Ellen Styles:  

My company is very safety-conscious. This past November I had a very serious accident and was asked to speak about it at one of our meetings. Enclosed is the story I told about helmet safety: Good morning! First of all, I want to tell all of you how happy I am to be standing here talking to you today ¿ if you don¿t know me you¿ll understand that statement shortly. The day after Thanksgiving last year, November 28th I became a Safety Minute¿ Horses are beautiful and fun to ride, but they can be dangerous ¿ they are big animals with the mentality of a seven-year-old who have no idea that they are large. Most of the time they don¿t mean to hurt anyone, but they can step on you or knock you down, dump you off into the dust or run through the woods with you if spooked. After riding dressage for almost 3 years, a judge told me during a horse show that I needed to find a more advanced horse to ride if I wanted to continue improving my riding skills. A friend of mine offered to let me have a partial lease on a beautiful 16+ hand bay gelding. He was also a retired racehorse, but I was told he was too lazy to run away with anyone. Andy and I worked together for several lessons and really got along well for the most part. This day, after riding him for over an hour and just finishing a canter, my trainer instructed me to pick up the canter again, so I gave the command¿ The first thing I noticed was Andy kicked the wall, which sounded like a gunshot¿ secondly I could tell he was not propelling himself forward and I looked around trying to figure out what he was doing ¿ he was bucking! I sat up in the saddle just in time to see him pin his ears back and lower his head, a sure sign that he was mad. He really revved up his speed as he ran across the indoor arena, taking a sharp left turn when he reached the opposite wall. Two thoughts ran through my head as we made that short trip ¿ ¿This is going to hurt¿ and ¿How can I be standing in the stirrups with slack leathers?¿ I was still holding the reins but at some point I just closed my eyes as time went into slow motion¿ I hit the wall of the indoor arena 4 feet up from the ground. My shoulder was the first part of my body that made contact ¿ it sounded to me like a gunshot. Next was the realization that my head was hitting the wall, but it felt like I was putting my head down on a pillow ¿ again one of those thoughts ¿ ¿That didn¿t hurt!¿ An ...Expand for more