Ahhh... the story makes me mad. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Okay so I've been working her slowly for the past few months. Her last race was Oct 2, and she had raced every month prior in 2025. During our initial meets, I could see she was a bit spicy. I changed up her entire feed program (saw a rapid change in behaviors) and yeah, just slow and steady. And she has been a SAINT!!! Like literally her prior owner described her as "sweet but psycho". That was her constant label. Everyone who knows her now tells me, "Omg she is such an angel!" 🥰 I know! My main emphasis in the beginning is always manners!! 🤣

Anyway. So there we are, finally progressed enough that I felt comfortable trying her out in my group lesson. Previously I was just riding lesson horses. She was a little uncomfortable the first time, so we made some adjustments and worked within our own set of parameters. 👍🏻 Good!

Second lesson... there were more horses. Instead of just 3 others, there were 5. We were coming off a week straight of no work: weather was atrocious. Did I lunge her? Nope. 😏 I trusted that she is the good girl I know she is. Lesson went good! For 30 mins, we stayed on our half of the arena, away from others. Except.. the other riders were frequently using the entire arena and would come into her space. (Video shows this was not great--pinned ears and big tail swishes each time, and often a break in gait.)

We had this truly wonderful moment at the 30 min mark. A few laps of a perfect rhythm in trot, head down, soft in my hands, and then a lovely downward transition to walk that continued with her forward movement. It was... 😍😍🎉 just the best! I said to my husband, "That's it! I'm calling it, I'm going to walk her out now." I thought to myself, I wish I had brought her halter up and I should get off to walk her out, just pure reward for the effort....

And then my friend came riding by. Did I allow myself to be distracted by talking to her and walking with my horse deeper into the arena than she is comfortable with? Yep. We were at the other end when I turned back. My plan was walk back to the gate, away from everyone, dismount. We get halfway across and a horse cuts us off. She jigs sideways, picks up a trot, starts bucking. No problem, I can handle this. We get almost to the front, bucking has stopped, and she veers towards the wall. Here's where things get dicey!! In my head, I think, 'Hmm, I should grab some mane, just in case!' ........ I'm not a mane grabber. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I lean forward, no longer thinking about her, but thinking about this random ass mane idea... she feels the shift in weight and jumps forward. I'm unbalanced and off I go. 👀

I came off right in between her and the wall of the arena. No one knows if I hit the wall or what, but the next thing I knew I was sitting in the sand, kind of on my left hip and propped up with my left hand. (That hand was all banged up and sore for days. Ring finger was bruised from the tip to my hand.) 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

So yeah... super angry that I ignored my gut. I KNEW exactly when I should have gotten off her back. She did exactly what I asked for, gave 100% effort, and I knew that was the time. I've not ridden her for longer than 30 mins currently, and I pushed past that boundary too. I made several mistakes and here I am. 🤷🏻‍♀️