Love Stories - Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So over the next few months Steve and I were circling each other but nothing ever happened. More my fault than anything because I only saw him as a friend, nothing else.

At the end of October several people from work went on a weekend away, we went to the Coromandel for a Weekend Pubcrawl on Horse Back

This consisted of going on a horse treck on the Saturday, ending back at the pub for Saturday evening and then another horse treck on the Sunday and then home.

Now Steve is a horse person, at the time he had his own horse and he had been riding for years.

Me, well I like them but had never learnt to ride and was not that bothered about learning.

The horse track was ok for beginners I got told, so several of us went.

Friday night was spent having a laugh in the local tavern of the township we were in. This is also where we were all staying in dormitory style rooms. Steve had managed to stay in the same room with myself and my best friend, sleeping arrangments were bunkbeds, not that this was a bother at all.

Saturday morning we all went off to the ranch and got given our chosen horses and off we trecked. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend, the weather was fabulous and so riding through the countryside was a fun thing to do on such a great day.

We stopped for lunch at some point and then carried on. The last part consisted of coming down off the hill we were on and arriving at the local tavern were we were all going to partake of a can of beer before having dinner. Oh yea by the way, I don't drink. So lots of fun on a pub crawl!

Unfortunately I am not a rider and my horse didn't like me trying to control her on the way down when she knew where she was going and wanted to get there a little quicker than I wanted her too! So we had a little to do me and the horse which ended with me getting very spooked by the horse!

All I wanted to do then was get off this horse, but I knew I had to stay on until we got to the tavern. Of course then we had to stay on the horses whilst we had the can of beer, which is great if you are not scared sensless on top of a horse with tears running down you face!

So finally Steve and Kim helped me down and Steve took me inside to rest, well actually to sit on the floor in his arms and cry myself sensless until I had no energy left, that is how much I got spooked.

He had just managed to get me to calm when someone came in and asked how I was, that set me off again and his face was quite a picture!

They all convinced me that the best thing to do was to get straight back on the horse, so the next morning I did just that.

The day went fine and we had no problems, well until the end anyway!

We got to the last field before heading back down to the ranch, several of the horses took off at a canter and my horse followed! All I remember was a friend calling 'Hang on' as my horse followed suit and cantered too.

I can tell you now I saw the sky, the ground, the sky and then stopped on the ground. Yes you guessed it I fell off, big time.....

So there I am laying on the grass, knowing not to move as someone would come to me. Steve comes over on Big Joe, yes a very big horse, and there I am laying in the grass with Big Joe towering over me, so I tell him to go away, not that I didn't want him there but Joe was so big I was feeling very vunerable.

After a little while they managed to move me down to the house on a quad bike and then reassess me there.

I couldn't walk and I was very sore through my pelvis, so the decision was to drive me through to Thames Hospital. The only problem was that I came with Kim and she was hoping to go back in a friends Sports car and I was going to drive back. So suddenly Steve is the person driving me to the hospital.

It was a quiet ride there, him worried about me and me in pain.

The long and short of it was that I finally got sent home on crunches with no breaks found. Lots of sprains and bruising. Ankle, hip & pelvis!

Because the next day people were not happy at work they got me back into the ED to be reassessed by our own docs from work but they found nothing new so I was sent home to rest.

6 weeks I spent on crutches, oh and Steve and I were still just friends.....