I Took My First Tumble...

Today, after almost three years of riding and plenty of nearlies, I fell off a horse...quite spectacularly!
Heather's been in most of the week with limited turnout, the weather's been awful and I've been worried she'll sink in the mud if she's out too long! So on my first day off today, looked forward to taking her out for a ride, before it rained again!
We went up to the A56 bridge on the North side of the river as usual. She ate a bit of grass as usual for a reward, then we turned for home. We'd already covered the ground and I knew it was good enough. So asked for canter on her stiff right side. Was taken aback when she gave it...fantastic, let's go! She was going so well, I let her have her head and kick on...pretty much full tilt!
Then without any warning or any obvious reason she threw the anchor out...buried her feet in the turf and dropped her right shoulder! For a fleeting moment I recall seeing her neck close-up, quickly followed by the sky, just before a sickening thud on my back! Before I realised fully what had happened, I'd rolled, sprung to my feet and was trying to get hold of her as she pranced about looking all shocked!! My lower back was hurting, but I was moving okay, so quickly got back on. Then realised I'd dropped my whip, so got off again to pick it up..Then remembered I had my camera, so took a couple of pics of our skid marks.
From the pics it's obvious to me what caused the big upset. She normally spooks at ducks and yellow flowers along this stretch. Right in our way and along the side are devilish "skeleton plants", which the wind blew in our path,as we were passing...dried stalks from the Summer!! I felt fine riding home and boasting on the yard about my first fall.
Went to the gym and swam a mile before sinking into the jaccuzzi for ages. But by the time I'd driven home my lower back had stiffened up. Bought a box of Ibuprofen, lots of chocolate and a bottle of champagne. Which I'm polishing off as I write...and I'm feeling just fine. In fact I'm quite looking forward to falling off again! Very exciting!! Quite rewarding...But pleased I was wearing my body protector...with the mud on the back.