You make plans, God laughs at them... so true.

This is my horses left butt. Nice eh? :/ Actually they're not very flattering... has some hay belly to work off though huh?

I must say though he's trotting sound and cantering sound - of his own accord. I can not believe how minor his injuries were compared to what I saw when I was on that trailer with him. They are healing AMAZINGLY.

When I clambered into that trailer all I was saw blood all over the divider, a horse that would not bear weight on his left hind, leaning on said divider, sweat drenched, teeth gnashing, bucking, kicking in complete panic. I thought he was somehow impaled on the divider or had somehow broken is leg or hip. I sustained 5-7 pretty good bites in an effort to calm him down. I took a deep breath when I ducked under the chest bar merely seconds after he decided it was okay to stop panicking. I had to FORCE him to back off and get off the divider - I was sure when I pushed him that it was going to be tearing flesh, or he'd fall.

I am so glad I was wrong.

Needless to say, we didn't make it to our first trail/endurance training ride. My boy apparently was claustrophobic on the Brenderup trailer that came to pick us up. It was truly tight for him. They are pretty narrow. I felt claustrophobic when I went on first to load him. He didn't make a fuss, but was unsure. Gator doesn't hesitate for much when he's being led. He checked the mare, stepped up and gingerly backed off twice. No drama, just 'Mom, I dunno about this...' sort of look. Then he came up the ramp and got himself a carrot. He stood quietly as we struggled with the butt bar and loaded everything into the tiny tack compartment and her Land Rover. We didn't get more than 5-10 minutes down the road, luckily. Had we been on the James River Bridge... he'd likely have more than skin off his ass. To be honest, I think he may have flipped that trailer.

I am grateful though. I'm grateful she or I were not hurt. I'm grateful her mare did not panic, nor was she even scratched. I'm grateful the trailer was not destroyed. Grateful those scrapes and bruises were in the location they were. Grateful he backed off that trailer sanely. Grateful he loaded back up on a 3 horse slant without even questioning me - had I just been as panicked as he was, I'm not sure I'd have immediately loaded into another trailer. I'm grateful he is pissy because I'm hosing and medicating him and not riding him. He was throwing a fit yesterday when I put him back up and didn't ride. He wanted to go Saturday.... just not in that trailer.

He'd never been in anything smaller than a two horse slant... I didn't know that at the time but as I loaded him I suspected it. I shouldn't have put him on that trailer. I will never second guess myself like that again. I didn't want to turn away his woman who had so kindly offered to take us on a ride with her. She was also confident it would be okay. Thing is though, I know my horse and I should have listened but since he went on I thought well, he'll be fine. No, I couldn't have known THAT would happen and being a Monday Morning Quarterback is prettty easy. What I do know is that he so obviously has, I will try and forgive myself. I will never, ever put him on something I am not 100% confident he's comfortable with.

He's such a good boy. We were lucky and that's that. Just no tank tops for me for a bit... my left shoulder/arm/trap are um... pretty beat up. Some meds, some hosing and some time and we'll both be perfectly okay. I actually think, since the scrapes aren't that deep I'll be able to regrow most if not all that hair on his rump. If not I'll love him just the same of course. If not more.

On a good note my husband wanted to cheer me up (I think - bless his heart, if not he still succeeded) or just wanted to let Miss Autumn have a swim. She loooves to swim. We moved pretty far from her old swimming hole on the York River which I wasn't a huge fan of anyways (too busy, too much current and not the cleanest river). So we tried this State Park in Surry County I happened to rememver seeing a sign for about 20-25 minutes from our house and Wow! We had a great day on Sunday. It was beautiful. Autumn LOVED it. The girls were tuckered and we WILL be frequenting that park a lot for the rest of the time we live here. It was fantastic. It actually may be where, if I have a choice, I trailer Gator for our next trip off the property. It was quiet and had a good amount of trails (~10 miles). So, to an end comes a very roller coaster-esque weekend. We're all okay and I'm happy and grateful for that.