Having a really bad day:(

I try to keep this blog really good and positive for the most part. Even if things aren't perfectly going my way, I try to pick out the good parts and focus on that. But this has just been a bad day, there's no way to sugarcoat it:(

Actually, there is a bright side. The bad day is partially because my horse has lost his third ever shoe in 2 years, and I won't get to do much with him this week because of that. Farrier comes Friday. So, it's the OTHER horse I ride that I had the bad day with. That's a bright side right? Right?

So, the princess is coming 4; she's a warmblood pony, and really a pretty amazing animal. We've had our moments when I wanted to just yell in sheer frustration at her stupid "dumbblood" antics, but I've always kept my cool, stayed really patient, and we've always worked through her stupid moments. Her biggest problem is that she has a spook from Hel!. For the most part, we deal pretty well with each other, and if she's too too incredibly spooky, I'll simplify the ride and end on a good note. Well, she felt OK today. It's only April, but the weather here has been mid to hight 80's all month. Today, it's a BEAUTIFUL 67ish with a pretty decent wind. All was fine, though, and she walk/trotted pretty well. I still have the jumps set across the middle of the ring; outside, diagonal, diagonal, outside. I set each one as a ground pole. Decided to go ahead and trot her once through the course; outside, inside, outside, inside, then be done since the ring is really hard today. I had already trotted on of the inside diagonal singles, and even though she gave me a little jump over it, she was fine. Trotted into the outside pole, and JUST as she would have trotted over, she FLUNG her head straight up; nearly backwards. Smacked me in the face, jerked me forward, spun and twisted; I hit my jaw hard on her neck, and hit the ground hard butt first, then smacked my head.:( It stunned me. I sat there for awhile before I was able to get up. I did, got back on, walked over the pole about 4 times, walked the other poles, walked over this pole again, trotted around, WALKED about 5 steps before it. She got half way over it, then JUMPED straight up, landed, and tried to yank and spin again. I lost both stirrups and barely stayed on, then decided to emergency dismount since she was attempting to buck and take off. This time, I managed to land on my feet, but she yanked away from me, and took off running like a maniac. She ran around so long, Susan from across the street drove over, and walked up to the ring asking if I was ok. I did the classic little kid thing, and burst into tears as I explanied what happened. Finally caught the mare, got back on again, and went straight up to that dang pole. NOW she was offering to want to just leap over it; I could feel it. Susan's student took her rein, and led her over the pole a few times until she chilled, then I did it alone, trotted around again, trotted another random pole, then came back to the booger pole and WALKED it one more time. I stayed on, she didn't freak, so I ended there. I think I have a mild consussion:(