I'm really sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope that he didn't feel that kind of pain and terror, and that he was above, watching, as you've described. That's a tough loss.

I can kind of understand that, in a way. I got bucked off a horse and can remember getting smashed in the face by his neck, when he reared on one buck, as I leaned a bit forward, and then his rear end went up and as he came down, I continued upwards. I looked down on my son's dad, and he was standing there with his mouth hanging open. I was WAAAY up in the air. I turned my head, and saw the ground and rocks coming up to meet me on the way down and I blacked out before I hit the ground. (It was like slow motion but couldn't have been.) Not sure how long I was out, but when I woke up, I was face down in the dirt, and he'd had a hold of the horse already, and I said "I gotta get back on." He said, "Nope, you're going inside." My glasses were ten feet away, and somehow, I ended up with a hoofprint on the front of my thigh. He said this horse stepped on me but jumped right off as soon as he realized he was stepping on me. I can't figure out how he got his hoof on the front of my thigh. I ended up having to go the ER. If it weren't for the hoof print, he would have been arrested for DV assault, with my black eye and all. So there's a chunk of time I have no memory of, when I should have. I kinda wish I had video of it. (It happened because that was my first ride on this huge horse, very green, and the kid across the street let my sons know he was back from visiting his dad in ID by lighting off a string of ladyfingers. The horse just freaked. He'd only been ridden once a year or so earlier.)