No, not the thigh, even though that’s where the hoof-shaped bruise colored my leg for more than two weeks. (Can you see it? It looks kind of like a backwards “C” facing down a bit. Ouch.)
When Pixie let her cow kick fly on a blustery October afternoon, she wounded my heart most of all. My heart, and maybe a tiny piece of my ego were bruised far worse than any physical indication would show.
I’t been a long time since I’ve written, but rather than trying to detail everything that’s happened here is a short list:
- My friend Katie came out to the farm and took amazing pictures. She can make anything look awesome. Even hay…really!
- Harmony Horsemanship took a special trip to London Lodge, a retirement home and gave cart rides to little ones. Peaches the pony pulled the cart and I drove!
- I started a “lease to own” program with Pixie!!! In just over a year (February 2009) I will be the proud owner of a beautiful horse named Picture Perfect.
- The day before I made my first lease payment, Pixie kicked me in the thigh (more on that later)
- I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve regressed, a little bit.
Back to the October surprise. Ted, Pixie and I were working on groundwork in the play land. I asked Pixie to walk through a sandpit, and apparently it was a REALLY scary sandpit that she did not like one bit. So rather than politely walking through it, she flew over it and kicked out at the same time. I was standing too close and her little hoof nailed me right above my right knee. I immediately let go of the rope and fell to the ground. She ran about twenty yards then stopped to munch on grass. Ted didn’t know what to do. I was crying really hard – probably 60% from the pain of the kick and 40% from emotional trauma. My perfect, beautiful, wonderful horse who never kicked, kicked me! What?! How could it be? My world had ended. I was heaving sobs and Ted was sure I had broken something. He basically dragged me to the gator, made sure I didn’t have any bones sticking out of my leg and retrieved the naughty horse. He worked her pretty good for about 10 minutes, then we all headed back up to the barn.
It’s almost a month later my leg has healed pretty well. And my heart is doing better as well. Pixie and I have had some pretty good bonding moments over the past few weeks – mane and tail brushing, lots of petting and kissing (side note: Eric came out to watch me work with Pixie one night and didn’t want me to kiss him after he saw me kissing Pixie until I washed my lips! I said, honey, I’ve been coming home and kissing you with horse lips for months!). So now, I need to work on healing my ego. Like I said, I’ve regressed a bit. I’m scared, worried, less confident and not just with Pixie, but with all of the horses. So that’s what I’m working on now. Little by little, I will regain my presence with horses. It’s a good winter project.
medivalia said,
December 8, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
That looks like it HURTS! I’d like say I’m sure Pixie didn’t intentionally try to hurt you but I wasn’t there to see it. They say horses live in the moment, and I guess you saw that when she was eating grass moments later. Perhaps breaking down the sand pit crossing into small steps would make it a better learning experience for both of you. At the least, YOU should repeat the sandpit crossing with Pixie again to see that she learns that she can do it and doesn’t have to kick out to do it. And so that she doesn’t learn that she can get to you. Where I ride, we repeat whatever activity the horse is reluctant to do until they do it. It teaches them that when they are asked to do it they must (and that they cannot get away with sneaky behaviors no matter who is on them) and that what we’re asking them to do isn’t so bad after all. And I think part of riding is being the confident leader so they can get their confidence from you. I’m scared of horses and riding too sometimes, so I know what it’s like, but I hope you work past this, and remember the fun confidence-builder that it can be!