“Tell him it’s broken. Then you won’t have to write the test.”
“They don’t know if it’s broken, yet.”
“He won’t know and you’re wearing a sling. Man, that mare can buck.”
They walked towards the classroom, discussing the weekend’s event. A horse race challenge that ended elbow first on the dirt road, and a trip to the emergency.
In the classroom they tried to explain why she couldn’t write the exam. The one she hadn’t studied for.
“This isn’t typing class and you don’t write with the hand sticking out of that sling. Exam starts in five minutes.”
“They don’t know if it’s broken, yet.”
“He won’t know and you’re wearing a sling. Man, that mare can buck.”
They walked towards the classroom, discussing the weekend’s event. A horse race challenge that ended elbow first on the dirt road, and a trip to the emergency.
In the classroom they tried to explain why she couldn’t write the exam. The one she hadn’t studied for.
“This isn’t typing class and you don’t write with the hand sticking out of that sling. Exam starts in five minutes.”
The sorrel mare was a prime example of a horse that liked to show how good she felt by throwing her heels to the sky and her nose to the ground. Not often would she let you know she was feeling her oats, but at the most inopportune time and location would be when all hell would break loose! Adding an element to the surprise was that she rarely bucked with someone on her back. She was just plain sneaky about when she would decide to perform. If she put her mind to dropping her head, a rider that was not paying attention could end up on the ground and most likely walking home.
And that is how it came to be that a trip to the emergency room was needed to make sure there were no broken bones but that the ego was somewhat kept in tact. After all, a warning had been issued, “If you run that mare, watch that she doesn’t buck you off!” What does an adult know that a teenager doesn’t? Apparently, a lot when it came to the sorrel mare because about a mile from the barn the words were to be proven.
On a gravel road surrounded by friends riding saddled horses, the challenge was issued as to who could get back to the barn first. The race was on. That was about the time that the teenager, who preferred to ride bareback, encountered an upside-down view of the mare’s shoulder. Unceremonious, airborne antics ended with a solid landing on the gravel road. Seconds split in half could not have anticipated the quickness by which that mare deposited her rider elbow first into a world of hurt and headed to the barn.
The look of disgust on the sorrel’s face when she was caught and brought back to carry the teenager home was priceless. It was almost as if she knew she was expected to fulfill her part of the old saying, “If you get bucked off, you get back on.”
Excerpt from the pages of Moon Rising: An Eclectic Collection of Words (The Sorrel Mare) by Ann Edall-Robson
Note: The picture shown here is not the Sorrel Mare written about in this story. But every time I have the opportunity to encounter mare of this colour, especially if she has a blaze face, it reminds me of the day some 50 years ago.
And that is how it came to be that a trip to the emergency room was needed to make sure there were no broken bones but that the ego was somewhat kept in tact. After all, a warning had been issued, “If you run that mare, watch that she doesn’t buck you off!” What does an adult know that a teenager doesn’t? Apparently, a lot when it came to the sorrel mare because about a mile from the barn the words were to be proven.
On a gravel road surrounded by friends riding saddled horses, the challenge was issued as to who could get back to the barn first. The race was on. That was about the time that the teenager, who preferred to ride bareback, encountered an upside-down view of the mare’s shoulder. Unceremonious, airborne antics ended with a solid landing on the gravel road. Seconds split in half could not have anticipated the quickness by which that mare deposited her rider elbow first into a world of hurt and headed to the barn.
The look of disgust on the sorrel’s face when she was caught and brought back to carry the teenager home was priceless. It was almost as if she knew she was expected to fulfill her part of the old saying, “If you get bucked off, you get back on.”
Excerpt from the pages of Moon Rising: An Eclectic Collection of Words (The Sorrel Mare) by Ann Edall-Robson
Note: The picture shown here is not the Sorrel Mare written about in this story. But every time I have the opportunity to encounter mare of this colour, especially if she has a blaze face, it reminds me of the day some 50 years ago.
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September 26, 2022, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a broken arm. What happened? Is there a cause and effect because of the broken arm? Was the injury faked? Why? Go where the prompt leads!
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