Strike 1... Strike 2... Strike 3?

Strike 1... About 3 weeks ago I was riding my horse Reno. We had begun to jump and practice for an upcoming horse show. We were almost done and Reno jumped a little too soon and as a result, landed a little too soon- right on the jump. The jump fell down, getting tangled in his feet, ultimately tripping him and making him fall. Meanwhile, I am still on top of him and I come crashing down as well. Reno fell on my right leg and I smacked my head into the ground. Luckily I was wearing a helmet and that is what hit the ground. Jake ran over to me and I told him I was fine. Reno was ok too and so I got up and started to get cleaned up. Ultimately we both were fine but my right foot and my neck and head were killing me. Jake took me to the hospital and they put me in a neck brace ( I didn't need it though) and did a CT scan of my head and neck and everything was fine. They took x-rays of my chest and foot. My chest was fine but they thought my foot was fractured. They let me go home and gave me some good drugs. A few days later, I went to my regular doctor for a check up and he found out my foot was not actually fractured... luckily. The next time I went to see the horses, I checked my helmet and found that it broke in 3 places. I wonder if they would have shaved my head to stitch it up if I didn't have it on when I hit? Probably. I don't think I can pull off the Sinead O'Connor look. So, to make a long story short, Reno and I are both fine. (Jake has a picture of me in the hospital bed. I can't get it to post here.)

Strike 2... Just about 2 weeks ago, Jake, and a friend of our's named Joe, and I went on a trail ride with all 3 horses. It was a very nice walk until about a mile or so from home. We came to a place where there was a barbed wire fence and a cattle guard. We thought the only way to get across was over the cattle guard. We've walked over it before and the horses feet seem too big to get inside. Well, Buster, got scared as he stepped on the cattle guard and he turned to the side and his left front foot slipped in and got stuck. Now he starts to panic and pulls as hard as he can to get his foot out. It does come out, but he is missing his shoe and he has a 3 1/2" gash across the back and side of his foot which is now gushing blood, and I mean GUSHING. Jake takes his shirt off and we hold it on his foot to stop the bleeding. I call my dad and have him grab a first aid kit and rush over. It takes about 10 minutes to stop the bleeding. Now, it's a Sunday which means that the vet is closed. I call him anyway and have him paged. Our horse trailer is about 30-40 minutes away at our house. My dad rushes over to get the trailer and bring it back. We wait there until he shows up. About an hour later my dad comes back and we open up the trailer. We notice a bird's nest with about 4 brand new baby birds in it. We can't just leave it on the side of the road so we put the nest in the tack room of the trailer and take it with us. We meet the vet at his office and he fixes poor Buster up. He said it was a clean cut and the best thing we did was to wrap it like I did. Now Buster is out of commission for about 3 weeks. Poor guy. We put the bird's nest back where we found it when we got home. I haven't seen Mama Bird though. We tried hard to get her to take them back but I'm not sure if she did. (Sorry no pictures of poor Buster... way too bloody.)

So those are the 2 things that have kept us busy the last few weeks. We have 2 out of our 3 horses have something happen to them, I'm hoping the third doesn't follow suit.