Branching Out

My 10 year old niece and I were riding with a group of people. I was in front on my mare going up a hill and she was behind me riding her pony. My mare was a little upset because another rider had ridden on ahead of us. My mare stepped sideways across a large log that was lying vertically up the hill along side the trail. She stepped back across it clumsily, and came down on the side of it. I heard my niece yelp behind me and when I turned around, I saw a limb laying across her pony's neck just in front of the saddle. My mare had rolled the log upwards and over causing a limb on the side of it to hit my niece.

I got off and removed it and my niece told me the limb had hit her in the head. I looked at her helmet and was shocked to see a large crack in it. I was so glad she had her helmet on. We still have the cracked one and tell the story often to encourage other parents to make sure their children wear helmets.