saying, “If you get bucked off, you get back on.”