Something about Rearing and Young Horses

This just happened to me today. I was taking Marti out for a trail ride (we did endurance yesterday, so a lighter day was in order), and on the way back, we rode past a barn that lets donkeys wander the property. Marti generally doesn't mind the donkeys, but today for some unknown horse reason, seeing them at the fence in the front yard was so terrifying! It was like they had monsters crawling out of their ears or something. Marti refused to move forward one inch, and when I asked a bit sharper, she did her classic maneuver of flying backwards a million miles an hour. You can't kick her forward when she does that, she'll just go even fast backwards, so I took the left rein short and pulled her into a tight circle to break the backwards motion, and this is where I made a rookie mistake. She's still young and has a tendency to throw her head or do small rears if she gets upset. She reared, threw her head, and bashed me on my left cheekbone. Now I have a lovely surface bruise and bone bruise to go with my stupidity. So what did I do really wrong? I didn't lean out of the way. If you have a horse that you know rears or tosses its head under certain circumstances, then when you are in those instances, lean far to the side! You want to keep your head at a spot where the horse won't be able to hit it, even if it feels awkward. I got extremely lucky when she hit me. An inch lower and I would have lost teeth, and inch to the left and my jaw would have easily broken. So, point of the day: a horse has a very hard head. Move out of its way if it's coming at you rather than risk broken bones or missing teeth.