# Pony Camp and an A&E birthday!



## HorseyyGal (Jun 20, 2011)

I'll start off on a happier note & tell you guys all about camp  Possibly one of the best weeks of my life! Did some hacking & xc the first day. We went along the beach for a little bit of it, but because the tide was coming in we had to stay up on the soft sand. My pair for the ride asked me if Border had ever rolled on the soft sand & I said no, all the times we'd ridden on the soft sand he never bothered. But about 10 seconds after she asked he decided to drop & roll, much to the amusement of the group :lol: Mounted up on the sandy pony & carried on without a bother! The first in the field he was "wee johnny no-mates" but then he palled up with some of the other horses & was soon galloping about the field with the rest of the geldings! My french buddie Elise was just lovely! She showed me pictures of her own horses back in France & we had fun riding together. The language barrier wasn't too much of a problem, my French wasn't as horrible as I remembered :lol:
We did a day of show jumping, where we got to work on related distances, bounces, seeing a stride & no hands work. When we did flatwork, we did everything from no stirrups to jockey stirrups (Border thought this was GREAT fun!). We tackled some of the XC fences I was too chicken to try before, no problemo to superpony  And last but certainly not least, we went swimming with the horses!!  This was possibly the most amazing moment I've spend with Border. We went right into the "jan" (very deep stream of water) so he was actually swimming. Forget dolphins, I'll take my horse any day!
The last day of camp was my birthday (cue big birthday cake from the pony club & big embarassment from HG  ) we did games in the morning which were a huge barrel of laughs! Team chase was on in the evening for the more advanced groups. Me & Border were in a team for the chase with 5 other members. I'm competitive enough _anyway_ but our team was determined to win! The first few members galloped (and I mean GALLOPED!) the course, which consisted of 4 jumps, round an island on the beach & 3 more jumps. I was 4th to go. We set off at racing pace. Cleared the first 4 jumps no prob, got 3/4's round the island when I fell. We narrowed it down to just taking the turn too quick & I over balanced. I was knocked out when I hit the ground & later the stewards on the island told me I'd been trampled. I took a fit of shakes while still unconcious & 2 other team members galloped out to see if I was okay. The steward told them to go back & get a jeep & the paramedic. 1 girl went & got them while the other struggled to get Border to go with her. My wee baby was stood beside me with his nose at my head :')
Woke up to the paramedic opening my eyes, asking me where & if I was hurt. My left foot was so swollen they couldn't get my boot off, had to cut it off (was only my 2nd time wearing them too!) Shipped me straight out to the hospital to get an X-ray, nothing broken but my muscles had snapped & ligaments had torn. Doc says all will be fine with a bit of rest, so Border's gone to my friends for a while while I hobble about in my crutches :lol: could have been so much worse though so I'm still thanking my lucky stars & my fantastic horse who made everything seem that bit better 
Heres a link to the camp video too


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