Worst. Picnic. Ever.

It was a dark and stormy night.  No, that's not right...  It was a bright and sunny morning, like so many other bright sunny mornings.  Only this bright sunny morning Juanita and I were trailering the horses to a new trail head to ride with a friend.

Ranger and Washoe drew the short straws for the day and off we went, driving about 45 minutes to the trail head outside GlenHaven, east of Estes Park.  We pulled in right behind our friend PV with her horse, Molly.



There is actually a horse in this trailer.

 I like Molly.  She's a Halflinger, and it's nice to not be on the shortest horse for once.

The three of us rode into the Comanche Peak Wilderness area.  A beautiful ride. 

Molly lead out, with Washoe in the rocking chair, and Ranger riding drag.



Hunting season.  Elk colored horse.  Yes, I'm in BLAZE.

Molly lead out most of the time, but we reached a horse eating bridge with no stock bypass, so Ranger took the lead for a moment, followed by Washoe with the mare in the rear.  After defeating the Bridge Of Death, we headed up the hill beyond. Washoe took exception to a little bit of tailgating, and kicked Molly a good one.  She seemed okay, so she took the lead again.




How do you spell "glower"?

 After a couple of  hours at a good clip, we scrambled down a hillside to a sunny patch out of the trees for our picnic.  I grabbed my tortilla spread with peanut butter and Tabasco Sauce and was eating it while trying to keep it away from Ranger (he thought it smelled WONDERFUL) when I heard a commotion behind me.  I spun around in time to see Juanita being launched into a small bolder field and her horse leaving the area.  I headed Wahoe off at the pass, and tied him to a tree.  Then tied Ranger to another tree.  By the time I got to Juanita, she was sitting and taking stock of her injuries. 

" I only saw hooves flashing at me."

"My elbow hurts." 

Uh oh.  There is blood seeping out of her long sleeved t-shirt and sweat shirt.

"Let's pull up the sleeve and look at your cut"  I said.

"Oh s#!t"  I thought.  Blood pulsing out of an exit wound looking hole.  Got to be a compound fracture at the elbow. 

"Let's bind this up and go home".

I wrapped it tightly to immobilize it with a gauze pad and roll of gauze, and pinned it into a triangular bandage from one of our first-aid kits to act as a sling.  Juanita said "Why don't you get some of that snow for an ice pack for me?"  "I can do that." I thought, so I filled a plastic bag with snow and fitted it into the sling.  I walked her horse up to a rock so she could mount, ran back to my horse, mounted up, looked down longingly at my P-B-T tortilla on the rock where I had dropped it, and we all rode away.

After and hour or so the blood started soaking through.

Pretty ride, though.

Less than 1/2 hour to go!

End is near.

THE TRAILER!

And into the truck while I loaded the horses.

Half an hour's drive later...

The rig took up about 6 handicapped spaces...

And I passed her off.

I went back to the lodge to unload the horses, call the kids and let them know their mom was broke, and get the lodge ready for check in.

The kids all jumped up to bat and covered everything so I could get back to the hospital and see Juanita after her 2 or 3 hour emergency surgery.

Bone broken into 9 pieces, plated and screwed back together.

Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

Bill