Check the fucking saddle strap dawgdammit - or another reason why I hate being away from the Goose

Some time this spring, the Goose and her best friend started horseback riding on Fridays; a woman in the neighbourhood has Icelandic horses and she leads a group of kids every week. I was initially very sceptical to this idea. Back in the days when I was tween and teen I did some horseback riding in the summers with my cousin and realised that albeit very handsome - horses are big animals with small brains. But I was reassured that nothing would go very wrong since every child's horse was being led by a parent and I usually have faith in the Trønder's capabilities of dealing with four-legged creatures.

Turns out somewhere in the group there must've been an adult human with too small or at least absent-minded brain. I get a text from the Trønder this afternoon before leaving from work that they're in the ER with an arm that hurts. OK, no big deal - at least her head and spinal chord is are fine.

A few hours without any news I text them again wondering how it's going. The Trønder calls. They're on their way home after more than five hours at the hospital. Turns out her right arm is broken, just above the elbow. Doh! None of her parents ever broke any bones so she's ahead already. He tells me that her saddle slid off the back of the horse to the opposite side of where he was. WTF? Everyone dealing with horses should remember to check that saddles are properly tightened. I'd fucking like to punch someone in the back of the face.

She tells me she had to wait a long time before they had a look at her but then they drove her in a wheelchair and that was fun. She saw her arm on the x-ray screen, but something was wrong with the machine so they couldn't get a printout. She' more upset that we cannot go swimming on Sunday as planned, that they have talked about maybe cancelling her birthday party tomorrow (why the hell would they do that?) and that the cast makes her arm really hot, than the actual pain ("they said it will go away tomorrow"). Brave little girl.

So I'm pretty happy that I'm going home tomorrow. Wish me a safe travels; my long day will start in five hours and I need some sleep in between.