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Tomorrow is the two-year anniversary of my wife's nearly fatal horseback riding incident. It was the most frightening time of my life, for I thought for sure that I was going to lose her.
Even now, when we ride our horse past the scene of the accident, I get shivers up and down my spine. Then I thank God that Mary is still with me. I really don't know what I'd ever do without her. She truly is the greatest love of my life, and she is the one who taught me how to be human.
Here are two articles that I posted back then.
Death and Horses
I almost lost my best friend this week. I almost had to watch her die before my eyes. I have been married to her for almost sixteen years, and she was almost killed as I stood helplessly by.
Mary and I were riding our horses on a trail close to our house. It was a trail that we had ridden a thousand times before. My palomino and I galloped up a hill. Mary and her Quarter Horse followed suit a few seconds later. When I got to the crest of the hill, I turned to watch for Mary. With her horse's hooves thundering, she and Hoo came into view. When they were about 100 yards below me on the trail, Hoo suddenly lost his footing at full gallop and went down on his side, throwing Mary into a tree. She hit the ground on a pile rocks with a sickening "Wump!" She just laid motionless where she landed.
Suddenly, I heard a voice screaming and calling Mary's name. It literally took me a few seconds to understand that the voice I heard was mine!
My horse was spooked, and she wouldn't respond to my frantic proddings, so I jumped to the ground and ran to my wife, thinking that she was surely dead.
When I reached her, I could see that she was breathing, and she was coherent, although she couldn't speak because the wind was knocked out her.
Blood was everywhere - on the rocks, on the leaves of the trees and bushes, in Mary's hair and streaming down her face. I saw a pointed rock covered in blood right beside a huge gash in the side of her head.
She told me to get the horses to the neighbor who owned the farm at the end of the trail and call 9-1-1.
My legs were trembling as I led the horses out of the woods and into my neighbor's front yard. I handed both sets of reins to Bonnie Jean and called out to John, saying something like, "Mary's hurt bad on the trail! Call 9-1-1!!
Without the slightest bit of hesitation, my demands were met.
That was last Tuesday evening. It is now Sunday evening, and Mary is in Windham Hospital recuperating from five broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a partially collapsed lung, and two broken bones one hand.
It has been a long struggle. At first, nobody could tell me if she was going to live or not.
Finally, the next morning, a doctor came to me and told me that my wife was very lucky. Only then did I begin to breathe again.
She will be coming home on Tuesday, and begin a long an painful recuperation period.
I thought that I had lost her.
I learned, really for the time in life, how fragile life is. One minute, we were riding our horses, laughing and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. The next minute, she was lying motionless in a bloody heap on the forest floor, and I thought she was dead.
I also learned that my whole is wrapped up in the woman that I love.
Suddenly friends, friendship, family, spouses and love became the only things in life that were important.
I realized that I loved Mary, and that was all that counted. Things like how much money we had or didn't have, or the lawn needing to be mowed or the house needing to be cleaned were completely meaningless. The only thing that mattered was love.
John Lennon was absolutely correct when he wrote, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
Never let an opportunity go by to tell somebody you love that you love them! If you let that happen, you may never get another chance to tell them. I almost learned that hard way.
I think of all the opportunities that I've let slip by like that!
Mary is coming home on Tuesday, and I will take care of her and love her and appreciate the fact that she and I still have a wonderful life together.
But what if she wasn't coming home ever again? Would I be beating myself up now because I missed the last chance to tell her that I loved her, and that she was the most important thing in the world to me?
posted on June 18, 2006 6:56 PM (PST)
A Horse's Love
He was frightened. I could see it in his wild eyes and his flared nostrils. He was confused and full of adrenalin. He pawed the ground with his front hooves, dancing from one foot to the other, not quite sure what had just happened.
There was a gaping wound in his side where he had fallen to the rocky ground at full gallop just moments before. The cowl of the saddle that was on his back had been ripped off, and the left stirrup was mangled beyond all recognition.
I looked down at my wife who lay at his feet in a motionless heap, covered with blood and mud from the wet trail. I had to get to her, but the horse wouldn't let me. Not at first. Even in his fright, confusion, and pain, he knew something was not right with human that he loved so much, and he was going to protect her against everything, including me.
It was only after my wife was in the hospital and mending from the broken bones and collapsed lung that she had suffered from the riding accident that I realized what courage and what incredible love that horse had shown towards her that day.
If my side had just been gashed open, and I was as frightened and confused as he was, I probably would have run away. I would have regretted it later, but I think I would have run.
But he didn't. As the blood streamed from his wound, he stood his ground. Every once in a while, he gave her a tender nudge with his nose, ears coming forward, not understanding why his human wasn't moving.
And every time I tried to move to her, all signs of tenderness left him. He threw his head, pinned his ears back, and took threatening steps in my direction to ward me off. And yet he never left her side.
He knew me, but not at that moment. Recognition of me did not penetrate his fright and confusion.
The only things that he knew at that moment were courage and loyalty to the human that he loved with his huge equine heart.
Looking back on the whole situation now, I admire that horse more than I ever admired any human being. I wish I could feel the depth of love that he obviously feels.
I didn't really believe that kind of love, with all of depth and strength and courage, really existed in the world.
I'm here to tell you that, indeed, it does.
posted on June 19, 2006 8:08 PM (PST)
SOOOO That's one cool horse indeed! Did he heal ok? 