I got the idea to make a riding journal from @M_Equine, so make sure to check there's out as well if you haven't already. This book is basically just stories about things that have happened at the barn and my life as an equestrian.
I don't really know how to start this, but lets just say that this past week was probably one of the most memorable.
We got to the camp on Monday, my mom was cooking and she rented an RV for the week so i helped her set that up before setting up my stuff.
After we finished setting up camp we went for a short ride in the arena, but after that we pretty much just did a bunch of random things until i had to go help my mom with dinner.
On Tuesday we had to wake up pretty early to muck stalls and feed our horses breakfast which is not a fun way to start your day, covered in hay and smelling like horse shit.
At around ten we left for a trail ride, we planned on going to one of the shallower rivers so that we could make sure that all the horses were fine with going in the water because it's been a while since we last brought them to the river.
On the ride back we ran into a couple of wasps and Michelle ( Our instructor), Elliot, and Tad ( The horse that Kelly was riding) got stung, Tad started bucking like crazy and Kelly fell off a couple of times. Tad is still pretty green so that's part of the reason why he was bucking a lot.
Everyone else was fine, we ended up sending Tad back to the barn and we had Maisy brought out instead.
The next day started out pretty similar to Tuesday, but after we ate breakfast there was a lady named Karen ( Yes, that's her actual name) who came around and started yelling at us for no reason. Karen's full name is Karen Bish ( Yes, her last name is Bish) and when she finally left we headed out on our trail.
We were going to go to a different river that day in the completely opposite direction that we went the first day but before we even got to the river, we discovered that Smoke ( The horse Elliot was riding) had a loose shoe so they had to turn back.
I got everyone's perspectives on the next part, so sorry if it seems a little confusing.
The group split up and Michelle, Elliot, and Grayson headed back to camp while the rest of us continued going on the trail to the river. Smoke had to turn back because if his shoe dug into his sole, which probably would've happened if he continued on the trail, and we were going to have the farrier come up to our camp.
Not even fifteen minutes after we split, Socks ( The horse Audrey was riding) steps in a wasps nest. Naturally, all of the wasps start attacking Audrey, Socks and the rest of the riders and horses in the back.
Pinto bucked Caden off and bolted in the other direction, and Socks started jumping around and bucking so Audrey fell off as well. Even though Audrey had just fallen off and Socks kept stepping on her, she still tried to hang onto his rope.
Why? Probably because Audrey and Socks are like best friends and they've known each other for over five years, so it didn't matter to Audrey that Socks was practically running all over her.
Julie ( Our other instructor ) called Michelle, but all Michelle could hear when she answered the phone was everyone screaming and Julie saying something about a swarm of wasps and then Julie's phone went dead.
Eventually, Audrey had to let go of Socks's rope because she already had rope burn and was about to be dragged through the hills.
When Socks managed to pull the rope out her hand, the first thing he did was jump off the ledge that the trail was on. He dropped down ten feet, but luckily a tree stopped him from falling all the way down.
Since Michelle had no clue what was going on at the time, she called 911.
All the other girls took off at a full gallop up the hill to get away from the wasps with Audrey and Caden running behind them.
Some people that passed by Michelle's group told them that there was a black and white paint (Pinto) running through the forest, so Elliot ( The one riding Smoke, the horse with a loose shoe) took off in the direction that the people said Pinto was running in. Luckily, Smoke's shoe came flying off, but that was the only thing that went right that day.
Meanwhile, Socks was still on the edge of a cliff and he had gotten himself tangled in his reins.
Around ten minutes later, a bunch of firefighters and rangers arrived to help get Socks back to safety. Alex and Lucas ( Michelle's son and wife, Alex is the girl btw) also came to help get Socks back up.
Another ranger came not to far behind them leading Pinto, turns out Elliot wasn't the hero, and handed handed her to Caden.
I don't know all of the details about what happened next because Michelle told us to go back to the camp with our horses, but i do know the simplified version of what happened.
Alex and Lucas were able to get Socks up, so the firefighters and rangers left, and Alex sent Audrey a picture to show her that Socks was okay.
But when Socks saw a fly, he thought it was another Wasp and jumped off of a different cliff and down into a 30 ft ditch, he survived the fall, but then we had a horse stuck in a 30 ft ditch and all the firefighters and rangers had left.
Alex and Lucas called them back and they came with reinforcements. There was a total of 30 firefighters and 10 rangers all trying to rescue Socks.
When we got back to the camp Karen started yelling at us again for being " too loud" even though we had been completely silent for the past 20 minutes, we were all too shocked at what had just happened.
Alex, Lucas, Michelle, the firefighters, and the rangers were down there with Socks for about seven hours, waiting for the vet and cutting a path out.
Unfortunately, one of our vets had a dislocated shoulder and the other had a broken hand, just our luck.
Michelle decided that if they couldn't get him out before dark, then they were going to have to put him down because they couldn't do anything in the night and she didn't want him to suffer through the night.
About an hour later a vet was finally able to come and she basically just told us that it was hopeless, Michelle and Lucas told us what was happening and that's when Audrey lost it.
We had less then 30 minutes to get Socks out or else it was over.
Just when we had gotten Audrey to relax a little bit, Alex came back and told us that they had to put Socks down.
I'm pretty sure that a piece of Audrey died with him, and the worst part is that that she blames herself for what happened even though it definitely wasn't her fault.
And yes, everything that i just wrote is 100% true, so please don't leave comments saying that it isn't. I know it kind of sounds like something you'd read in a book, but all of this happened within the past week.
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