As I recently posted about our successful show summer with Romulus I was excited about our continuous training. I was planning how to go about it over this winter, writing notes and training schedules. All of this came to abrupt halt after Romulus bucked me off in the field. Now my reality is: I have a broken ankle, surgery that installed 2 plates, one for each bone and 3 weeks of no weight bearing. After, will be a long road of rehabilitation...

The big question is: What happened?
Well, in a nut shell I got too confident that my lovely 4 year old will stay lovely no matter what. Kind of stupid! I thought I could handle situations. Apparently, not! More so, thinking back to what led to a buck I cannot believe I was so ignorant and careless. The plan was to do some easy counter canter work in a field where there is lots of room. Nothing we didn't do before. Not the first time! What was the first time is the last exercise of the ride, it's set up. Now, sitting home with 2 months of no riding ahead of me, I simply roll my eyes and shake my head. At the time I planned it, it didn't look that way. Too much confidence???....
So, what I did is I got back to the exit of a field and started walking away from it. I have done two rounds before, no problem. At a about 300 m from the exit I turned around, picked up counter canter and started on my way back into a shallow turn to the right along the forest line while being on the left lead. If I finished right there I would have successful work out and we would be on our way home content and happy. But, no! I continued turning right in left lead taking him away from home second time in a row (first time occurrence). That didn't sit well with him, he started pulling left. My turn ended up wider then I planned and we were approaching steep downhill into ravine. I decided to turn left and head home.... That is when he got excited and sped into big bucks. I remember only the first one. I have no memory of what happened. I woke up laying on the ground. Romulus stopped, looked at me and run home. Trying to move I realize my right ankle is completely dangling in the boot. Fearing the swelling I took my boot off, called my husband and tried to turn around. That didn't go very well. My ankle folded in half and the broken bone penetrated the skin and I ended up with open fracture.

I tentatively reconstructed how I fell from weird bruises, sore left side, shoulder, ribs, mild concussion and a broken right ankle. I believe his big forward buck launched me up and forward. I held the strap with my right hand which didn't help in this situation. Left stirrup came out all together with it's leather but right foot got stuck in the right stirrup. That, probably, caught my momentum and somersaulted me into left side that fell down first. May be holding the strap helped here too, who knows.
It could have been way worse! I keep telling this to myself, LOL

The next big question is:How did this affected Romulus? Now, almost a month after the accident I am wondering how badly I screwed up my youngster's brain... Did it scare him? How is coming back to riding will affect us both? How long if ever it will take to repair wonderful trust we had in each other...
My plan is to get back on him after doing extensive lunging, ground work and work in hand while I am building my fitness and confidence riding other horses. I am lucky it is November now and I will have time to sort it all out. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Happy riding...