Horses will be horses. And when they get cocky, they think they know better than you do. Zahra and I had a great groundwork school / photoshoot at Jon and Mary's new water complex. She was galloping through the water, off the "small" banks (Training/Prelim size), and was generally feeling full of sass!
When I felt that she had done as much as she needed, I started slowing her up. As she's trotting, she dropped her head to get a mouthful of grass, and I thought "Oh why not, she was so good..." Then she stepped over the lounge line, and I thought "crap." So I gave a yank and tried to reel her in, but the lounge line no longer had any leverage, so she pulled the opposite way and began trotting away from me. I ran after her, trying to slow her down, but she knew she had me and picked up the canter. I lost her, and she galloped for home, popping over two barbed wire fences along the way.
When I caught up with her back at the barn, she was standing quietly, a small, steady stream of blood squirting out her hind leg. We hosed it off really quick to see how big/deep it was, wrapped it up really tightly, and called the vet. 5 stitches later, she's as good as new!
I can't tell you how lucky I feel to have gotten off so easily. I had images of War Horse running through my mind as she galloped away from me, but instead, she got away with nothing more than a glorified scratch!
Lessons learned:
Even when the horse is being super, there is no room for sloppiness.
Zahra will probably tuck up her hind end a little better next time.
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