Fell Off the Bloody Horse

Had riding lessons today, which was meant to be fun. The horses wouldn't move at first, and when they did they were being rather reluctant and slow. I had to change horses with another rider at one point-- her horse absolutely refused to move, and the instructor apparently thinks I kick harder, for some inexplicable reason. Anyway there were three of us: me, the girl I switched horses with (we've both been riding for a term and a half) and another girl (who hadn't been riding for four months and had had a grand total of two lessons thus far). There was awful weather-- wind howling outside and rain beating madly on the roofs, and the horses got a bit skittish, I suppose.

And they bolted. All three of them. And we all fell off. At the same time. "Synchronised falling," my instructor called it. "Didn't know who to look at."

I still don't know what happened-- I was in the lead, as usual, and have absolutely no idea what was going on behind. From what I can gather it was Royale (the chestnut mare the "new" girl was riding) who spooked and started running. That spooked the horse behind me (Tonto, who was originally the one I was riding), who then spooked my horse (Boysie). So I abruptly found myself galloping across the arena, and oddly enough my only thought was "Huh?". I vaguely remember leaning back and trying to pull on the reins before hitting the ground.

Fell on my head, but somehow managed to pull a calf muscle. The first thing I thought was "I've got to get this to the drycleaner's", and I think the first thing I said was "Yeah, what?" in response to "Gladys?!"

I'm not that displeased about falling off (it didn't really hurt, except for the muscle, and it had to happen sometime...), but I really question the judgement of them putting the new girl on Royale, who, in my opinion, is the flightiest horse in the stables, not to mention a bit cranky. I've seen her bolt twice now, and both riders on both occasions fell off. And the crazy thing just kept galloping around even after we were all on the ground, when Boysie and Tonto had the good grace to stop and look ever so slightly abashed.

Oh, and I lost my keys.