My horse is a funny one; no vices, easy to handle and ride, except when we try to canter on a hack, the bum comes up. And, unfortunately, I don't stay on. I stay on for the little ones, if I am prepared. Last time I actually even managed to keep the leg on and push her forwards which stopped her from bucking more and to start cantering.
But the big ones... On Sunday I hit my face on R's neck and promptly slid off. She luckily stopped and I didn't fall badly, still holding the reins (as one of my big fears is to lose her when out, so I hang onto reins if I possibly can). The answer is, I am told, is to keep doing regular canters with her on hacks, so it loses its novelty, and also possibly to let her lead. Her bucking is merely exuberance. ...But what when the leading horse just starts cantering when I'm still trot-mode, and R clocks the cantering before me? The bum comes up.
I tried telling Rainbow that if Mummy falls off the fun stops, so she better make sure Mummy stays on, so we can have fun... I don't think she was listening. She was too concerned with staring at some dogs in the distance.
Adding insult to injury, back at the yard on Sunday, another horse bit me in the eye! I was sorting out friend's horse's feeds and standing – not too close, or so I thought – in between two stables. Piglet doesn't like Harvey, so she presumably tried to reach Harvey from her box but got me instead. WALLOP! Like being punched in the face. Came completely from left-field... Drew blood, a cut under my eye, and puffy too. Burst into tears. It had tipped me over the edge. Fooking horses.
On Monday morning, I went to the doctor's to show my eye to him. He looked rather concerned and puzzled; I was his first ever horse-bite patient. He had to take a guide book out to work out which antibiotics to prescribe... His fingers ran through the lines in the book... dog bites... cat bites... rodent bites... insect bites... hmmm....
Sometimes, just sometimes, I despair.
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