horse tales and horse lessons

So first I want to point out that I considered not blogging this but decided that I need to document this story for our blurb book - and so the boys can look back someday and see how they almost gave me a heart attack.  So the story goes like this: yesterday after I picked up the boys from school, we drove over to my friend Megan's house to hang out and play.  Megan lives out in the country (ha!  in rogers!)  and she and Bella (6yrs) showed us all their cool animals!  jackson was especially excited about seeing her horses.  jackson was very anxious to get on the horse and megan doesn't really use saddles so I didn't want them moving too far... mostly just sat on the "nice" horse.  :-) 

 Jackson really wanted to feed the animals - so he did.  :)

 And he chased the rooster!!

He even fed the "stupid" horse - and he was very gentle.  I kept my eyes on J and kept him by my side.  

I warned him about a hundred times -

do not walk behind the horse.  do not walk behind the horse.  do not walk behind the horse.

 I even got a few pics of me w/ my boys!!

Then, right after that picture, I knelt down to take a picture of Megan and Bella.  ONE SECOND.  The next thing I knew,  I heard the horse rear up - I heard him nicker and stomp away.... I saw Jackson fall backward onto his back - feet in the air.... I ran as fast I could w/ Ethan on my hip and grabbed my boy.  He was in shock - a panic.  He didn't cry - which scared me to which words cannot explain.  He couldn't get a breath and my fear became very very real.  I handed Ethan to Megan as fast as I could and grabbed Jackson - I asked him to cry!  CRY! Make a sound... His eyes were huge like he was scared to death.  I started shaking - I didn't know if he got kicked or what happened!!?  Megan made me to switch her kids cuz she could tell I was freaking out.  Finally, he started to cry.  Thank God.  He was so frightened.  I wanted to see what happened RIGHT NOW.  So we ran him inside and stripped off his clothes.  I couldn't believe it.  He had no signs of being kicked - no sores on his stomach or ribs.  He had a small scratch/bruise on his arm and his eye was red from falling.  PRAISE GOD. I mean, I have NEVER been that scared in my life.  I have been in 7 car accidents, had 4 teeth knocked out when I was 15, endured 2 very interesting labors, but NOTHING has ever EVER scared me as much as that did.  I will have nightmares of that frightened look on his face when he was gasping for air for the rest of my life.  I will forever be haunted by that image.  Things quickly were put into perspective for me.  My kids are my world.  Their safety is MY responsibility.  MY JOB!  I feel ashamed that I let him out of my sight - and I feel like God has honestly said "careful, keisha.... i'm warning you.... don't lose sight of what's important here."  I feel like God has given me the greatest blessing in the world - protecting my (HIS) child from what could have been some very very serious harm.  I am grateful beyond words.

What Megan and I decided based on asking J lots of questions and what little we did see.... is that Jackson walked back there by the horse - and because he was on top of the horse earlier and we were telling him to hold the horse's hair, he grabbed it's tail - which caused him to jump (not kick) and that sudden jolt scared Jackson and he jumped back - onto a very uneven terrain which includes lots of rocks - and he fell back onto the rocks.  That fall from standing up knocked the wind out of him - that's why he couldn't get a breath.  After analyzing his whole body and what I know about horses - if that horse would have kicked him, something would be seriously wrong - ribs broken, bruise on stomach or even worse - so I conclude that he was spared and because of that, we are all very very blessed.  I know I learned a valuable lesson - I just hope my fearless child did too.  

and afterward, he got ice cream - which made everything much better.  for both of us. :)

Thank you God for protecting my sweet boy.