Yikes! Glad you are OK. I always had a fear of going through that experience, especially when loading into a pickup truck.
I purchased a pair of folding ramps, something like these ones, from discountramps.com. They are arched, to keep your mower deck from catching on the tailgate, decently priced, rated for 1500 lbs., and have motorcycle straps attached, to hook onto your bumper to keep them from kicking out. I've loaded my 1000 into my pickup truck quite a few times with no issues.
http://www.discountramps.com/atv-loading-ramps.htm
Josh