All of a sudden I woke up...

4 yrs ago I was riding My Arabian Mare, Dancer and had just wrapped up a fairly intense training session with a nice cool out ride. The last thing I can remember as I rode her over to the area I usually dismount was I asked her to move off my leg and side step and she kicked out at my leg and I pushed her forward and started making her work in a circle as a correction for kicking out at my leg.

I asked her to walk again after a moment and we proceeded forward... The next thing I remember from that day was waking up in my living room with my significant other and the neighbor next door standing over me and asking me questions and trying to focus my eyes.

My mare had blown up and I came off and my head hit a large flat rock on the ground. Fortunately I was wearing a helmet (Troxel as a matter of fact) so while I did suffer my first concussion in 40 yrs of living, I did not suffer serious brain injury. My helmet had a large crack in it but my head was still in one piece. I have ridden for most of my 44 yrs of life. I never wore helmets as a regular practice until I started working with young, untrained horses at home with no one but me around. I decided if I was going to ride alone (Not the safest practice) I needed to constantly wear a helmet to help protect myself from serious injury if I got thrown off.

I'm glad that someone WAS home that day and I'm glad I make myself wear a helmet when out training or out on the trails. My other half and neighbor have a bad sense of humor.. they spray painted an outline of a body in the spot they found me lying after my mare trotted over to his work shop... What wasn't taken lightly was the fact that if I'd not have had a helmet I might have suffered much worse than a mild concussion.