After a busy morning on the Forest I was looking forward to putting my feet up with a warming cuppa when the phone rang. It was my step-daughter telling me that, whilst out hunting, the Doting Owner had parted company with her pony and an ambulance was on its way! Needless to say, the warming cuppa was forgotten and after making some hasty arrangements to retrieve the nag I set off to Longslade Bottom to find my wife.
I soon spotted the bright yellow ambulance on the Forest and from there followed directions to her location. I found her laying on a stretcher in the heather with several mounted colleagues milling around and looking concerned. She was a sight; one eye closed and visibly swelling, blood over her face and her teeth chattering. The paramedic explained that there could be spinal damage and as a precaution she would be treated as a trauma victim, immobilised and carefully transported to hospital. This was all very upsetting, but everyone turned to and between us we carried her to the ambulance which, after a while, set off with the blue lights flashing.
At the hospital I was taken to a small waiting room where I sat in somewhat of a daze as I awaited news. Eventually, I was allowed to sit beside her in the emergency room, where she was encased in a heated blanket. Before long the consultant came over and introduced himself saying he didn’t think she’d broken anything nor sustained any internal injuries but, just to be sure, she was off to the x-ray department. What a relief!
She hadn’t been gone long when the consultant returned and began to scan some x-rays on a nearby monitor. He picked up the phone, dialled a number and said, “I’ve got a woman here who’s in her sixties and has come off a fast cantering horse.”
My ears pricked up. Surely, he was talking about the Doting Owner? He continued by saying she had a fractured sacral something or other, a broken arm and a broken leg and as he continued with his injury list my heart turned cold with fear, but before I could question him, he hastened from the room. It wasn’t long before my wife was wheeled back in from x-ray and I jollied her along without mention of what I’d overheard. Some time later the consultant reappeared and approached us saying, to my utter amazement, that nothing was broken. I was very confused until he went on to explain that whilst they hadn’t had a horse-related injury for some time, they’d suddenly had two at once and the other poor lady had faired far worse than mine.
So, after further x-rays on her face and head and the perusal of blood tests, I was allowed to take her home equipped with pain-killers and a warning that she would feel worse before she got better. And they were right, she very soon stiffened-up and the pain started. Over the next few days, as the bruising came out, her skin changed colour with the frequency of a chameleon. We both realise that she was extremely lucky to have sustained only bruising, albeit very painful, especially when we were to discover that when her horse fell, she stayed in the saddle and the animal rolled over her!
As I write she is still in a lot of pain but definitely on the mend and I would like to thank Lauren and Harriet for fetching the Spoilt Pony and putting it to bed, the members of the hunt who came to her aid, the wonderful ambulance crew and the amazingly, kind and professional staff in the A&E in Southampton General Hospital.
Must go now, I’ve got some nursing to do!
Ian Thew
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