Not Part of the Plan...

... or My Biggest Barrel Racing Fear Comes True.

July 1st is Canada Day up here.  Our district puts on a big Canada Day jackpot, its a double header and happens to take place at my neighbour's place the next road over from us.
I happened to need two more jackpots on Applejack to qualify for finals so I took both boys with me and entered them.  What a turnout!  About 60 entered in the Open, have to admit I'm not sure how many Youth were entered.  A good turnout at our jackpots is usually 20-30 Open.
I was up first on Voodoo, not first of the jackpot (I was actually 23 or something) just first of my two boys; and was feeling pretty good about our chances.  He ran in really nicely, loped in the gate and hit his stride right when we got to the timers.  1st and 2nd barrel were pretty nice, our run was looking good and then it happened... as we finished our turn on 3rd and went to power out for home Voodoo went down.

Everyone has different fears, and with horses you may have different fears for different situations... in barrel racing this has always been my biggest fear: for my horse to go down with me.  As it was happening it almost seemed like slow motion.
I remember thinking "huh, and to think I was nervous to run Appy today"  I also let go of my reins so that Voodoo had his head and I didn't interfere with his attempts to save himself or get back up, some people may disagree with that but I KNEW there was NO way I'd be getting up with him when he got back to his feet.
As I was hitting the ground I took the primary impact on my hip.  As soon as my hip slammed the ground I kinda lifted my upper body so that I didn't whack my head on the ground and I looked over at Voodoo.  I have to admit that seeing him as he finished crashing into the ground kinda made me a bit sick.
I saw him start to gather himself to get back up, which was good because when he was completely down he was on my leg and all I could think was "please don't break my leg!"  As soon as he was up enough that my stirrup was clearing the ground I kicked my foot out and skooched backwards so that I didn't get hung up or stepped on and then I was flat on my back.
It all happened so fast and yet before I could start to get up Mr Tim and another man were there to check on me.  I managed to get to my feet on my own but it hurt a LOT, especially in my hip.  The guy that came over with Mr Tim knew first aid so he checked me over, thank goodness nothing was broken.  While they were checking me out Kimfer came running and Brenda loped up on her horse (pretty sure someone else rode up too but I'm not sure who)  
My friend JT thought that Voodoo shouldered 3rd really bad and his legs just kinda went out from under him.  Mr Tim said that he saw Voodoo's back legs cross each other as he went to dig in and he tripped himself.  Guess without a video we'll never know for sure...
I found out after that my friend Melly's boyfriend Shaun walked Voodoo out for me to check him out and calm him down (thanks again Shaun!) and Brenda took him back to the trailer to tie him up for me (thanks Brenda)
I tried to keep walking to help ease the pain, but I could only walk for a few minutes before I needed a break.  It was a balance of don't walk too much but don't rest too much either.  I realized I wouldn't be able to run Applejack because I was starting to get flares of pain across my back and shoulders and in my neck, so I ended up scratching both his runs and Voodoo's other run.
I am SO grateful that neither I nor Voodoo was hurt worse, I'm sure we'll both be sore for a few days though.  Now that its all over what ticks me off most is that 1) I didn't get Applejack qualified (although I have a jackpot Sunday so maybe he'll be yet) and 2) that I was having such a good run when this happened.... why couldn't it have been on a run where we hit a barrel or were just having a crap run! lol
Although I'm really tired as I write this and looking forward to sleep I am not looking forward to how much I'll probably hurt tomorrow.