Hope your leg's not bust Bruce

Bruce who Dan works for had an horse related accident today. The "HRA" is something all riders dread - because they are sometimes fatal - and the very nature (size, strength and flight instinct) of the animals we deal with make the outcome of an accident totally unpredictable. I've only ever had three "HRA"s - one involving my toe nearly being ripped off by a pony's hoof, one involving my knee and Phoebe's knee, and one involving a black plastic bag - a hedge - a breeze - a cantering pony suddenly shying sideways - and a mouthful of grass and soil and very sore leg. 

The horse he was riding slipped on the tarmac, (see - unpredictable!) his back legs slipped underneath him and then he fell over backwards on top of Bruce. Dan was there so she had to put the horse back on the lorry (all scraped and scratched on his back legs and his rump!). Bruce meanwhile had called an ambulance - his ankle had swelled - but as all riders do he had the foresight to quickly remove his italian leather long riding boots before the swelling got too bad and they had to be cut off (the only time a rider will get their boots cut off is if they are unconscious...boots first - everything else second! It's hilarious that when a rider hurts their leg any other rider will always ask "were your boots okay?" before they ask about the real injury :)

Anyway when the ambulance came the medic asked how bad the pain was on a scale of 1 - 10. Bruce said a 9. Bruce is a very hardy kiwi chap - so his 9 is everyone else's 12. The medics gave him morphine (whoop - di -doo) and then took him to hospital. He's got a pot on as the xrays were inconclusive, and has to go back tomorrow for a second opinion. He'll be screwed if it's broken as that means 12 weeks of not riding and he's got the rest of the season's events to compete in.

Fingers crossed that he'll be okay.