FMNM Blog Hop: Fear

I've got two stories that come to mind. One:

I was a pretty dumb teenager. I used to go riding on snowmobile trails all the time, or sneak out at night and ride around the country roads (IN WINTERTIME IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING) and throw my non-riding friends on my horses and "teach" them to canter through deep snow because the horses could hardly move... let's just say I'm a better trainer now. Or at least more safety-conscious.

One time I was riding along, mid-February, just trotting along the edge of the road.  My mare spooked sideways for no real reason (actually her specialty) and all of a sudden we were sliding down this hill. In the middle of the road. And then I heard a truck. And I can hear her feet scrambling around and scraping the ice, and hear her breathing, and I'm clutching her mane and hoping to god she either goes down or gets off the road before that truck gets here. I was trying to pull on the reins to steer her but of course we're just sliding down the road and she's totally out of control. Then the truck's lights crest the hill and he's coming down at us and I realize that if he hits the brakes on this ice we might really be done for.

He passed us and she found traction on the edge of the road, but it was a terrifying thirty seconds.

Two:

I had this horse in training one time who really liked to buck somewhat randomly and with abandon. He was a nasty dude. His owner was this really sweet 12 year old girl, too...

Anyhow. One time he started to buck, hard, and I pulled him away from the people standing in the arena and felt myself come up out of the saddle, and then I fell underneath him. He trampled me pretty well, and part of the scary moment was that fall, and feeling the first hoof stand on me. I knew I was dead. I could just feel it all throughout my body.

But then I stood up. I was bleeding everywhere and my face just didn't feel attached right and it hurt to be standing and in that moment, I was petrified. I don't know what it was about being able to stand up that was so scary. But when you ask me about scary moments in my equestrian life, that ranks as #1. Getting trampled by a rank horse, and then standing up.

The day they let me out of the hospital.