It's Just Bent Patricia Kirby   © Copyright 2020 by Patricia Kirby

We felt the anticipation, excitement, the pure joy of once again seeing our best friends the Knoll’s. The Knoll’s were that kind of family that every time you were about to see them you couldn't wait to be right next to them to share all your adventures with them. One of the first, one of the very best, was the story that came out of the sorrow, out of the trouble, out of the I guess you could say pain, but whenever these two families were together you could truly see that something indescribable happened. We always looked back upon these things to the greatness of everything God our Creator made for us to enjoy on this beautiful earth.

As we drove up in our white Ford Excursion to our best friend's old white farmhouse we saw the horses all tied up along the fence ready to ride. We were truly going to have so much fun. At that point, nothing about that day ever seemed like it could go wrong. We all got on those horses bareback. (because having about fourteen horses was a little difficult to have fourteen saddles that fit kids ranging from age fifteen to age three.) Now in our very first Adventure, there was more than just the Knolls and the Kirbys, but that's not important, is it? Kristen Knoll and Sara Kirby were tutors of a group called Classical Conversations, and today was a day when many, many, other tutors got together and had a tutor meeting. All the kids of every tutor came and we all took turns riding double on horses, bareback horses. One thing you should get straight in your head is when the Knolls and the Kirbys got together there was no shortage of trouble. I'll set the stage for you, in the middle of the field was a pretty small ditch, there was barbed wire fence along with electric metal fence on every edge, off to the right sort of in the back was this rusty old pipe it probably had about a 12 inch diameter. It was fairly large for being an old rusty pipe. 

Into the field came a black cat. What luck! Now here's the trouble of the day, the black cat ran into that old rusty pipe. Colton the oldest of the Kirbys and Caleb the second oldest of the Knolls decided along with all the others to get a bucket and fill it up with water in the ditch so they could flush the cat. How inhumane of us, that is what you're probably thinking at this point, right? At this point, we had looked around the field and found no buckets. Colton and Caleb decided to ride Buck, a paint horse, to the barn, double, with only a halter, so they could find a bucket. Most of the visiting kids had left because the tutor meeting was over, but some of the kids remained because their mothers were busy talking amongst themselves. We saw the boys, on the horse simply trotting down the dirt road towards the gate into the field, but as soon as Buck’s head was through that gate he took off running, straight for the other end of the field. Now we must not blame this all on the horse, the bucket the boys chose was a metal one, with a metal handle banging against Colton’s leg making quite a ruckus. Along with that the dogs that had been around horses all their lives decided it would be fun to chase this new horse, it sure did put Buck into an enormous fright. Seeing that Buck was heading straight for the other end of the field, the barbed wire fence, and the electric fence they decided it would be most beneficial to jump off of the horse. Colton who was in the back jumped off first Caleb right after him. Caleb hit his head hard, very hard, on a rock. Colton’s arm hit the ground and Caleb’s body fell on top of it. Kaylee, Kelsey, and I ran straight for our brothers, Kelsey helped Caleb, while Kaylee and I headed for Colton. “Colton, you have to stand up, you can't just lay on your face all day,” I said. (that was paraphrasing)

“I can’t get up,” Colton replied. 

“Hey, Kaylee, will you help me get Colton to a sitting position so we can see what's wrong with him?”

“I’m coming,” she replied

As the two girls slowly helped Colton into a sitting position he looked at his left forearm.

“I think it’s broken.” 

“It's not broken, it's just bent.” Kaylee replied.

“Kaylee, I'm pretty sure it's broken.” Colton said.

“I told you it's just bent.” Kaylee said even more demandingly.

“Whatever you say, Kaylee.”

 Now it was very very clear that his arm was broken, no matter what Kaylee said. With great effort, Kaylee and I helped Colton to his feet so they could walk over to see the situation that Kelsey and Caleb had going on. Upon arriving at the ditch Caleb had a bloody head, bloody nose, and was washing it out in the ditch. A kid, whose name is not needed, came over to the group and said as plainly as could be, “You should sell all your horses, and stop your horse career.” Now none of the Knolls took that very well, they simply said things like ‘Do you know how long it would take to sell all these horses?’ and ‘Why should we stop her horse career over one little accident?’ The conversation was simply left at that. By this time the tutor meeting had been over for at least half an hour. Driving in the Polaris Ranger, came one of the kids mom who was impatiently waiting for her kids to come back to the house. She pulled over to the ditch and saw Colton and Caleb's unfortunate situation. She told her girls to help take the horses to the house and she would drive Colton and Caleb back. After all the horses had been rounded up everybody walked to the house. Upon arrival, Caleb who ended up having a severe concussion had been taken inside the house, and Colton was sitting on the porch while Mrs. Kirby called Mr. Kirby to come to take Colton to the hospital. Now we have come to the end of Adventure one, yes it did end on a sad note, but don't worry Caleb recovers and Colton has a cast. For about four months. (No that is not common. He broke it again just after he got his first cast off.)