And Today's Nominee For A Darwin Award Is...

Was at the barn the other evening, harnessing up Quzqo for an evening drive with a friend. One of the younger boarders was there tacking up her relatively new young Quarter Horse. When I say "younger", let's say 16+, since I believe she drove her car to the barn that evening. Younger than ME, let's leave it at that.

I wasn't paying much of any real attention to her, busy as I was fiddling with the multitude of straps on the harness. Suddenly I heard a commotion in the arena, looked up to see the girl being galloped off with across the arena. The gallop quick turned into bucking, and helplessly we watched more and more daylight grow between the girl and the saddle with each buck into the air, until she came off entirely...

Er, no, not entirely, because her foot got stuck in the stirrup, and the horse was hopping and shying and bucking with the girl hanging upside down off the side, her head inches from the ground!!!

I stupidly hollered " LET GO!" and she hollered back "I CAN'T I'M STUCK!!!". Thankfully within seconds she slipped out of the stirrup and fell to the ground, and the horse bolted off, galloping and bucking, heading for Quzqo and me, sliding to a stop, narrowly missing taking out the fence, before slowing down to a stop in the arena center.

Throwing down the rein I was holding, I made it around Quzqo but by that time she was getting up from the dirt and brushing herself off... She said she was all right (that's debatable), never mind her face was as white as a sheet and she was moving shakily.

The girl said the horse had only been ridden 7 times before, and she "probably" shouldn't have been wearing the GREEN RUBBER BARN BOOTS that got stuck in the stirrup.

She caught the horse, stroked him and patted him, walked him around a bit. We finished tacking up Quz, and before we led him out to the cart, I glanced back and the girl was half on the horse, just leaning her weight across the saddle.

Let's see....Minor Child alone working a green-broke behemoth of a horse, with improper footwear and NO HELMET. I know there's that Michigan Equine Sports Liability Law, but still, I'd think the barn powers that be would instill some rules for minor boarders, if only to prevent the bad P.R. that could come from a child being killed at their barn.

But man, I was jealous...I doubt if I flew off like that, I'd be able to jump up and get right back on!