As horse owners we all know that anything can happen. No matter how careful we are, stuff happens.

Now I’m not a gambling person but, I do believe that somethings are a 6 million to 1 chance. I also believe, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen on my farm.

Actually it would be pretty funny if I wasn’t the one laying on the ground.

So here’s the scene. I’m feeding. Dropping grain in the same buckets, that have been on the same fence, with the same electric fence wire for years. Now I would not let anyone else do this, but I do. (How stupid is that?) So when I put blankets on, or take blankets off, Zoey will sometimes touch the wire with her nose, spin around and come back and let me finish, and then eat. It’s very low voltage when it’s on, and it surprises her more than anything. I touch it all the time. Not very bright, huh?

Well this day I had undone her leg straps, surcingles, and was going to undo her front straps (like I said – put on from the front to the back, take off from the back to the front) when she picked her head up she touched the wire with her nose, spun around, the surcingle flew through the air and guess where it caught? Yup, right on the electric wire. Now tell me, what are the chances of that happening? Seriously! Thinking about it now – the surcingles where on her right side, she spun to the right, how did it end up on the wire which was on her left? Well in my yard, obviously pretty good. So she feels something grabbing her, like the fence and she pulls harder. The wire pops all the insulators (Before the blanket ripped. Rip stop really works folks.) giving the wire a much wider bow. We use the strong wire since they break it regularly, and it rots very quickly here in Florida. As it’s popping the insulators, it smacks me in the back of the head and I get pushed to the ground. Now is this funny or what?

Went for my regular doctors visit yesterday and because you’re old, once a year they ask you questions like, do you have suicidal thoughts? Are you depressed? Have you fallen in the last year? So of course my questions was “what do you consider falling? Do you mean like when two 45 pounds dogs slam into you at 90 miles and hour? Or when you get body slammed by a horse? Or dumped? Or get knocked to the ground by an extended electric fence wire? Of course the nurse just looks at me like I’m the crazy one. (There may be some truth to that.) Or do you mean just catch your foot on a throw rug and hit the deck? She said yes, that one. So my answer – no I haven’t fallen.

So what’s my point? Well it’s kind of like, we as horse people, get ourselves involved in things that most non-horse people would never even consider, but it’s just a part of our lives. We get up, dust ourselves off and carry on. We think, why did I do that, how stupid was that, I’m not going to do that again. After all, how often does a 6 million to 1 experience happen in ones life time? I’m not sure, but I’ll let you all know the next time it happens.

We all get lazy. We take short cuts when we’re in a hurry. I can sit here and preach to the choir, but I still do stupid stuff. I also still hit the ground. What was my thought on this whole thing? Well if I’m going to hit the ground I might as well Fox Hunt, enjoy myself, and make the fall worth while.

Used to make a point of falling off once a year (not on purpose of course). It keeps you from developing a fear of falling, and keeps you humble. Don’t do that much anymore, just haven’t done anything stupid while on a horse. Not yet. Give me time.