false 2009-04-21T07:20:09-07:00 <p>At 10:20 AM it was already nearly 90 degrees. Hot, even for Houston in June. I rode the horse over a small jump. In a flash, something went wrong and I saw her drop her shoulder and start to go down. I rolled as I hit the dirt and in a flurry of dust, my mind suddenly fabricated endless possibilities of the outcome. The thud of the horse and the scrambling of hooves echoed as I settled into a prone position face up with my feet stretched toward the horse. I picked up my head to see her finish rolling over and felt the impact as her body anchored one of my legs and shoved the other underneath me. I felt the popping of bones in my lower spine as they slammed against each other. Suddenly it was over and the dust began to settle. Life can change in an instant.</p><p>It was hard at that moment to remember that I was living my dream. Six months earlier, my husband, Bill and I had come up with a plan to buy our own barn. I had been training for years and had a following, so I took a business course and made a business plan. We brainstormed to come up with a plan and managed to purchase an equestrian facility.</p><p>We began on a shoe string budget and hired one employee to help with manual labor. We had miraculously acquired 7.5 acres with 2 arenas, 3 barns and 55 empty stalls. I did all of the teaching and training. We were growing when the accident happened with 22 stalls filled and 50 weekly students.</p><p>Life Flight landed at the farm and took me to the trauma center at Hermann Hospital where I spent the next 5 days. During the flight I prayed that I would walk again, sure that my back was broken. Imagine my joy when I was told I had only suffered a broken hip and fractured pelvis. I was lucky! Luckier than many of the people I would serve when I started a therapeutic riding program.</p><p>For the next 6 weeks I received on the job training to find out what non-ambulatory people go through. God works in strange ways! Confined to a wheelchair, I borrowed a golf cart to use at the barn while my family and friends helped every way they could. I somehow managed to run the barn, teach lessons and even run a horse camp. With many kind and caring friends, we got through the ordeal.</p><p>We have now added more employees, school horses, acreage, arenas, a lovely office building, a beautiful lounge, and multitudes of other improvements. But most importantly, we added a therapeutic riding and volunteer program and are now able to provide people with an avenue to help and be helped by each other. </p> bxMAd-lN8r3QVhacfA8pyY false true true 2009-05-30T13:33:56-07:00 0 true 1 false true false 1 Horse Hooves and Wheelchairs 2009-06-18T06:25:39-07:00 dk4jWqlNSr3QVhacfA8pyY bossmare 1350 0 dY1Ghod6ZhRBWr3AL8abBw