On Sunday I learned the importance of a helmet. My parents had always been on top of me about wearing one while on a horse but I was always like “I’ll be fine, I’ll put one on next time” etc. Always thinking I would be fine and nothing would happen. That is exactly what I thought Sunday.
I was on Malibu doing drills and my friend wanted me to go over to her pasture when I was done so we could just talk and hangout. As I left my house I passed my mom who was washing her car and I told her where I was going. When I got over to my friend's pasture I swung my leg over and sat in my saddle sideways and my friend was sitting on the hood of her truck and we were just talking.
From this point I don’t remember much, I think I was going to swing my leg back over to sit in the saddle normal and as I was doing that we believe that a snake or something was over by my horse and it spooked her because she took off with me still not in the saddle right. I had tried to pull back on the reins but I didn’t have any grip on my horse because at the time I didn’t have my feet in the stirrups or anything.
I came off and hit the ground face first and was knocked unconscious. My friend tried to wake me up but couldn’t so she went rushing to find my parents, which is a good few acres away. She found my dad and as they were pulling up to get out of her truck I was just waking up. I was taken to Baptist South, but I had to be airlifted to Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham. At the hospital, we found out that I had gotten a Subarachnoid hemorrhage and a concussion.
If I had my helmet on, I probably would have just had a concussion or maybe not even that.
-Alexis Blackburn
