Sitting here on a hospital bed in my parents’ living room, I really can’t believe what’s transpired over the last four days.

I just got back from a great trip to Rolex on Sunday night and got a text from my dressage  trainer telling me she could make a rare trip to my barn to do lessons with both horses on Wednesday afternoon.

I finished work early and was super excited to have a lesson with Thomas, considering we’ve had one flat lesson since I bought him.

I decided to do him first, and did out usual routine tacking up and going out to the arena. I haven’t been lunging him a lot lately, and he’s been going well under saddle. We’ve had two outings, one more successful than the other, but that’s OK.

I went to get on, and he started moving off, so I stopped him, turned him around and walked him back up to the mounting block. Heidi stood by his head to distract him and I put my foot in the stirrup. No sooner was I on that he whipped backwards, half rearing, and then he took off crow hop bucking.

I remember seeing the saddle below me and thinking I was coming off backwards, but somehow he got me off to the right. I heard some crunching, and knew I’d done at least one of my ankles, but Heidi and I weren’t sure how I fell. I must have landed on my feet and collapsed because nothing else hurt, and my helmet didn’t even have dirt on it. He continued around the arena bronc bucking until his hind ankle boots came off. WTF?

I thought my ankles were just sprained, but then I couldn’t get up, so we called the ambulance.

It was discovered that I have two broken ankles, and I underwent surgery on Thursday to put screws and plates in. I’ve never broken a bone in my life, let alone had surgery. Why did I have to do both?!

Of course, as it seems to be the case with my horses too, the doctor said my injuries were highly unusual.

So now I’m faced with a difficult few months. I have to be cared for completely by my parents, who thankfully don’t live too far away, but I’m essentially on bedrest for at least 2 weeks.

I’ve had to cancel my big European vacation later this month that I’ve been saving up for since last year, I’ve scratched Oh So from his dressage show this weekend and need to find someone to keep him going a little, and I’ve decided to send Thomas for training for two months. I’ll also be missing a few upcoming work trips in which I really needed the overtime pay.

I really have no idea what set Thomas off. I thought we had moved past the mounting issues, but if he’s going to react that violently, then I don’t think I want to deal with it. Hopefully we can get that sorted out while he’s away, but I’ve lost whatever fragile trust I had in him. He’s very sensitive, and I’m sure he didn’t mean to do what he did, but it happened, and I’ve been badly broken because of it.

Before all the drama, Oh So and I had a lovely ride at the Loch Moy Starter Trials. I was so excited to try for a full show season this year, now I likely won’t be getting back in the saddle for 12 weeks!

I’ve never been out of the tack that long, and this is by far the most serious injury I’ve ever had, and I am not looking forward to wasting half of my summer. So, I’ll be a little pouty and whiney for the next few weeks. I hope I’ll be able to see the silver lining in all of this, but right now it pretty much just sucks.