Daniel's Fall

I woke up a little after 7 Saturday morning with every intention to go back to bed but Uncle Andy and Aunt Teresa were up too. They were planning to go riding before everyone woke up. When Andy asked me which bridle goes on Full Throttle I decided I was awake enough to join them. We were almost tacked up and ready when Leah walked outside in her pjs… I told her to hurry and grab a horse if she wanted to ride! Daniel then staggered out wanting to ride. It was too late to re-evaluate the horses we had already saddled up so I told Daniel to grab the easiest one to catch, already knowing which one that was going to be… he brought out Red…. :)

We headed out in a heavy overcast with a light breeze and eager horses. I did warn Andy that Full Throttle was going to be a work out, which he was, but the other horses did not handle nearly as terrible as they have in the past while riding with Full Throttle. Once we were past the Twin Lakes I was hoping the rain would hold off for just a little longer. Soon after we passed Anthony the slow rain started (harder then a sprinkle but not quiet raining) so we began to saddle gait, me looking back every 15 seconds to make sure Teresa and Daniel were ok. About the twentieth time I turned back I saw Daniel doing a front flip off Red, hitting his shoulder to the ground… CRAP! I jumped off Cisco and caught Red moments after he stepped on one of his reins snapping it off the bridle. Daniel ran to meet me to hold Cisco (since Red is the dominant horse, you can’t hold him near any of the other horses or he’ll kick and bite them). I checked Daniel out to make sure he wasn’t broken and then started to work on rigging the reins so that one of us could ride Red the rest of the way. By this time it was raining hard and Cisco was acting a fool because his ears were sensitive (we’ll get to that in the next post). We weren’t far from the lodge so Daniel got back on Red and did tremendously! Prayer of sweet relief! Since leather and rain don't mix well, the one rein slid out of my knot once but Andy fixed it and after that we were home free!

Here are some pics of our ride!

Andy, Teresa and Daniel at the beginning of our ride.

Daniel (This is after his fall... you can really see how hard it was raining in this pic)

Daniel riding Red

Andy riding Full Throttle and soaked by the rain.

Teresa and Leah shivering.

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We were all good and wet when we got back to the lodge. Papa had his yummy homemade biscuits, grits, eggs, bacon and sausage ready when we got there! Coffee was a must! :)