ROTF! Sun's big but not THAT big! I generally ride solo, so am not too worried about what others think. I did have an episode early on (again, I am a newbie in the whole horse world thing, and basically am learning as I go). It was a gorgeous spring day, everything was just starting to bloom, we had a cold long winter, and Sunny had been wet and cold for way too long. Also, he had been on alfalfa primarily, since he decided he didn't like the grass and had become deft at pulling that part out of his feed. So, basically, I had a nitro-rocket on my hands. I wanted to go riding, so grabbed the tack, rushed through my routine of brushing him, picked the hooves, all the while thinking how fun fun fun it was going to be to finally ride him, forgetting that horses pick up every single thought, so my excitement was shooting straight into his brain, so he was getting amped too. I rushed, ignoring the little nagging voice in my head screaming "slow down, don't rush that part, wait..." and in a record-breaking time, had Sun all tacked up and ready to rock! He was all but jumping up and down at this point, since doing all the tacking up had me even more happy and excited. He was pacing, and I was all set to mount up. I lead him to the block mount, and tried and tried to get him to stay put for a moment to swing up in the saddle! Finally, I swung into the saddle, had just got my feet in the stirrups, when all hell broke loose!
In my haste (and amateur status playing a huge part in this!) I had neglected to remove the bridle, and he was still tied down. He was past ever being calm at this point...the fuse was lit, and he was going to go NOW. He realized he was still tied too late, and freaked when he tried to turn and couldn't. Well, destiny and fate being funny and fickle, here comes the rodeo! Sun bucked several times, HARD, and I flew like a rag doll just as one of our neighbors came ambling down the gravel road with his giant dog. I flew, landed at the guy's feet, breath knoocked out of me, flat on my back. He just stared at me, like I had just come down in a spaceship, the dog went ballistic, Sun was still bucking, but had the sense to kick out opposite us, my hubby flew out of the house to see what all the commotion was about, AND to top it all off (Sun had the lead rope wrapped around his butt at this point) a huge propane truck had just pulled in and was on it's way up the road to our driveway! I couldn't move, the neighbor was paralyzed at the sight of Sunny, full take-off mode, kicking, bucking and yelling, my hubby didn't know what to do first! Help me up, stop the truck, or try and get to Sun without getting killed? I croaked out "Help Sun!", scrambled up by grabbing the neighbor's leg and pulling, stumbled/limped out to the road (wide berth of Sun's rear) waving my arms and screaming "STOP!" to the driver, who had, luckily, seen me flying, and had enough (WAY more than me, evidently!) sense to stop the truck immediatly. Hubby had Sun calmed down right away (basically walked up, grabbed the bridle, and asked, "hey, guy, what's all the hubbub?" Sun stopped like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on him, and calmly stood while Hubby untangled him. The neighbor recovered enough to hightail it back home, dragging his dog behind. Sun was lead back to his 'house' and de tacked, and THEN the propane guy drove in. I was left with a gigantic bruise on my butt and all along the outside of my right leg, so sitting was a unique sensation for a week at least! After telling my story to a few friends with horses, everyone had the same comment: "Didn't lunge him first, huh?" LOL I have learned from that hard lesson lots of rules. Lunge first if horse has been cooped up for more than a few days, never take short cuts, and, oh yeah...I can fly!
