Amigo and I were warming up like any other warm up. It was a warm, sunny, late afternoon lesson in the arena. We rounded the arena along the rail in a warm up walk, gradually to a posting trot, back to a slow walk, then a diagonal, a round and back to the rail for another
walk and trot to finally after about 15 minutes up to an easy light canter. We walked, trotted, walked and then cantered. I came around the flat rail towards the corner, I put my leg on to let Amigo know let's pick up to a canter. All of a sudden, I felt his hind legs decelerate, he lost momentum and in stead of picking up speed he was faultering and slowing down. I felt his back legs collapse under him, his hips were going down towards the dirt, leaning heavily to his left side, he was going down, into a full roll and me along with him. Without thinking, I pushed with both legs, using all my leg strength, off of the taught stirrups and even though we were already leaning to the left and the ground was quickly approaching us, I pushed as hard as I could, I threw myself over Amigo's left front shoulder and rolled sideways, arena sand and dirt on my face, in my hair, and falling from my shoulder, pony tail and helmet. As I hit the dirt, rolling sideways in front of Amigo, who had now completely fallen and was rapidly and inadvertanly chasing me in a full roll, approaching rapidly...he was onto his back, all four legs tucked tight against his body, not flailing, not panicking, not outstretched. With his momentum, he continued his roll, completely around and up again. He picked himself, stood on all fours, waited a beat, checked himself as if he was asking himself, "What just happened?" He was ok. I was ok. And he just stood and stopped in front of me. I was shaken, but was just as in shock as he was, I mean, I was asking myself, "What just happened?" I checked him over, felt his hind legs, his hind quarters, his hips, his ankles, knees, was anything warm to the touch, could I see any swelling? I checked the corner arena ground where we began our minor acceleration, but I only saw dug out, ground cover, hoof prints where he began to fall, lost momentum and finally lost his strength and collapsed into a complete roll.
He was ok. I was ok. We were both good. What next?
I walked Amigo back up to the barn and he appeared to be careful with me, not hesitant, just kind of aware of the magnitude of what just occured. Our collapse together was actually a very graceful, spontaneously athletic, effort. It was another example of our friendship and bond we share. He was selfless in his fall, as he completely avoided rolling atop, or over me. He went down as slowly and and evenly as possible, as if he was trying to give me as much time as possible to catapult myself as far foward and away from him as I could. He is an amazing teacher, a seasoned competitor in the shows, and his handsomeness shorn through over the jumps. He was patient and kind to me as his rider. He is my champion and we started our partnership in victory and ended our partnership with that same victory. A blue ribbon for both of us to begin our bond, begin my competitive career and to finalize his competing career with.
It has been determined that my partner and friend Amigo must go into retirement. No one will get to ride him ever again. He has plans to travel to an open field near Solvang and enjoy the rest of his days eating as much green grass as possible very soon.
Now, I begin my search for a new partner and overcome this unforeseen setback for my 2023-2024 season.
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