Jake..::.. Mr. Invicible
15.1 Hand Gelding
Paint / Quarter Horse? Your guess is as good as mine.
Roughly 24 Years Old
8 Years ago my father bought him for $25, with intentions for him to be a police horse
He failed, and became my Gymkhana/Barrel Horse
Now we are attempting to become Jumpers

Monday, March 26, 2012

The End of the Rope

I don't think, when I was younger, I understood the fear that most people have with horses. Being on horseback from the time I was 6, and with almost no dramatic incidents left me relatively fearless. Sure I had taken a few tumbles. I had never really been hurt. Before Jake I had only fallen off a handful of times. The first time I fell off of a horse I had to of been 4 or 5 years old. I was being led around on a young reining horse when it spooked and bolted. I lasted maybe 8 seconds before I hit the dirt. I remember getting dirt in my eyes and being so mad at the horse that my fear was pushed aside. Just to say that horse got not pets or carrots from me when I was passing them out a few hours later.  After that I tumbled off once while riding bareback when I was 7ish, and once when I lost my stirrups at a gymkhana when I was 8.  Both were on dead calm lesson horses and I was unhurt after both. Then we had Sebastian when I was 12, he managed to buck me off once, and then another time he spooked while I was running home from practicing barrels, he went left I kept going straight. Those falls were scarier then the rest but I was still unhurt. Then I got Jake, and I never really fell off. I was crazy, riding bareback galloping and jumping logs out on trail, but Jake was so honest that he did anything that would make me fall.

The first time Jake really scared me I was about 16 years old. I had owned him for about three years then and we both were a little over out head with the barrel racing. We had been making a little improvement in our times but we were heading down hill with Jake's gate issue. It became all too clear at one show.

I had been begging my mom for years to come and watch me compete. Ever since she had seen me fall in my first show when I was 8, she had been hesitant to come and watch. Finally I convinced her to fly up to my dad's house. She also brought along her two sisters to watch me come and ride. I was ecstatic to have them watch me compete. My mom hadn't seen me ride much at all as I had done most of my riding at my dads. I wanted to show her what a good rider I was.

Well as expectations often go, I was so nervous that Jake and I were not doing so good. I wasn't focusing, he was bonkers and all in all it wasn't doing well. We had three events underway when I was about to go into the arena for the forth event, the previous rider was exiting the ring and I was heading for the gate when the gate person didn't notice me and swung the gate shut. Jake had already been cantering in place, tight as a spring when the gate him him in the face. Not only was the gate all of a sudden closed, it had hit him.  Jake lunged forward, and I immediately pulled his head over into a one rein stop. He kept spinning as fast as he could trying to run somewhere.

Right behind the gate is a huge hedge with a barbwire fence running through it. Jake had gotten his hoof caught in the wire once before and has pulled a shoe so I didn't want him anywhere near it. He spun right up next to it so I released him out of the one rein stop to try and get him away from it. All he saw was a gap in the hedge that he could fit through into a nice big open field. I was staring at the barbwire fence in the middle. Jake took the bit, locked up his neck and charged into the fence. There was nothing I could do as he felt the fence with his chest, recognized it was a barrier and used all of his power to try and jump over it. His front legs got caught in the wire and he flipped over.

Somehow the momentum through me hard enough that I landed a good 10 feet away from where he landed. I instantly had the wind knocked out of me and I saw stars. I instantly started crawling away from the direction I knew Jake was in. I didn't know how close he was and I didn't want to be close when he tried to get up. I stopped and turning around, Jake was on his stomach, still laying down. He was frozen like that before he slowly laid down on his side and stopped moving. I crawled as fast as I could (unable to breath) over to his side, he didn't even move when I touched his side, his eyes were rolled back into his head.

It was then that I could hear the shouting, people were climbing over the fence trying to get to us. My dad was frantically bellowing my name. I managed to cough out an "I'm fine." Though I could say as much about Jake. Even with the people climbing their way through the bush and running around, Jake hadn't moved a muscle. If I had been able to catch my breath I'm pretty sure I would have started crying. Someone told me to hold him down, so I moved to his head and put a knee on his neck. He still had his eyes rolled back, he was breathing heavily, that was the only thing that let me know he was alive.

Someone started checking him over, pulling the barb wire off his legs. They then told me to try and get him up. Everyone stood back as I stood up and clucked, when I got no response I pulled on his tie down to try and tell him to get up. He was a dead weight in my hands. Someone came over and gave him a huge slap to his belly. Jake still didn't move. So everyone started checking him over again, finding more blood on the ground someone said that he might have impaled himself with a rod. My heart dropped, at this point I could get enough breath to start crying. I was thinking, 'this is it....I've killed him.....he is going to die right here in front of me'.

To our luck someone said that they found both rods and that he couldn't have been impaled. The next decision people made was to untack him, we managed to get the saddle and bridle off so he was just in the leg wraps and tie down. After he still hadn't moved, Brie looked him over and noted that his eyes were no longer rolled back, but he still was moving. Then four men (including my father) mover to Jake's back. Brie folded Jake's legs up, the men were going to try and roll Jake onto his stomach and get him up.  Brie and I both grabbed Jake's tie down and as the men rolled Jake onto his stomach Brie and I pulled on his head, while another person smacked Jake's hindquarters with a crop. The combination of everything seemed to bring Jake back to and he jumped to his feet.

Everyone began clapping and I gave him a big hug. Brie looked him over and were found several cuts along his legs and chest, but nothing that was serious enough for him to need stitches. Walking him out he had a noticeable limp on one of his back legs but no swelling or injuries were noted. We ended up having to wander around the property to find the gate to find a way out. My family were all horrified fussing over me but I just wanted to make sure that Jake was okay. We spent a good hour letting him relax at the trailer and dressing his wounds. His back leg ended up cramping and he kept kicking out. We ended up massaging his hindquarters, which stopped the problem. Luckily the vet was also showing that day and said that he would just need time off. So after he was relaxed and not in as much pain we went home, got him some bute and that was it. He ended up being 100% sound again a few days later.

I ended up having a hard time breathing for a few months, but no damage was found at the doctors. That was the first time a little bit of fear was started with horses.  Having watch me fall off 2 out of 2 times  at shows, my mom didn't really watch me ride again for a very long time. I was learning just a little of the world that truly these are large animals that we barely get to control. I also learned that Jake was just at the point where he was out of control and something needed to be done.