After saddling up a mule and a horse yesterday we rode them across a friend’s pasture and through a gate, which I had to dismount to open and close. As I was getting back on my mule he tore off full bore, and this was before I was even in the saddle. Half in the saddle, I grabbed the reins and pulled hard while trying to remain calm. There was no slowing him down and since the area was full of all kinds of deadfall and stumps and there is a barbed wire fence, I bailed the way I was taught in an area with no logs.
Spent last night having surgery for a badly broken ankle. No weight allowed for one month. I will still be able to float with friends but I won’t be guiding for a while. DOUBLE WHAMMY! Lose your source of income and get a $5000 hospital bill on the same day.
I don’t know what happened to that mule. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s normally a steady guy and maybe stepped on a hornets nest? Saw something that really scared him? Who knows? It’s going to take me a while to get back on one of those beasts.
Grubb: fortunately he ain’t dead indeed. Sorry to hear about your bad landing Benjo. On the bright side maybe you’ll get to do some fishing for yourself during the guiding season, or at least have more time for bashing your favorite cataloge retailer. I hope you have quick and uneventful recovery.
all leaders tangle; mine are just better at it than most. Jim
Ouch!!
A couple of years ago an friend of mine was on a trip in the Bob Marshall and had a horse freak out on him,busted him up really bad spent quite a while in the hospital busted ribs,punctured lung,broken arm.
Then to top it off he got in a car wreck a week or so after getting released.I think he ended up buying the horse from the outfitter
but I don’t think the horse made it home with him.
Benjo—sorry to hear about The Fall. (Actually, I guess it was the “Stop” that did the damage.) Besides the pain, the monetary damage is a real bummer I 'spect. One thing, you can now probably tie up enough flys to last for a bunch of years of guiding when you get back on your feet.
Maybe the mule was spooked by a snake? I remember when I was a kid in Arkansas the mules would get pretty worked up when a snake was in the area.
JC, I’m now waiting for Paul Harvey (also a resident of the Valley of the Sun) to do an episode about a famous watercolor painter in the Northwest who also is a well known fly fishing expert. “Now you know the rest of the story!!” Thanks JC for that bit of knowledge. btw, did the ankle ever fully mend and knit?
Benjo, Sorry to hear of your injury and money woes. I hope that you heal up soon and things turn the corner for you. I have a friend that got “partially” thrown from a spooked horse. She still had her boots caught in the stirrups when she got wedged in the fork of a tree- horse still going… She ended up with a concussion, cracked pelvis,broken ribs and a shattered elbow that had to be surgically rebuilt. My girlfriend ran her horse into a cable in the dark, did a somersault over the cable; then the horse followed- landing on her. She got off lightly with a concussion and a few minor scars… I often wonder what the appeal is with those critters, let alone mules! Did the stories make you feel “lucky”? Best Wishes, Jim
[This message has been edited by backbeach (edited 19 May 2005).]
The pain from this one, the post surgery pain anyway, is much worse than the pain from either of my knee surgery pains. I do feel lucky, and even though this sucks, I am still remaining positive about things. I also quit chewing to speed my recovery, hopefully I can quit for good. Thanks for your support and encouragement.
Benjo,
That is a bad day. Sorry about the ankle. It’s hard to tell what sets those critters off. May have been a sound, smell or just about anything. Best wishes and hope you are back on the waters soon.
Benjo, you just proved the old adage about the cloud with the silver lining…if you are able to (and I believe you are for sure) to quit the chaw then this freak accident will probably save your life!! Simple as that. Cancer in any form is infinately worse than any pain you may go through while the bones knit.
If you want to look at it monetarily, figure out how much money you’ll save over the next 40 years, naw make that 25 years, by abstaining from 'baccy.
Stay off my friend, you’ll be ever so much better for it.
(Sorry for the preaching but through the Therapy Dog program we’re involved with, I see on a weekly basis the dire results of cancer in the local hospitals. Multiply that by the 1000’s of General Hospitals in the USA and one finds a huge amount of reason to rail agains tobacco in any form.)
, bud, sorry for ya, hope ya heal soon, that’s a bad day indead…
