This blog post is aptly named since after nearly three years of riding, I fell off Queenie. Whack! Right on my back. Luckily, I wasn't hurt.
I always say that if something bad has to happen, I hope that I at least get a good story out of it. Well, my fall is one heck of a story.
Zoe and I took our girls out the gate in the back pasture for a ride through Rachel Carson Park. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and we were enjoying a casual ride. At about the halfway point on the trail, a fallen tree formed an arch across the trail.
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The tree looks exactly like this only much closer to the ground |
Zoe and Deja followed a narrow path around the tree. But Deja made a
significant deposit on the path and Queenie decided she didn't want to
step in it. She turned and walked right under the tree. She had no
problem fitting but I was going to hit the tree at waist level.
In the split second that it took Queenie to get half of her body under the tree, I apparently took complete leave of my senses. I grabbed the tree and pushed against it as Queenie continued walking. I didn't let go so before I knew it, I was lying on my back on Queenie's rump still clutching the tree. I felt like I was part of a circus act.
As Queenie continued sauntering forward, I did not let go of that tree. Perhaps after years of watching my daughter compete in gymnastics, I thought I could just swing my legs over the tree, jump down and salute the judges.
Did not happen. Instead, I rolled slightly, fell off Queenie and hit the ground. I confess that in that one second between leaving Queenie's back and eating dirt, I thought, "Oh shit. This is gonna hurt." Zoe had no idea all of this was going on behind her until she heard the "thunk" when I made contact with the ground.
I laid there for a minute stunned and staring up at the sky. The first thing I said to Zoe was, "do you have Queenie?" As I slowly rolled up, I started laughing at how ridiculous I must have looked in the 30 seconds it took for the whole grab-the-tree, lie-on-Queenie's back, hit-the-ground event to occur. Where is a camera when you need one?
I credit my safety vest and helmet with preventing serious injury. I only have a few scrapes and bruises on my arms. I thought I might be sore today from the impact, but I'm not.
Oddly enough, even though I was wearing heavy boots, I must have jammed the toes on my right foot when I hit the ground. I don't think anything is broken, but two toes are bruised and I'm limping a bit.
I don't think that I will be wearing the high-heeled shoes that I had picked out to wear to a wedding this weekend.
The old adage is that you have to fall off a horse three times before you are considered an experienced rider. I hope that I can count the two times that Queenie decided to lie down and roll while I was in the saddle (read about those adventures
here and
here) plus my "Whack! Wednesday" event and call it done.
In the meantime, today I will ....