Bucking Horse Throws Reagan; Injuries Minor

Former President Ronald Reagan suffered minor injuries after tenaciously hanging onto, and finally being tossed from, a wildly bucking horse during an Independence Day hunting excursion at a friend’s ranch in Mexico, a spokesman said Tuesday.

The 78-year-old Reagan, a riding enthusiast, sustained bruises and scrapes Tuesday morning and was examined by doctors at Raymond W. Bliss Army Community Hospital at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. They pronounced him “in excellent condition,” said spokesman Mark Weinberg in Los Angeles.

“X-rays taken today revealed no serious injuries,” Weinberg said. He said Reagan, an experienced rider, was comfortable and in good spirits “and joked that the incident was ‘my own private rodeo.’ ”

Ambassador to Vatican

Reagan was flown to the Ft. Huachuca Army facility by military helicopter from the Mexican state of Sonora, where he was hunting on a large private ranch owned by William Wilson, a wealthy Californian who served under Reagan as the first U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

“The horse Reagan was riding bucked wildly several times on a rocky downhill slope and eventually stumbled,” finally throwing Reagan, Weinberg said. He said Reagan is “an excellent rider and he held on quite a while.”

Despite several sore spots, “he’s feeling fine, yeah,” Weinberg said.

Accompanied by his wife, Nancy, Reagan left the hospital Tuesday afternoon and walked quickly to a waiting Army helicopter, which returned the couple to the ranch where they have been vacationing since Saturday. The Reagans plan to celebrate Nancy Reagan’s birthday there Thursday and return to California at the end of the week, Weinberg said.

Capt. Juan Lopez, a U.S. Army doctor who examined Reagan at the hospital, said Reagan declined to stay overnight, as physicians suggested, so the hospital’s chief nurse, Lt. Col. Paul Farineau, accompanied the former President back to Mexico.

Lopez said he would visit the ranch today to do a follow-up examination of Reagan.

President Bush, told of Reagan’s fall by the Secret Service just before he left for an afternoon of holiday boating near Kennebunkport, Me., released a statement saying that he was “obviously relieved that President Reagan’s injuries are minor . . . .” Bush planned to contact Reagan “at an appropriate time,” the statement said.

Earlier, Mrs. Reagan, who had awaited the outcome of Reagan’s X-rays at Bliss Medical Center, was paid a visit by another well-wisher--June Scobee, widow of Challenger commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee.

Weinberg said Scobee wished the Reagans well and told Mrs. Reagan how much she appreciated her support and kindness at the time of the 1986 space shuttle disaster that killed her husband and six other crew members.

Tuesday’s tumble from a horse was the latest twist in Reagan’s longtime passion for horses, which held a place of special prominence during his presidency.

Reagan first took up riding as a young sportscaster in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1930s and maintained the hobby throughout his political career.

He once said of his love of riding: “There is nothing better for the insides of a man than the outside of a horse.”

As President, he would often take an afternoon off to ride at the Marine base in Quantico, Va. He also often traveled to his ranch near Santa Barbara to ride horses and was photographed sitting astride one many times. As a Hollywood actor, he appeared in numerous Westerns, including “Santa Fe Trail,” “The Last Outpost” and “Cattle Queen of Montana.”

Aides have said that Reagan did much of his thinking about the problems a President might face in the days before his successful 1980 campaign while riding a horse at his ranch.

Lt. Gen. Thurmond D. Rodgers, the ranking officer at Ft. Huachuca, said Reagan told him Tuesday to “make sure people know that I was thrown from the horse. I did not fall.”