Stan has no recollection of the accident. He asked
me what happened, however both Dianne and I were
ahead of him. What we believe happened was Koda
began bucking, Stan went over his head, and Koda
accidentally stepped on him. Stan did have a bruise
on his back about the size of Koda’s hoof, which
supports our theory.
Unfortunately, Stan’s riding days were done. Stan
also has a farm with a variety of animals, and he
worried about them while he was in the hospital. He
worried about his wife when he was in the hospital so
long. He just couldn’t afford to
have another serious injury.
After his hospital stay, he
seemed to hurt himself on a
fairly regular basis with no horse
involved! I told him if he was
going to continue to get hurt he
may as well come back riding with us.
In all our years of riding, Stan was certainly not a
fair weather riding friend. No matter how cold the
weather Stan was ready for a ride. I would be
bundled up ready for the apocalypse and Stan would
have his bare ankles showing. And his pajama
bottoms peeking out below his jeans. Although I still
see Stan from time to time, it’s not quite the same on
the trails without him. But we all know there will come
a time when each of us must acknowledge that it’s
time to play it safe.
My sisters have never met Stan, however they’ve
both told me they missed my riding stories of our
escapades with Stan. I have to say I do too.
We ever so slowly tried to walk out. Dianne and I
took turns leading the three horses while the other
helped Stan. I asked Stan about phoning his wife, but
he didn’t want to “ruin her day.” He also said he would
drive himself to the hospital. Like that was going to
happen! At one point he told me it hurt when he
coughed. I suggested he not cough, but in my mind I
thought he probably broke a rib or two.
At one point we tried to get him back up on Koda
so we could lead him out of the trail, however he just
couldn’t manage to get his foot up to the stirrup even
though we lowered it for him.
There was no way either one of
us could boost him up so we
continued to slowly walk out to
the road. At the time the
distance seemed like miles, but
later I went back and checked.
It turned out to be under one half-mile, and it took us
well over an hour to reach the road.
It was decided that I would go ahead, taking my
mare and Dianne’s mare back to the trailer while
Dianne waited with Stan. I would then try to find
someone to unlock a park gate so we could get a car
in to reach Stan at the road. Meanwhile, Dianne was
able to reach Stan’s daughter who rushed over and
took Stan to the hospital.
Once at the hospital the news was rather grim.
Stan had broken a few ribs, had a collapsed lung, and
some other broken bones along his vertebrae. So
much for not needing an ambulance! A long hospital
stay was required with many pain-filled days.
“
I WOULD BE BUNDLED UP
READY FOR THE APOCALYPSE
AND STAN WOULD HAVE HIS
BARE ANKLES SHOWING.
”
A rider for all seasons.
//
//
AHW > 71 < 08.19
sharon
(sharon)
#1