Scary Sunday...

Keeping up with the alliteration for weekend...

Started off with a glitch, I don't watch the news so I totally missed that it was daylight savings time switch again... and my alarm clock is radio-controlled. Which is great for Arizona storms when the electricity goes out in the middle of the night, once it comes back on my clock resets itself and I don't lose my alarm... However twice a year, when the rest of Mountain Standard Time changes and Arizona does NOT... yup I have a problem... {sigh}

I did manage to make it to the ride in time, since it was a surprise birthday ride for our friend Tammy it was important that we all be there EARLY, before she got there...

She was so happy to see us all when she drove in! And we had a lovely ride... until near the end. :(

We kept ending up in 3 bunches... the faster horses, the mediums, and the pokey ones, which were basically Tammy and her 2 girls. Savannah is 16 and staying with mom deliberately, to help with lil sis Melanie who is 8 and was being ponied. Kandace also stayed with them and was helping with Melanie. We were getting close to the trail head and planned to head for a great Mexican restaurant, El Encanto Dos, for lunch, where a couple of non-riders were meeting us with a birthday cake... I looked back and saw we had spread out pretty far, and the last 4 riders were out of sight. We stopped to wait and as the middle group caught us, Tammy's horse - with an empty saddle - and little Melanie, holding on for dear life, came running toward us. Both horses were safely stopped and caught up and Melanie was terrified but not hurt... I headed back to see what happened. I found Kandace off her horse and on the phone, Savannah off her horse and trying to hold it AND look at something... but where was Tammy? Then I spotted her, on the ground behind a bush, SHE is what Savannah was trying to look at but couldn't get close enough with the horse. I asked her, do you want me to take your horse so you can check your mom, or do you want to take my horse and I will check your mom? She said she needed to see her mom so I took her horse and backed off... It would take forever to describe events as they happened and I'm not sure how much detail should be posted on a blog so I will just say that Tammy was air-lifted to the hospital. All of us were quite upset, and all pitched in to unsaddle and get things situated and get both girls taken care of and all the horses home and get Savannah to the hospital to be with her mom until her dad could return - he was out of state for work which was why he had asked us all to surprise Tammy with her birthday ride... (she had been told it would be just her and the two girls!)

I won't keep you in suspense, praise God she is going to be okay, she has a concussion and one fractured lumbar vertebrae but the doctors say she is going to be just fine. Of course she has bruises and scrapes and cuts as well. If it wasn't so scary it would be funny, her helmet actually CAUSED several minor injuries - the strap cut behind her ear and caused bruises, and the broken visor cut her face... BUT that is a small price to pay for saving her from a fatal head injury! The doctors said if she had NOT had her helmet on, she would no longer be with us...

I would ask my blogger friends to please add Tammy and her family and friends to your prayers... her husband feels responsible for setting up the ride, Kandace in particular feels responsible that she was not able to keep Tammy safe, and the girls of course are quite upset.

As my husband always says, it's a dangerous game we play. And just like with motorcycles, it's not a matter of IF you will crash, but WHEN and HOW BAD...

And yes, in case you were wondering, I DID have my helmet on!!! I didn't wear one for years, even after Katie tripped and fell with me and I hit my head on a rock. Well I didn't get hurt, just a sore spot... not long after that, in a very short period of time, THREE of my friends had bad spills where the doctors said, if it wasn't for their helmet, we'd have lost them... so I went and bought one. I wore it most of the time but sometimes "cheated" when I was on my good old girl... but with the youngster, and the new, unfamiliar horse, I did wear it. Once our friend Lynn lost her battle with cancer in July, though, I figured now that she was in heaven where she could see me ALL THE TIME... there would be no more cheating, because she would know... And I have been very faithful about it. In fact I bought a second helmet so there is one in each trailer and I wouldn't accidently forget to load it... I owe it to my family and my critters, who without me here to take care of them would be scattered to the four winds...