This morning the kids go up and did their easter egg hunt. Not sure how many more years they will do it, but all three participated.

Mid-afternoon, we headed out for a ride and drive. Anna rode Amira, Amanda rode Mojo, and I drove Huey in the forest from home. Things started out well. Amanda really enjoys riding Mojo.

Going up the first larger hill, Huey wanted to canter and did a little kick out a couple of times. Each time I slowed him back to a trot and he was fine. About 4 miles in, we hit the largest climb of the route. Typically, we work the horses at a solid trot up this hill and Huey traditionally had to canter to keep up with the others. Before I even asked him to trot, Huey broke into a canter. After about 2 strides he kicked. I think it was the second kick when his right hind went went over the dash of the cart, got caught, and Huey went down on his front end. He scrambled, getting his right hind free and back on his feet. We are pretty sure when he brought his right hind forward is when the trace on that side got inside his leg.

As Huey was now quite frazzled, he turned hard left off the forest road and into the brush. The cart almost completely flipped over and I was thrown out, but somehow managed to keep the reins. I think the fact that Huey got tangled in the brush slowed him down and was the only reason things didn’t get worse. I was able to get to his head and get him out of the brush and back on the gravel road. As Anna was dismounting Amira, he foot got caught in her stirrup and she hit the ground hard.

We were able to get Huey unhooked from the cart and evaluate the situation. The cart was too damaged to hook back up. We left the cart and traces on the side of the road and I ground drove Huey the ~2.5 miles home. Once we got home, we were able to fully evaluate Huey’s injuries. He has a small cut on his right hind cannon from his leg going over the dash. Higher up inside the leg, he has 3 larger cuts from where the trace cut into him. Nothing required vet attention. Anna and I are bruised, but nothing worse. The cart will need new shafts and a new singletree, probably about $400 in parts, but we all survived. I think we will be adding a kicking strap to Huey’s harness.

In other news, Fiona is getting lunged for about 45 min and ridden for about 20 minutes 2 or 3 times a week. She is more reactive than I like, but she is making progress. We might even try trotting in May.