This is a true story. My sister was in the process of purchasing a horse that she had only ridden at a walk. She asked me go with her and ride him at a trot and canter so she could see how he moved. I did, and then she got on him and was trotting and cantering him. When she asked him to stop, he began to gallop as fast as he could. When he did stop, he "stopped on a dime" as the ole saying goes and she fell off. When she fell off she hit the ground so hard that she bounced up in the air and fell back down on the ground face down.
She fell off in the center of a 100' long arena and hydroplaned from the center of the arena to one end of it. The only thing that stopped her from going outsde the arena was one of the arenas metal post. When I go to her, she was still face down in the dirt and knocked out cold. I thought she was dead!!! I was afraid to move her, but I knew I had to get her nose out of the dirt so she could breathe if she was still alive. Luckily, there was a lady inside the house that saw the accident and called 911. Thank God my sister was alive and came too by the time EMS arrived.
The lens of her glasses were all scratched up and she was bleeding. Her vital signs were very weak, so EMS decided to helicopter her to CMC in Charlotte, NC. I could not go with her on the helicopter so I had to drive to the hospital, crying as hard as I could, not knowing if she would make it or not. When I found her, she was in the ER and they had cut all her clothes off her and were in the process of examining her. She suffered a broken pelvis in 2 places, a brain cuncussion, and her left arm had been badly burned from the ride in the dirt.
We still have the Troxel helmet which is split all the way up on one side. We kept it and have shared with all our family and other horsey friends how the helmet saved her life. They cannot believe the crack in the helmet. Anytime I think about the accident, I always see her falling off and bouncing in the air and flying into the fence post. It is my most horrifying memory.
We thank God every day for Troxel making such safe helmets and for her being a believer in their safety and always wearing one when riding.
