Huntington Horseback Horror

Kip, my mom and I went for what was supposed to be a peaceful one hour trail ride in the mountains around Huntington Lake.  Little did we know what was in store.........

Kip mounted Cocoa, a sweet brown mare.  My mom was given Dandy and was told that she might start acting weird because she really likes to stay with her sister Sandy.  Mom had concerns about the tightness of the cinch as the saddle seemed to be slipping a bit from side to side.  She was assured that it was OK.  Dandy was fine for the first 15 minutes or so, but then she decided to try to scrape my mom off.  That was unsuccessful, so she tried trotting to jog her off.  No good.  So, she sucked in her belly, the saddle slid sideways and mom leapt/slid off barely missing a large rock on one side and a steep drop off on the other (this may be a slight exaggeration, but it is truly amazing she seemed not to be hurt).  Mom was amazing with her calm ability to both stay on the horse, and get off the horse when the going was as good as it was going to get.  After tightening cinches, and switching horses, we were off again for a mostly uneventful ride.

It wasn't until later that afternoon that my mom saw the enormous bruise, squishy lump and scrape on her wrist.  She's not quite sure what part of sliding/jumping off the horse, or landing in the dirt and bushes on her butt caused the wound.  Guess it could have been a lot worse.

No photos were taken of the fated rider or her horse.