Saturday afternoon, I was making Snickerdoodles when I happened to glance out of my kitchen window just in time to see a rider go flying off the back of a horse and land face down in the snow! The horse took off, ran for a bit, stopped, came back and sniffed at the rider, then took off like a shot again, kicking his legs up in the air. I kept watching and watching to see if the person got up, but they never did.
I called Chris to come down from his office and told him I was going to drive over and see if the guy was hurt. I was quite flustered, worried that the guy was slowly dying while we all just watched from our window. I couldn’t just sit there observing from a safe distance, not if needed help! Chris made sure I had my phone with me, and knew how to call 911. (Cuz it ain’t 911 here, its 144)
As I was racing down the stairs to our car, I realized that I could help the rider, but didn’t have a clue about the horse. So I rang our neighbor’s doorbell, who has a horse of her own, and told her husband that some had been thrown from their horse. I was going to help if she could come for the horse. He assured me they would be right over. I hopped in the car and drove down the path, ignoring the fact that it was snow-covered and not meant for cars.
I eventually got to the spot where I first saw the accident, but there was nothing there. No person, and no horse! There was another horse, in a corral, running around, but none loose on the path or in the fields. I looked around for a few minutes, and saw absolutely nothing in the snow but a horse blanket. Strange. So I drove back to the farm, and asked a hiker if he had seen some one get up and ride away. No, he hadn’t seen anything. So strange!
I figured that in the time while I was talking to the neighbor and getting the car, the guy/girl must have recovered, having just had the wind knocked out of them, and had gotten back on the horse and ridden away. My neighbors arrived and I told them my theory. They were relieved no one was hurt, and decided to check on their own horse, since they were there. She started walking out to the corral where her horse was now really kicking and jumping, because of the cold, and the wheels started to click in my head….
When I got home, Chris and Nicholas confirmed my theory. They had gotten the binoculars out to watch the action up close and had seen the “guy” in the snow before I had. The neighbor’s horse, that had been wearing 2 blankets, somehow bucked or jumped so hard, that one went flying off into the snow. That is what I saw from my kitchen window. No one had been hurt at all. There was no runaway horse. It was all a big mistake.
And no, I still haven’t told my neighbors what really happened. I am too embarrassed. In fact, I feel exactly like the boy who cried wolf! Next time I will have Chris grab the binoculars BEFORE I go running out of the house to rescue someone. At least I didn’t try any actual CPR on the blanket! 🙂