Make Sense?

A couple posts ago, I wrote about some of the crazy stuff happening on New Year's Day. I did not write that "nothing happened." Of course it didn't. Nobody got hurt, beyond, maybe, a smashed toe. (My own toes long ago lost the ability to detect a horse standing on them. Thanks, Janow.) It goes that way all the time.

This past Tuesday went differently. We had a fall in the morning. I was there. It was an experienced and educated rider. One known to be safety conscious. Something scared the horse. It happens. Nobody did anything wrong. During the drive home, it began to seem that the emergency room was a better destination. Three stitches and an ankle cast.

This rider fared better than the one that fell that afternoon. The emergency response guys are getting too familiar with Indian Hill. A trip to the hospital in the ambulance with a fractured vertebrae, and not home yet. Another experienced and educated, safety conscious rider.

I have found that often, when someone falls and/or gets hurt, other riders speculate on what safety rule that person was breaking at the time. Even if they know the rider, even if they know that person is not the kind to break that rule, even if they weren't there. I decided, years ago, that people's brains protect them this way.

"That would never happen to me because I am smarter than that." Now they don't have to be afraid. They are safe.

Not really.

You can do everything right and still.......

It makes sense to say that getting hurt and acting safely are directly correlated. The more aware you are of safety, the more likely you are to get hurt. It seems to make sense. Maybe we should all ride 4 year olds in short shorts, tube tops and flip flops, cigarette in one hand(don't inhale, that will kill you). We would never fall off.

Then there was our the third fallen rider. Does it count if was off the property? His horse spooked and he was trying not to spill his beer.