painfully numb. . .

. . .is my butt. And lower back. So I am sitting on a bag of frozen peas (don't worry, I won't serve them for dinner) as I type in severe rear end distress. 

Yes, I fell of of Shyloh today. Yes, it hurt, a lot. Yes, I may have thought I broke my pelvis at one point. Yes, I may or may not have shed a tear from the agony. But it was a strange hurt. It seems like my skin is numb, but under the skin was racked with pain. Weird. 

Here is what happened. We were working on whoa. Shy has a pretty good whoa, but I wanted to practice to make it solid. She was doing great and stopping when asked. But she was making it well known that she wanted to go back to her stall. She kept turning in the direction of the arena doors and fighting me. This is not new. . .I think she is stall sour! And all she wants is hay. It is the top priority in her mind and that needs to be changed when we are working.

Because she was so distracted, I was getting ready to get off of her. But I wanted to do it on my terms. All I wanted was for her to turn away from the doors, walk a few steps, and whoa. I wanted to dismount while she was facing away from the doors. As we were walking and getting ready to make the turn away from the arena doors, as Shy was fighting me to continue facing the arena doors, something happened and off she went. I am still not clear what that something was. . .

Now, I know where we were in the arena, and I know where I landed. It seriously was not that far. But while I was hanging on to Shy for dear life, then fell, and skidded, it seemed like a mile! I am pretty sure I let out some resemblance of a scream. I landed squarely on my left butt cheek. It was a good thing I didn't have far to fall!

Shy turned back around and stopped. She stood frozen. As I was writhing in pain, she stood still. A few boarders that were there came into the arena to see what was going on and saw me down. One of them got Shy, who stood for her to approach, and took her to her stall. I remained on the ground. This was probably the most pain I have ever felt. 

I was probably on the ground for 15 minutes before I was able to get up. When I did, I went to Shy's stall. She seemed afraid and worried. She knew she made a mistake, but the best thing I could do to correct it was physically impossible. I wanted to hop back on, just for a moment.  But I could barely even lift my leg so forget mounting a horse. And I just knew that sitting on my left side was not going to be pleasant at all.

That car ride home was THE most painful drive I have ever made. By the time I got to the end of the barn driveway, I wanted to turn around and ask someone to drive me home. When I got home, it took about 10 minutes to get out of the car!

For the remainder of the weekend, I am going to sit half crooked on my bag of frozen peas that are soothing my swollen butt. 

Enjoy some photos of my awesome dogs that I can't fall off of, since I did not get any photos today at the barn.

Sweet Maggie Pie and her pig

Playing their favorite game, Tug o War

Cooper on a rock