Stop, Drop and Roll

 

I decided to join Saiph and Carol, a new boarder with a lovely quarter horse, for the 3-mile loop in the woods behind the barn.  It’s what we consider our “safe” route—no big hills, streams or other trail challenges.  

Carol took this photo of Saiph and I riding the back loop.

Queenie was moving along nicely except she would throw her head every so often.  As we got to the halfway point in the ride, Queenie began trying to scratch her face on trees.  I rode up beside Carol and asked her to check Queenie’s face to see if a fly was annoying her.  Carol assured me that nothing was evident.  

Queenie resembled this horse while she was scratching her head on the trees.

Since we were heading home, I decided to wait to check Queenie’s bridle, fly bonnet, etc.  When we were within sight of the barn, Queenie began circling around a spot in the field.  I assumed there was some particularly tasty grass there but urged her to continue following the other horses.  

Suddenly Queenie’s knees seemed to buckle and my first thought was, “heart attack!”  But within a second, I realized that she wanted to roll.  Luckily, she went down in what felt like slow motion so I was able to roll off.  I laid there for a split second staring up at the sky.  I must have yelled or said something because Saiph and Carol turned around quickly.

I would have preferred that Queenie rolled like this horse--without her saddle on!

All I could do was stand by and watch as Queenie joyfully rolled against my saddle.  She was rubbing her face on the ground as well and managed to remove the bridle and shift the fly bonnet off her ears.  When Queenie finally stood, she calmly started grazing.  I imagined her congratulating herself and saying, “Yep, I got rid of the itch and that pesky woman on my back too!”

I grabbed the bridle and Carol jumped off and started fixing the saddle.  When Queenie’s tack was back in order, Carol gave me a boost into the saddle and we finished our ride, laughing all the way back to the barn about Queenie’s unexpected decision to practice a fire safety technique—stop, drop and roll!