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Worst Falls? Tell them!

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So, it finally happened. My instructor said it would happen some time before our show..in this case, one week in advance.

My 3 year old filly got scared by a dripping noise in the arena, grabbed her butt and leapt off with me vainly trying a one-rein stop until she ran into another horse and ricocheted off in another direction.

Me? I was in the dirt praying that I didn't have a concussion. :eek1:

I hit my head and my already injured hip....I bet I'll be limping for a few weeks. Fortunately I had a helmet on, so the damage to my head was minor.

I got back on and she tried it again a few times, but I got ahold of her before she could dump me again. She just went into heat for the first time this week, so that may have something to do with her being a little more jumpy than usual.

Either way, I wanted to hear some good falling off stories...so if you have 'em, tell them! ;)
 
I took riding lessons when I was about 15 and only had one fall.
I rode a purebred Arabian Stallion named Freebie. He had the smoothest gaits although a really bad attitude.

One of the ladies who boarded her horse there was out riding trails that evening and we were riding in the outdoor ring. Apparently, a deer startled her and her horse - he threw her and came running full speed back towards the barns and riding rings. Everyones horses scattered and Freebie decided to follow the riderless horses right through the barns with me on board! When we came out the other side, he turned on a dime and went back the other way - and I slid right off the side. No damage done and after all the horses were caught and calmed we finished our lesson for the night. It all happened so fast that it was kind of a blur - even at the time.
 
I worked with a horse trainer for a few summers when I was 14 or so. One time I was riding a young thoroughbred (he was 17.2) in a dry riverbed and decided to open him up and gallop for a while. Out of the blue he makes a sliding stop...I flipped over his head and landed on my butt (luckily I held on to the reins the whole time). I had to get back on (with a broken tail bone) and ride 20 mins back to the stable. That was the last time I helped the trainer out!
 
Those are some good stories guys! Oh, BTW today certainly wasn't my worst fall ever..my wort involved slipping under a racehorse onto gravel and being run over. Shudder...

Keep 'em coming! :)
 
I was in college, and they had worked out a deal with a stable for a riding class. Well it was like a horses for dummies class. lol. One other girl and I were the only ones in the class of about 12 that had any kind of real riding experiance. We were working lounge in pairs. With out reins to work on balance. Well we were a horse short. So the other girl w/ expeiance and I convinced the instructor to let us ride a new horse there. This new horse was about a year off the track, and they werent sure how much work he had had on lounge. She rode first, it was clear that he wasnt worked much on lounge. Then it was my turn, about 5 min before we were to go back in for the day.... We all heard the car back fire... My horse spooked, he zigged and I zagged.... I ended up on the ground, one hoof skimmed my left hip, and another came down on my right thigh. He must not have stepped down with all his weight cause it didnt really feel bad. I got back on. Later I had a really nice horse shoe shaped bruse and I still have a crescent shaped dent.
 
I was pretty young and riding double...in the back. My mother's best friend was in front. She was a poor rider...she was startled by something, and jumped scaringthe horse. He cow-hopped sideways, I fell off. She landed on me. The horse slipped in the gravel and landed on us both. Yep...he landed on top of us. I had no broken bones although it;s amazing. I limped back to the barn rather then get on with her again.
Years later...same horse. I got off in the woods on the trail to point at a treefrog. Then he took off. I chased him *I was 13 and stupid* and he turned around..pinned his ears and kicked me in the chest as hard as he could. I flew through the woods and blacked out. I have deep purple horseshoes for weeks on my chest. Nasty nasty nasty. I thought my father was going to shoot him. ha.
 
My worst fall was jumping little Coconuts, a welsh pony my friend owns. The saddle slipped as we landed, taking me sideways with my foot caught in the stirrup. I had a lovely bruised hip and whiplash. She stopped dead and looked around in great concern. Because she was so new to being ridden, I got back on and popped her back over the jump so she wouldn't lose her nerve.
 
I took riding lessons when I was in junior high. In the winter, we practiced in a big barn with a very large open area. On two sides of the barn, there were stalls with full sized doors, barred windows, and more than one lock. These were typically used for horses who were high strung, escape artists, or were rescues being rehabbed. These doors were the real deal - PLENTY of metal.

I'm in the middle of a lesson, riding at a full gallop, when the barnyard dog comes around the corner in front of my horse, scaring the crap out of her. She puts on the breaks, throwing me over her head, STRAIGHT into the stall door. Let's just say I ended up being VERY ugly for several weeks after that.
 
I've only fallen off once (nearly fallen off a couple of times...) It was when I was first learning to canter. The horse practically kangarooed from trot to canter and I just went flying over his left shoulder. I landed on my head, rolled in front of the cantering horse and somehow ended up on the other side of the arena. I was absolutely cross-eyed for the next ten minutes. :eek1:

It scared the bejeebers out of me but I got back on again. I'm just thankful the horse didn't run right over the top of me.
 
I couldn't tell you how many times I've fallen off a horse. I guess the worst was I had a cheapo arab gelding that I was going to train and possibly resell, or keep if we bonded and he turned out nice. I'd done a ton of ground work with him, and took him on trail rides, leading him, taken him horse camping. So his first real trail ride was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. He got spooked by rustling leaves, and took off running and bucking down the trail. I wasn't going to fall off, but I couldn't stop him either, so I decided that before we hit a tree (it was very deep woods) I would just bail off. Well, duh, it's like instinct to not let go of the reins, so I was then being dragged backwards, trying to keep my feet, when WHACK I hit a tree with my head, backwards. I let go of the horse and crumpled into a heap at the base of the tree. But then he was scared more and came back to me so I could save him, at a full gallop. I thought he was going to run me over, so I stood up to move behind the tree and CRUNCH my leg was broken...(I never felt it happen, just felt my head hit the tree). I was fortunately wearing a helmet. So everyone then came back, and the horse had run off back to camp, and I got on my daughter's horse to ride back. Then went to some tiny ER in the middle of nowhere, up in northern Minnesota. They x-ray it, it's broken, no duh, the doc says he's going to cast it up to my hip! I'm like, why? It's my fibula, non-weight bearing, can't you just splint it? So he disappears for nearly an hour, and comes back and puts this little air splint on it. And gave me a pair of crutches and a prescription for codeine. I wouldn't take the codeine, since I was sleeping in the gooseneck of a horse trailer and didn't want to feel like puking, in the middle of the night, with a broken leg, and try to deal with that. But I did go riding on my daughter's perfect horse, with my crutches and all. Sold that arab, I never liked him again after that.

Now my daughter has had some very frightening falls. Her first horse was a 20-something retired arab broodmare- the sweetest horse ever. So we're out trail riding, and come to a foot-high log, everyone steps over it, except Jenny who leaps over like she's stadium jumping or something. And as Kelly, who wasn't expecting that, keels off the back, she gets kicked right in the head. Helmet, luckily.

Then one time Kelly and I were riding double, her in front, in a group, on a rails-to-trails trail. I wanted my horse, Annie the Perfect Horse (arab) to walk, not prance. So I was bugging her to tuck her head, slow down, and she reared up. I thought she was going over backwards, and just slid off. But I didn't take my kid with! There was this split second of frozen time- could I reach the reins before Annie realized she was free, and took off to join the group? No! So she starts running, and Kelly starts screeching, and I'm screaming HANG ON!!! and running, and they're approaching a highway, when the others ahead hear the commotion and block the trail and Anne skids to a halt, and Kelly falls off the side. No damage.

But then I'm going to teach her to stop a running horse, so it doesn't happen again. We're in a ring, and she's practicing trotting and stopping Anne. But then Anne takes off with her and Kelly can't follow instructions to stop her (not sure why- just intimidated, I guess) and falls off, whacking into the railing of the arena so hard her shoes fly off! She's got a tiny scrape on one ankle. I'm like, "Never, ever tell grandma this happened!!!" So I drop her off at my mom's house that night, and the first thing out of her mouth is "I'm not supposed to tell you how this happened!"
 
About 30yrs ago (well before health and safety nazi's took over) I was at a local carnival.
The main attraction there was a rodeo, and they were asking for a volunteer.
Well being ten foot tall and bullet proof (I'd had a drink or two) I was straight up there, well how hard can it be to hang on to a horse.
All my mates were cheering and clapping and I was really caught up in the moment.
They opened the chute and I stayed on for 0.5 seconds. (it was shorter, but the guy on the stop watch couldn't press the button quick enough)...
I hit the ground like a sack of spuds, luckily I didn't hurt myself. That was the first and last time I ever tried to ride a horse....
 
Too many to tell..... Back in Texas as a young strapping teenager, I made money by breaking wild horses a local ranch owner would buy from Montana.... Talk about some wild rides and a sore body!!! Wild Mustangs dont like to be ridden.....
 
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

I had 3 horses way back in the early '70s, when I was in my early 20s. I had fallen off my pinto a few months prior, broken a small bone in my left wrist, and had just gotten the cast removed. So when I went for a ride that suddenly turned bad (she got scared and took off running, and somehow the reins got caught up in her long mane), I could feel myself losing my balance and knew I was coming off before I could stop her. I didn't want to fall on my newly healed wrist again, so I ended up on my hip. Bad decision!

I was still living at home, and for several weeks I could barely walk. But I didn't want to tell dear old dad - thought he would try to push me to get rid of the horses! So I always made sure I was seated when he was in the room, and didn't move until he left the room! Quite a deception, but it worked!

To this day, I have numb spot to the side of the tailbone. And an occasional flare up of sciatica that I believe stems from this incident.

A year or two later, I moved away from Wisconsin, and couldn't take the horses with me. I haven't had much contact with horses since then (did have one for a short time in the '80s, but couldn't keep up with the fence mending and other costs). So I haven't added any new horse stories in a long, long time.
 
These are awesome stories guys! And plenty of proof to wear a helmet (which I never did when we had horses when I was kid, but yeah...)

So I have two stories. As a kid, I LOVED horses and my parents finally broke down and bought two ancient geldings, Prince and Pete, when I was about 13. I couldn't tell you how many hands they were; Prince was a "normal" looking size bay and Petey was a short and squat, bushy maned boy the color of rusty Baileys...I think the only thing they did quickly was get back to barn when the alfalfa came out, hehe.

Anywho, my best falling off story is this; I would saddle up Pete and just ride around our pasture or in the woods. One day, I didn't get his cinch quite tight enough (insert horse snorting to himself for pulling them "suck in a lot of air so that dang cinch isn't tight" trick) and as we were walking, I started to every so slowly side, saddle and all, sideways around Petey's rotund belly until I was deposited on the ground. Pete, of course, stopped (not walking > walking) and looked around and down at me as if to say "well...you gonna get back on or what?" and proceeded to graze, hehe. =) Geldings are great.

My best horse injury was a few years earlier before we had horses, we were visiting a neighbor who had horses and I was playing with a pregnant mare in the creek (no idea why). Anywho, I was barefoot (brilliant!) and she stepped on my left foot...well or began to anyway until I started screaming. Amazingly, I didn't have any broken bones but to this day, 25 years later, I have a perfect circle shaped scar on the top of my left food, presumably from the back prong of her shoe.
 
i think my worst fall had to have been in the middle of a showjumping ring. was coming into the last fence a 130 double when my horse copper lost his shoe. he got over the first one okay, but fell in between them. from standing he got up and jumped the last one. cleared it. but sort of had to buck leap it. i dont know how i managed to stay on but i did until i passed the finish peg.

i was in the arena one day practicing jumping barrels on my irish draught. i had been getting frustrated, not an excuse i know, so i'd flung my hat off. and decided that was it i was just going to go for it. came round got my lines right and kicked her on a bit more as she was going so slow. she took that as a signal to jump and she did, eight strides out from the jump. i wasnt ready. we both went over the jump but i went over her shoulder. she landed right on top of me. poor horse was really panicked and was trying to get off me. all my fault but still sore as it was my back she landed on. wasnt wearing a body protector either
 
Well, I've come off a few, but considering that I started fruit, nuts and flakes professionally for 8 years, I judged pretty dang good.

Probably my most serious fall wasn't a fall, but a buck and it was off my current guy. I had him a month and discovered that he had a whole heck of a lot of baggage and I wasn't in any hurry to ride him. Well, the lady that I was leasing him from at the time (he came straight to me from his breeder, so she had never handled him) wanted to see him under saddle, so against my better judgment, I saddled him up. I never made it into the saddle, he launched my butt into the side of the barn (it made up a short end of the the outdoor arena). Said butt knocked a steel grated window into a stall.

Being of the mind that one must remount, I decided it was the saddle and changed it out. I longed him, nothing, so I hopped up... made it half way across the arena and came down on top of a jump standard. My entire backside from lower back to back of knees turned violent purple... well, except for one small patch on the right butt cheek.

I decided to start him all over from scratch and started with making him an appointment with a chiropractor, who immediately grounded me off him. He had major issues from poll to hip. She gave me permission to start lightly riding him outside the arena after six months... took him a year to give me permisssion. I still don't get on the horse without his permission. Doesn't make any sense because I'll come right back off if I do. It's been awhile since he told me no, but I never take that permission for granted. :)

Most of my worst injuries happened while I was on the ground :)
 
norsmis said:
Too many to tell..... Back in Texas as a young strapping teenager, I made money by breaking wild horses a local ranch owner would buy from Montana.... Talk about some wild rides and a sore body!!! Wild Mustangs dont like to be ridden.....
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You just have to convince them it's not such a bad idea... of course, that can take a bit of time as they never believe anything a hooman tells them :D
 
I don't have any great fall stories. Have only had three falls, in my lifetime, from the back of a horse (once as a youngster and twice as an adult). The worse one was when I was, unceremoniously, "air mailed" from the back of a bucking horse. No injuries though. Just sore for a day or two.

Well, then again, the funniest was when I was about ... 12 yrs. old? Went out to the pasture and decided to sit on the back of my favorite horse but, for some reason, I sat on him backwards (facing his hind quarters)... stupid. Then, after a very short bit, and, seemingly for no reason ... the horses took off running for the barn. Of course, this included the one I was on. To get to the inside of the barn, and due to the set-up, it required four turns ... with the last one being a very sharp turn to go inside the barn. I made it though all the turns until that last sharp one. That is when I went flying through the air and landed in a manure pile (that was the funny part ;) ). Again, no injuries. Just a bit of soreness ... and a little embarrassment when I realized the event had been witnessed.
 
Hahah thanks guys for the great stories! It always makes me feel better when I hear other horror stories when I come off.

On the upside, I rode again today (different horse) and it seemed to help my injuries. I can walk now! I also bought a new helmet as I have had the same one since I was a child. It was time to get a newer helmet anyway.

I have never understood why people would want to ride without a helmet...I guess if you have come off as many times as I have you realize it is worth the bad hair day to not crack open your skull . :shrugs:
 
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