A Horse Named Pogo Stick

A few years ago I was suffering from severe, almost debilitating, headaches.  When my doctor couldn't find a cause or offer any further medical advice, I decided I had nothing to lose by going to a chiropractor.  What the chiropractor asked me still makes me laugh in a way only a true horseperson can understand.  As he almost immediately determined that the source of my headaches was an old injury to my neck, he asked "Have you ever fallen on your head?".  My only response was "I have horses".  LOL

Over the years I've come off a number of horses, but there's one horse I remember because I didn't even get on her.  In the mid & late '70s I spent a lot of time at rodeos & Buck Outs, which were rodeo practice sessions.   I did a little barrel racing but my real desire was to get on a bareback bronc!  Why you ask?  Because I was young, fearless, & an adrenaline junky I suppose.  I'd ridden a lot of tough horses, including  a lot of TBs & QHs off the race track.  The next step in the thrill rides just seemed to be a bronc.  If only any of the stock contractors would allow females to ride.

Then one day I got my wish.  A stock contractor said why not & a couple of us girls got to get on the broncs.  One even got on a bull but I wasn't THAT crazy.  The next 3 weekends were so much fun even though I never rode to 8 seconds.  I sported some aches & burises, but there was just something exhilarating about the nerves, jitters, & adrenaline rush that went with getting on those horses.  I was pretty upset when, on the 4th weekend, there was a new stock contractor & he said NO to the girls riding anything other than barrel racing.  The draw had already been done & I would have gotten on a chestnut mare named Pogo Stick. 

Totally mad & bummed I hung on the fence as Mike, the cowboy who ended up with MY bronc prepared to ride.  Oh did Pogo Stick come out of the chute.  That mare went straight up, as high as the chute, hit the ground & pogo sticked right back up in the air.  Mike was like a ragdoll for all of 2 seconds, then up he went & head first into the ground.  There he lay motionless.  A collective gasp went up among the cowboys & cowgirls, then dead silence.  Mike was the best rider there & he was unconscious, taken from the arena by stretcher.  We later learned that he was stable but in critical condition with a broken neck. 

If not for the new stock contractor, it would have been me that day.  It would have been me on a horse named Pogo Stick.