Tesoro, the gentle old gelding he was riding spooked at something invisible to the rest of us and bolted. Charlie managed to stay on for a while despite losing one rein and one stirrup. Finally he was thown. He landed in fairly soft (yet stickery) ground minus his lower left front tooth. It wasn’t really even loose, but some how it got knocked out when he fell.
He was pretty shaken up, but was more scared by the blood than anything else. We got some ice and when the bleeding stopped he got back on Tesoro (this time in a nice safe paddock) and rode him a little bit. We live by the rule, “if you fall off you get back on, even if it’s only for a minute or two.” He was so brave!
Of course we can’t find the tooth in the long grass of the pasture (sniff, sniff, I wanted to keep it) but I assured him the tooth fairy would know what happened. I also told him that he would have the very BEST story to tell all his friends when school started next week.
I know this sounds bad, but I’m really glad Charlie finally had his first fall off a horse. Really and truly, it gets easier once you had your first fall. You’re no longer quite so scared of it. He said he might want to take a week or so off riding, and I said that was fine.
Well, I believe there is in fact a premium if the tooth loss was incurred in a spectacular fashion (hit in mouth by baseball, bicycle wipeout, jumping off roof trying to fly…)
Well, this morning Charlie found $5 from the tooth fairy. I told him she must have thought he was really brave.
Tuesday we go back out to my friends place where we board our horses. I think I will have him distracted in the barn and go out and see if I can find the tooth. in any case I think I will leave some coins scattered on the ground where he unexpectedly dismounted.
Man that tooth fairy rocks! She is probably the only entity in business keeping up with inflation.
Your story reminds me of how I lost my two front teeth: both at the same time in one of those kiddie pools with the thin plastic bottom. I wiped out, landed (teeth first) on a sprinkler head that was under the plastic, and came up screaming! My teeth were floating on the water, I’ll never forget it! Your son probably won’t forget his either.
My son lost his first tooth a while back in a somewhat less than spectacular fashion. It had been loose for a while so his older sister twisted it out of him, pretty much the same way you’d twist the stem off of an apple. Pretty gruesome if you ask me. I think I prefer the thrown from the horse method, as long as it doesn’t become the standard for all of the teeth.
Glad Charlie got back on the horse!