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Oh darn, it disappeared again. I'll start all over.

Son #1 and I went out on trail with a friend trying to get Scarlet and Tara to go through the river again. They had been very calm while riding out on the trails. Another friend had said it might be easier if we took them over the spillway and then tried to get them to come back across the river since it would be on the way home.

My friend walked her horse down the spillway and across to the other side and then came back for me to follow her at a safe distance. Slowly and cautiously I rode Scarlet down 15 ft. of a steep cement covered path to the steel grates where you could see the water rushing under foot. Scarlet looked up and could see the water on her right and on her left and looked down at the water under the grates. She backed up little by little and then jumped and spun back around as I held her tightly to keep her from running up the concrete embankment. We stood there for a few minutes while she calmed down and Son #1 rode Tara down the embankment, but she too turned and tried to run back up the embankment.

By this time Scarlet and I had calmed down and we were ready to try again. Again my friend came back and Scarlet followed her down. This time she held onto one of the reins near her mouth while I had the other end in my hand. Scarlet's nose was on the rump of the other horse. She couldn't look down and kept on walking. She turned loose of the rein when we got over the grates and Scarlet realized the she could go forward up the embankment on the other side and not have to go back over the spillway. This was great until she found her friend and soul mate was still on the other side of the spillway. She danced around while I circled and circled her to calm her down.

In the meantime, Son #1 was making another attempt to urge Tara down into the spillway. After much coaxing, he got her to the bottom where her eyes were fixed on the water rushing under the steel grates. My friend suggested he get off Tara and try to walk her across and I said yes, that might help. So he got off and tried to lead her across the grates, but she was so strong, she pulled back and started up the embankment on the other side. I saw Tara's head jerk and my son's head jerk at the same time gonk . He grabbed his mouth and you could see the blood on his hand. He yelled, "my mouth's bleeding." scream

My friend and I rode quickly down the embankment, across the grates, and up the other side. This time Scarlet didn't even hesitate. I looked at his mouth, covered in blood, but couldn't see anything. My friend wiped the blood away and said his teeth went through his skin. He said he could feel his lip flopping around as he rode back to the stables. I unsaddled both horses as fast as I could while many of the people at the stables were looking at his wound and telling him he needed stitches. I drove to the hospital as quickly as I could strategizing which roads to take to get there the quickest.

He got to see the doctor about 3 hours after the injury, and she asked why he hadn't come sooner. He said we were aways out on trail and we had to walk back slowly and then there was the 2 hour wait in the emergency room. She apologized for the wait and started cleaning the wound. It took numerous shots below his lip on the inside and outside to numb the area. Then she put in 3 stitches on the outside and 4 on the inside. He didn't think he was going to be able to eat, but since it was numb, he didn't have any problem eating the first night. The next day it was very sore and he was eating soup. Two nights later he was back out on trail, but we didn't try crossing any water.