Camaraderie from cracked ribs

It was to be veteran cavalcader Annie Horton’s last hurrah.

When she saddled up for the first day of the heavy wagon trail on Sunday morning, it was for her last week on the trail. Having completed her first in 1992, she planned to retire after completing 25 cavalcades when the trail rode into Millers Flat on Saturday.

What the Kaiwera woman did not expect to do, however, was to go out with such a bang — literally — thanks to the exploits of a borrowed horse called Salty who left more than a sour taste in her mouth.

Unsure of what actually happened, Mrs Horton said the horse she borrowed, after her own went lame, "just went berserk" and reared up when she mounted it for the first day’s ride from Avenel Station, above Millers Flat.

"I was hanging on for dear life. I stayed on for the first five bucks and ... [then] hit the ground."

She was taken by ambulance to Dunstan Hospital where she was diagnosed with two cracked ribs "and a bit of a concussion".

A fellow cavalcader who witnessed the display said "extraordinary" was a good word to describe it.

"We just think he [Salty] didn’t like to be here," Mrs Horton said.

About 20 minutes later, another cavalcader on the same trail — who was parked just two floats down from Mrs Horton — also fell and was flown by helicopter to hospital where she was understood to have five broken ribs.

But cavalcaders are made of stoic stuff and Mrs Horton returned to the trail that night. Yesterday, after being interrupted during a nap on a couple mattresses stacked in her horse float, she admitted to feeling "a bit sore".

Asked what she enjoyed about the cavalcade, Mrs Horton — like many cavalcaders — said it was largely about the camaraderie.

"It’s something about being on a horse and being at one with your horse although, this particular time, I was at one with the ground."

Cavalcades used to be a family affair although her husband — who was not sure about her tackling another trail — had stopped riding. Her son, Adrian Jones, was also on the heavy wagon trail and had a more superior accommodation set-up, including a shower.

Mary Kreft, who was parked between the two injured women, joked that she was suffering from an inferiority complex.

"My friends are so desperate to get away from me, they’re going to these extremes."

Ironically, she said it was she who was usually accident prone.

She had been on the cavalcade for about 18 years and it was the first time she had seen such accidents.

"It’s ... brilliant, I love it. I wouldn’t be dead for quids, eh," she said.

sally.rae@odt.co.nz