friday night was not a good night at the track. after the first race one of the horses got heat stroke and it took the crew about 20 miutes to get the horse off the track. they were dousing it with water and trying to cool it down, but it was just going completely bonkers. they got him to stand up the first time but that only lasted for a minute then he collapsed again. the second time he was up for a few more minutes before he collapsed. finally they got him up, but were unable to walk him off the field. they had to bring the trailer onto the field to carry him off.
then during like the 6th or 7th race when the horses were coming around the final turn, one of the horses took a tumble causing three jockies to be thrown from their horses. one was fine, he got up and was trying to help everyone else. the other two had EMTs come look at them. the second jockey eventually got up with some help. he just seemed to have the wind knocked out of him from the impact, otherwise he was fine. the third jockey wasn't so lucky. we knew he wasn't paralyzed because he kept moving his legs like he couldn't get comfortable. they brought the plastic stretcher over to put him on it, but apparently he didn't want to be put on it and got up to walk to the ambulance. eventually the announcer told us that he was transfered to methodist hospital and the next day i found out that he broke his collar bone in multiple places.
when a race goes off there is always an ambulance and a black truck with people in the back that follow the horses. everyone knows what the ambulance is for. i had always wondered what the truck was for though. well now i know. the guys in the truck are there to take care of a horse that's hurt or shield the crowd so they can't see what is going on with the horse. the horse that took the tumble broke his rear right leg and we all saw it before they put the screen up. his poor leg was bent at an unnatural angle and he kept jumping when he tried to put it down. they had to bring the trailer out to get him off the track also. this time it was bad enough that they had to put the horse down. i didn't see the accident when it happened, but they showed a re-play and the horse did a somersault with the jockey. poor thing. i wanted to cry when i saw the clip.
ever since i had mikhai, it's been all i can do to repress the urge to bawl like a baby when something like that happens. or if someone tells a moving story (like grama and grandpa went this weekend to visit the memorial for the oklahoma city bombing and she was talking about some of the memorials) i can feel the tears right there on the surface just waiting for me to lose control and come gushing out. (this really annoys me also. i HATE being emotional about shit)
