"Lucky Norm"

My dad, Norman, aka Poppy, earned a new nickname this past week when we were there visiting. He will now be known as "Lucky Norm."

Poppy has what we call a hobby farm with various animals to ride, play with, etc. He has been wanting to for some time now to upgrade his small pony Ranger. I want to say he's been looking for over a year to find a larger pony that he or I could also ride on occasion to keep her shock proof for the boys. He finally found a beautiful Pinto named Penny for the boys and surprised them this week when we came for a visit. She camed fully trained and was assured to be exactly what he was looking for...shock proof.

Wednesday morning we all woke up excited to see the boys ride her. I would have too, but don't take any risks riding horses when I'm pregnant. Come to think of it, my dad bought the other horses when I was pregnant too. It's such a tease because I love to ride.

As I led Penny down from the barn to saddle her, she was acting very skittish, and when my dad tried to put the boys saddle on her she kept pulling away. He decided that he would ride her like he did the day before just for about 5 minutes to make sure everything was ok and that she was going to behave for the boys. I was watching them carefully because I am number one very protective of my sweet dad, but also because Penny's uneasiness made me uneasy. Our other 2 horses have never acted weird at all, so this was different.

After about 3 minutes of him riding her with ease I was becoming more comfortable with the idea of Jackson taking a turn, but then was shocked when she began bucking like a rodeo horse, and despite his best horseman tactics, with a quick jerk of her head downwards her last monster buck threw my dad off in a somersault onto the ground. To make matters much worse Penny then in a blink of an eye kicked my dad with her back hoof in the top of the head.

I was very close by so I rushed over to see how he faired. Immediately I saw the very large horseshoe shaped gouge on his head and fearing that because of it's large size and deepness that it might be a big bleeder, so I wriggled out of my shirt while holding his wound closed and applied pressure. Luckily I did have a sports bra on, but who cared at that point anyways. I yelled for my sister to bring the car over as this was going to be a definite ER trip, then called our neighbors to come and help get him in the car and catch the not so beautiful of a pony. I had many words for her! My dad other than being shaken up from the whole thing seemed to be feeling ok everywhere else, so that was reassuring but I was worried that there was more damage than my eyes could see.

As I was holding his gaping wound closed, reassuring him that everything was ok, time moved so slowly. I know my mom and sister were moving as fast as they could go to get the kids away and the car over and the Kleimanns left their house to come help immediately, but it seemed as if that five minutes was about 30 or more. I'm normally a little more calm in situations like these, and I was great with my dad, but inside I was panicking. Ok, not just inside...it's kind of fuzzy but I think I kept yelling curse words at the horse and for sure was yelling at everyone else helping to move faster. The main thing was that my dad was cared for right away and was taken to the hospital to get checked out very quickly, right.

My sister and mom who took him to the ER called with an update and said that after a cat scan they ruled out a skull fracture, concussion, etc. Staples to secure the wound was all that was needed, along with a hefty prescription of painkillers, and orders to rest. Thank you God for your protection!

He headed home several hours later with quite a new look. "Lucky Norm" for fairing an unbelievable fall and kick with what could have been much worse damage and for the lovely lucky horseshoe shaped reminder that not so beautiful Penny left on his head.

Penny did not fair quite as well. As beautiful as she was,"Pretty is as pretty does." By my dad's request she was picked up by her sellers with not so much as a goodbye from us.

The only funny thing from this whole experience is the nickname my mom came up with, but other than that it was truly terrifying. Don't scare me like that again Daddy!