“You can play outside as long as you stay on the cement,” my mom clarified as I opened the door to go outside.
I was barefoot and had just taken a shower. At the age of 5, kids generally don’t listen the best. I was one of those kids. I walked right to the edge of the cement and planted my little foot in the soft chocolate brown dirt. It felt good. But soon enough, there was my mom, stomping out the door after me. She picked me up and took me right to the door.

“Do it again and you will be in big trouble,” my mom said.
“She won’t do anything” I thought to myself, “I’ll be fine.”

So I marched right back to that spot and started to play in the dirt. Right back out came my mom. She was mad. She picked me up and told me I wasn’t allowed to go outside at all for the rest of the day. I should’ve known there would be consequences, but as always, I figured I was right. Although that was a very long time ago, I still manage to get myself into situations like these.

Sweating as I rode my horse in the last circle, I petted her neck to let her know she had done a good job. It was a hot day, but not too hot. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was a beautiful fall afternoon. I had been riding out in the penetrating sun for quite a while, so I decided it was time to be done for the day. My horse was sweaty and breathing hard after a lengthy workout, and as I brought her around the side of the barn, I could feel the heat coming off of her. She wasn’t big, but she was powerful. You could see almost every muscle in her stocky, brown body and the veins in her legs were easily visible from the workout. I led her up to the shiny new red gate next to the water trough and began tying her up. My grandma was staring at me.

“I don’t think that is a good idea.” The look on her face seemed to be saying.
“It will be fine. I will just prove her wrong.” I thought to myself.

So, I just looked away and finished tying the rope that would connect my horse and that new red gate. As I started rinsing her off with water from the trough and a brush, she was standing alert, but quiet. I continued to wash the sweat off her hot body as I listened to the other horse that was tied in the barn. She was anxiously whinnying to her friend. My horse heard her, and answered. I could still hear that horse dancing and pawing anxiously, but I chose to ignore it. I was nearly done rinsing my horse off, and they would be reunited soon enough.

I was just finishing up, when all of a sudden a loud bang came from inside the barn. The other horse had gotten mad and kicked the freshly painted, snow white wood paneling. The sudden loud noised spooked my powerful brown horse. Then, the chaos began.

Spooked at the sudden noise, my horse threw her head high into the air to try and figure out what was going on. I watched, frozen in shock, as she managed to lift the red twelve foot gate off its hinges and toward her. Seeing that big object coming at her just made things worse. She began backpedaling until the realization hit her that the big scary object was still coming at her and trying to pull her head down toward it.

Panicking, I stood, frozen, as she turned and took off; still tied to the gate that she was dragging uncontrollably behind her. I could see the fear and panic in her wild eyes. She started running aimlessly down the grassy hill of the pasture, and for some reason, I took off after her. I began to think she was going to run right through the fence at the bottom of the hill, but at the last second, she changed directions. The gate, however, did not. Closer and closer it got until I thought sure it would take out the wooden fencepost. At the last second, it seemed to just barely wing by.

She continued to run full speed towards the other end of the pasture. She didn’t make it far, though, before the flailing gate caught up with her and tripped her. Down she went, all four legs tangled in the gate. She recovered quickly and kept on running. I ran toward her, as if to jump in front of her to make her stop. Faster and faster I seemed to be running for my life, chasing down that powerful brown horse and shiny red gate. I got there. I got there and I had no idea what to do. There is a big scared horse running at me with a gate trailing behind and what do I do? I jump in front of them. I throw my hands in the air and yell whoa. What good does that do? None at all. At the last second I jumped out of the way, but not before the gate could swing around and knock me off my feet. I was on the ground, watching my horse running and falling, tangled up in the gate, becoming more and more frightened. Then, I was on my feet again, running after her.

She turned and headed to the barn, her safe haven. I followed. My grandma got there before me and lifted the gate across the doorway to the barn. I quickly unclipped the lead rope from my horse’s halter and helped my grandma lean the gate against the door way. I took a deep breath.

“Okay, that was scary, but it’s done now. Everything’s fine.” I thought to myself as I tried to regain my mind and breath.

My grandma soon changed my chill-out mindset, though.
“Uh-oh, I think she might have a broken leg.” She said, shaken.

I looked back at my horse to see her slowly limping around, still trying to figure out what happened. My stomach tightened. I looked down at her left back leg to see a huge gash about 4 inches tall and about 2 inches wide. She had little gashes and scrapes all down both her back legs. I went over and looked closer at it. Good, nothing’s broken. But, it did not look good, so I figured it would probably be best to get someone else’s opinion.

We called the neighbor and had him look at it. He has a lot of experience with horses and I thought he’d be able to help. So he came and checked it out.

“Oh that’s nothing. It will be alright” he said.

I was shocked. I thought it was the most horrific thing in the world, but he knew more about this than I did. So we thanked him and he went home. I decided to ask around and see what I should do to help it heal. We were told to spray it down with a hose every day and put medicated spray on it. So, we did. The vet gave us anti-bacterial, tetanus, and inflammatory shots to give her. We continued this every day, morning and night, for about 3 weeks. Then, the gash started getting pink and bulgy. It looked like a brain. We decided it was best to call the vet. He told us that she had developed Proud Flesh, and he gave us medication to put on it. We continued medication and hosing all fall, and medication all winter. It was hard work, but it was worth it.

Finally, March came. It was a beautiful spring day. I saddled up my horse and climbed on her back for the first time in 6 months. It was the most refreshing feeling. My hard work had finally paid off. Her leg was completely healed, although it left behind a nasty scar. Her first ride out was great, and she jumped right back to being her old self in no time.

Looking back on that frightening day and seeing how far she has come just makes all the hard work in -15 degree weather completely worth it. I learned that sometimes adults do know what’s best even if we don’t believe them. Just like if I had listened to my mom when I was younger, I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble; if I had listened to my grandma, my horse wouldn’t have gotten hurt.