# How many times you fell down and what was the results?



## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Well, there is an old English saying, that you aren't a rider until you have fallen off at least twelve times! 

Going by that saying I am a brilliant rider! 

I cannot tell you how many times I have fallen off. Certainly well into the hundreds. I once fell off aaughty pony 19 times riding bareback across a field. I was about 10 at the time.

Majority of falls cause injury to one's pride rather than a physical harm. 

Big difference in the way that people are taught nowadays because of the fear of being sued. As children we played a lot of gymkhana games which involved jumping on and off the ponies. This taught us how to get our feet under us. 

As with anything, the more you fall the better you get at it though, I will certify that as you age so the ground gets harder!


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

I agree with @Foxhunter. I don’t even try to count.

I used to reschool horses other people ruined. I quickly learned to tuck and roll, until it became instinctive.

If I didn’t go off a horse once at least once week, I was riding one of my own horses


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

As a child, soooo many times. I had some spectacular involuntary dismounts, which people retell to this day. Falling off, in those days, was as much a part of riding as tacking up or mucking stalls. As an older adult I have come off a few times but the worst that's happened to me is the time I fell on to the multi-tool on my belt. That left a rectangular bruise on my behind. 

I admire people who can tuck and roll. I never seem to have time for that before I hit the ground.


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## ClearDonkey (Nov 27, 2016)

I too have no count of how many times I've fallen, but I can tell you about the worst fall I've had. I was on my QHxPaint that I broke out myself, riding in my neighbors round pen. We were trotting past a ground pole that was long the edge of the arena, and he hit it with his foot. Being an inexperienced greenie, when the pole made a funny noise, he launched into a bucking fit. I came off onto the hard ground, directly on my hip.

As soon as I stood up, I had sharp pain up my leg and up my side, and pretty much immediately went back down to the ground. Eventually I got on my feet, walked back to my barn, untacked, and went home. The next morning when I went to walk up the stairs, I realized the extent of my injury; as soon as I put my weight on that leg, I collapsed and screamed. I couldn't go up the stairs without hopping on one leg or crawling.

I never went to the hospital, but I'd say that I sprained my hip real good. This was also at the time in my life where I was working on my feet, in a factory, for 12 hours a day...all I can say it was a tough 2 weeks following the fall. Now I have residual pain in my hip if I'm not aware of how I'm moving my body, and start being sloppy.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Guess I stink at riding because I haven't come off a horse I was trying to stay on. But I live and ride in an area where any fall has a high risk of serious injury so I put a lot of emphasis on NOT falling.








How hard one pushes a horse, for example, can have a huge impact on the risk of falling. A horse who isn't physically or emotionally pushed to the edge is much easier to stay on, but that in turn requires a different philosophy of riding.

And I started riding at 50. Anyone who starts at 50 just has a different outlook on falls - and a much more fragile body. I'm at an age where I just don't bounce. The one injury I've had riding came in Jan 2009. I was partway thru a dismount, with one foot above my horse's rump, when she exploded. I was flung off - as one must expect - and happily hit back first on a small rock. I say happily because there were a lot of 12-24" jagged rocks just 2 feet away from where I hit. I would have broken my back if I had landed 2 feet away. Assuming I wasn't killed outright.

That small rock, maybe 1/4 the size of my fist, did enough soft tissue damage that I had to give up jogging for 9 years! Finally started jogging again in 2018 and have slowly climbed back to jogging 3-4 miles.

It affected my riding too. I've only realized this year how much of how I rode from 2009-2018 was based on minimizing back pain. I've actually improved significantly as a rider during the last year because I've regained some mobility in my lower back. I'm simply physically capable of riding differently. I was riding with a rigid back because I needed to ride with a rigid back.

So my lessons learned? 

1 - An explosion during a mount or dismount can be particularly dangerous. 

2 - I cannot afford to fall. My next time could mean I'd never ride or run or hike for the rest of my life. So I pay a lot more attention to my horse's emotional state, try to train/teach him in a way that avoids stress, will dismount BEFORE we hit a truly challenging spot, and accept that progress will require time and lots of small steps forward. I focus more on being in synch with my horse, mentally as well as physically, and won't ride if I think we cannot ride TOGETHER.


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## Caledonian (Nov 27, 2016)

I've lost count.

My worst injury was when I was walking beside a horse and, over thirty years later, I'm still dealing with the injuries. It isn't always about falling off.

The falls I remember:

When i was working in a yard that dealt with problem horses (and owners), I'd the most falls from one particular horse. He was a newly retired racehorse, a 4yo, who suffered from severe cold back and he could really take us by surprise. I always mounted him in the school or field so that I knew I'd have a soft(ish) landing.

In the same yard, there was a mare who'd rear as you were mounting. I think that she was the worst, as that moment of suspension is extremely dangerous. She had me on the ground a few times, sometimes before I'd manged to sit in the saddle.

The most ridiculous one was falling off while standing still. I was sitting on my gelding bareback and he shifted to rest a hind-leg, I scrambled and went off the side. I think he was testing to see if I was sleeping. He was right!

I remember him tripping when we were out on a hack. One minute there was a horse under me and the next we were both on the ground. Similar happened with my mare when we were going cross-country. She failed to get high enough over a fence and we both hit the ground. It's a horrble feeling.

I'd my first bad fall from the little guy below, Tiddlywinks. I was very young at the time. He slammed on the brakes then bucked. I sailed over his shoulder and went head-first into the kicking boards around the arena. I straightened my hat and got back on but I was shaken. Today, young riders would be given time to recover; back then, if you could walk you could ride!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I'm gonna guess, including childhood riding, about 20 times. But, I mostly started to ride as a 40 year old, so didn't have as quick a balance. Still, I've never broken a bone!


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

I've been riding for two and a half years and I have fallen off four times, all at the canter, and all but one in an arena. I got a couple of scratches in one case and was sore for a couple of days in another case. My daughter was also happy to point out, in the most recent one, that I ripped a big hole in the seat of my pants.

I have also had two incidents that I would not consider true falls.


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## horseluvr2524 (Sep 17, 2013)

Given my riding "career" (if you can call it that), I haven't fallen off as much as I think I could have. Like bsms, a lot of my riding has been done in very unforgiving terrain, excepting the last two years since I moved.
I have fallen off around 10 or so times. All of those falls but one have been on my mare, who used to be something of a psycho. The one fall that was not actually had nothing to do with the horse doing something naughty. That fall happened because I hadn't learned to ride the canter yet, and the trainer was telling me to "Relax! Relax!" So I did. I relaxed so well that I fell off like a sack of potatoes. :rofl:
All my other falls... my mare pulling shenanigans. She's done just about every naughty thing a horse can do, short of flipping over backwards at a rear. Thank God she never did that. Anyway, thanks to her, I can sit/stick to a horse very well, and I've also learned how to avoid those situations and de-escalate things with a horse. Like bsms said, it's better to dismount before you get to a section that you think or know might be a problem.
Oh, and all of my falls were without injury but one. And that one time, I did something really stupid (I was a teenager...) and tried to ride out alone on my horse who wasn't ready to do that. She threw me. My helmeted head hit rocks so hard I ended up with a minor concussion. I got helicoptered to a hospital since I freaked out the paramedics, being conscious but not responsive. It was just shock I think, since I was none the worse for wear, aside from that minor concussion.
One memory I do have very clear of that fall was seeing a very overweight man get on my little mare and watching her stagger down the road with him, and I remember wanting to shout "Get off my horse!" but could do nothing of the sort.
My mare is much better behaved these days. In fact, she's really well behaved, highly trained... and boy am I glad those difficult days are behind us!


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## AragoASB (Jul 12, 2020)

Let's see... fell off my first horse once when I was a teenge kid she would not pull up after winning a race and ran under low branches. And another time we were in a multi horse race up in the hills on the dirt roads. I lost my balance and was trying not to slip off her side when she swung her backbone over, scooped me up and finished the race. I know horses will do this instinctively.


Second time I was riding a horse I rescued out of the desert that had been loco'ed (starving, they eat locoweed and become addicted to it). She suddenly reversed directions flipping over backward at the same time. I hit the ground so hard, saw stars and the next day the ICU where I worked the xray techs put me up against a wall, took a picture and I had broken a rib.


The third time I was riding in the open country with another rider I was on my black Arabian stallion . That rider took off galloping although I had asked him not too. My horse took off after him and was out of control running away. The other rider disappeared into the trees but my horse was heading toward giant boulders and rocks bordering a creek. I bailed off, tucked and rolled. When I came up on my feet one ankle was bent at a strange angle and I could not walk. So I called my horse and he came back to me. Thats how I got home and made it to the hospital. 



Since I am 65 years old by now I have learned that the best way to fall off is to not fall off. Do anything- grab mane, keep a leg over the back, do the one hand stop, anything. Get used to horses spooking and ride it out.


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## kiwigirl (Sep 30, 2009)

My 'best' fall was combined with one of my more uncomfortable injuries.


I was riding Phoenix, not long before I had to retire her, and we were going through a gate I had opened from her back. She was always a horse that liked to keep going forward full steam ahead and as she pushed through the gate before I had a chance to get it as wide open as I wanted, the rear cinch got caught up on the gate somehow. Unbeknownst to me, the aluminium buckle on the front and rear cinch keeper was rotten - it looked fine but as soon as the pressure was on it snapped. This meant as Phoenix pushed forward, the rear cinch was dragged back under her belly, effectively becoming a bucking band.


When she started bucking I was so shocked, having never had her buck before, I was a bit behind the eight ball in my reactions. As the bucking escalated it finally dawned on me that I needed to get off. I was able to leap off and land on my feet with out any problems, unfortunately I instinctively held on to the reins which meant that I got pulled onto my knees on the gravel road before I had the wherewithal to let go. My knees were pretty cut up but it took me a while to realize that they were the least of my problems.


I didn't realize that in the time it took for me to finally get clued up enough to get off Phoenix, I had been tossed up and down on the saddle a couple of times. In the meantime Phoenix had charged off and as I went to get her I noticed the sensation of moisture trickling down my legs - my first thought was that I had wet myself! As the pain set in I finally realized that it was blood. To add insult to injury, as I was hobbling to Phee, who had only gone about twenty yards down the road - to the nearest patch of comfort food, my neighbour drove around the corner. He saw the riderless horse and was immediately worried and then saw me limping down the road with a growing stain of blood running down my legs. He was horrified and quite indelicately demanded to know where all the blood was coming from. The answer to which was I didn't know. 



Anyway, long story short, when Phoenix started bucking I had managed to land on the saddle horn at some point with enough force to split my urethra. It bleed like heck, was very painful and made weeing an exercise in torture for a week or two. Nevertheless, I comforted myself with the knowledge that I had got off Phoenix rather than been thrown and I stuck the landing so, Yay me!


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## Dash_Of_Cinnamon (Nov 9, 2020)

I fell once, it wasn't fun. I had a giant bruise on my back for weeks.


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## MeditativeRider (Feb 5, 2019)

As a child, so so many times that I cannot remember. I generally landed ok though and was not put off by it or hurt. The only one I remember hurting was when I was on my sister's pony and she was setting up a jump for me. I would have been about 6 years old so not super strong and this was quite a big strong pony. My sister dropped one of the poles and it made a really loud noise and the pony spooked and bolted. I fell off but got one foot stuck in the stirrup for a bit so was hanging upside down. It did not last that long but when I finally got untangled and fell to the ground, the pony managed to kick me square on the shin as she went over me. She had shoes on to. I had an very clear partial hoof shaped bruise on my shin for weeks, and it blooming hurt.

Other times, I had a pony that bucked all the time, so I would come off frequently. Most memorable being into a gorse bush (ouch) or when I went over his head and somehow managed to land on my feet still holding the reins.

As an adult, I started back 3.5 years ago but have not come off properly yet. I have bailed once in my fourth lesson when I had an instructor that was not that great and she tried to get me to canter. I was so not ready for it. She was chasing the horse with a lunge whip and the horse went one way and I felt slightly unbalanced and thought I was going to fall, and instead decided to bail and jumped off the other way. Really silly idea obviously. I landed on my feet but really jarred my lower back and had pain in that for a few weeks.

Another time at another lesson place, on a horse that probably should not have been used for beginners, the horse bucked when I was trotting on the lunge. I was trying to get a faster trot and she tried to canter and bucked in the transition. I ended up on her neck and had to slide off in a very ungainly manner once she stopped. 

So those are the two closest times I have come to falling off since starting back as an adult.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

I've always been afraid of falling off......because it hurts! I have hit the gravel road a few times and it's so hard packed and rough......not fun. The last time I came off I tried to hang on well past when I should have let go and messed up my shoulder. So hanging on for dear life is not always the best idea. Although who knows, maybe if I would have let go sooner I would have broken bones or something. But I hung on when I was falling off and my shoulder has given me pain every night when I sleep for the past.......I dunno, 3 years I think? I probably tore something. It is finally getting to where I can sleep on it a little bit. Luckily during the day it doesn't bother me. :shrug:


Kiwigirl, that was a horrible story!


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## Aprilswissmiss (May 12, 2019)

Probably about two dozen times for me. About half of those are thanks to a little Connemara pony I rode when I was 11 and 12. I feel like I should have a higher total considering all the OTTBs my trainer had me ride before I was even a teen and that I have ridden many different horses at least three times a week for the past 10+ years.

Thankfully, none of my falls have resulted in hospitalization. One of them should have but I was too stubborn. Last year my right stirrup snapped at a gallop while turning left and you can imagine how quickly I was put on my butt. Just like @ClearDonkey described in her fall, I tried to sit up and promptly crumpled back down. I had back pain so horrible that every tiny movement made it exponentially worse. Kind of like after your foot falls asleep and feels tingly, except the tingles were shooting pains and it was through my whole body. Eventually I hobbled to my feet and miraculously untacked and finished barn chores. After I got home, for a couple days I continued getting those shooting pains so bad that a few times I crumpled to the floor just trying to stand up out of bed. Any impactful activity bothered it for about six months and then any direct pressure on that spot on my back was painful for another six months after that. Now it's "fine" but the vertebra that was painful still sticks out just a tiny bit more than the ones directly above and below it. Probably should have gone to the doctor, oops.

One time the Connemara pony bucked me off in a field then stepped on my wrist and it didn't have any injuries at the time, but I have to wonder if it contributed to my current intermittent wrist pain. I don't remember which wrist it was so I could just be imagining the correlation.

At one stable, we had a square foot spot in the arena that was much firmer than the rest. One time the pony I was riding tripped on it at a canter and went down under me, then almost rolled onto me. She took the brunt of the impact with her head to keep herself from rolling fully onto me then jumped back up. I still credit her 100% for my complete lack of injury. I don't think I'll ever meet another horse quite as amazing as her.

A few years ago when talking to my doctor she said "maybe you should ride less often." HA! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


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## jgnmoose (May 27, 2015)

The horse that has got me off the most is an otherwise really good and sweet Quarter Horse mare. When she spooks at something she goes sideways what seems like instantly about 10 feet. Last time this happened I remember feeling like Wylie Coyote realizing there is no horse under me right before hitting the dirt.


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## Jolly101 (Jul 2, 2018)

I have also had too many to count, but can mention a few I remember that have taught me something. 

One of the first falls I had was in a lesson. I forgot to check the girth and tighten it well.....saddle slipped around and the good ol' lesson pony calmly walked me, dragging on the ground for a few meters  . I learned to always tighten the girth after that. 

Many of the falls I had were on my first horse, who was also green, but luckily was a saint in personality. I learned not to ever ride 'autopilot', be aware, and to actively ride new exercises because you never know when a horse will react to something!

I had a number of falls at a lesson barn where I'd say that the instructor often outmatched riders because they unfortunately did not have access to suitable lesson horses, at the time. I was a pretty strong rider on the flat, but didn't have the confidence over fences. The instructor had me ride various greenies over fences and was dumped several times. They then talked as if I was the problem, and this made me feel I was non-competent over fences; however, I was far from the only person having trouble at that barn. It resulted in bad anxiety over fences for me and took years to get over. I went to see a more advanced jumping coach and they helped me become more confident in things, and confirmed that my position was not the problem. My lesson here was to say no if you do not feel confident in what you are doing. Don't let any instructor/coach bully you into doing something you do not feel ready for yet. 

My worst fall was on a horse I was working with. I'd classify this one as stupid. The horse was super super calm, so I ended up working in the indoor on a windy day, not thinking much of it. Well, my stirrup leather broke and the horse did a 180, then the wind hit the outside of the arena making a loud whooping noise... the horse took off. I fell off on my hip and was on crutches for a while. I had pain in it when walking sometimes and I never did find out exactly what I did to my hip, but the injury came back to haunt me 5 years later where I started feeling major pain in the area again. The doctor concluded that I may have hit the hip bursa or I may have injured a ligament in the area. I was resting for months. It has felt much better since, but I always worry the pain could come back again. What did I learn? Don't take chances, and always check your stirrup leathers for potential weakness'!

There have been quite a few off my own horse, who is amazingly calm, but when fresh can go calm to crazy in 1.5 seconds. This horse nearly always gets me off in those instances because there was no warning and he would not show the behavior in lunging beforehand. He would be not only calm, but lazy throughout the lunging and warming up portion, then suddenly realizes he has all this energy and would rear/buck/_need_ to take off with no warning in between. This taught me to always be on my toes, and to never go out of a balanced position.


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## AragoASB (Jul 12, 2020)

kiwigirl said:


> My 'best' fall was combined with one of my more uncomfortable injuries.
> 
> 
> I was riding Phoenix, not long before I had to retire her, and we were going through a gate I had opened from her back. She was always a horse that liked to keep going forward full steam ahead and as she pushed through the gate before I had a chance to get it as wide open as I wanted, the rear cinch got caught up on the gate somehow. Unbeknownst to me, the aluminium buckle on the front and rear cinch keeper was rotten - it looked fine but as soon as the pressure was on it snapped. This meant as Phoenix pushed forward, the rear cinch was dragged back under her belly, effectively becoming a bucking band.
> ...


This reminds me of the time I fell off and the horse I was riding was killed.

I was riding on the California Point Reyes Natl Seashore, a 280,000 acre park with 100s of miles of trails. I had a 3 year old Saddlebred filly. In a big meadow we were going through one of those spring loaded ride through gates the Forest Service puts up. Some other horses in the distance were entering the meadow and she turned her long neck to look at them. This pushed her breast breast to the side and her breat collar caught on the latch of the gate. She panicked, pulled back and broke the breast collar. I fell off and she ran away, the broken tack dragging under her. Across the meadow she ran, maybe an 8th of a mile. In the distance I saw her front end rise up, then her tail fly up, then a cloud of dust. I ran across the field, my lungs near to bursting. She was lying on the ground dying. She had tried to jump a barb wire fence, hung her front legs and flipped, breaking her neck. To this day, I will never in my life ride through another ride thorugh gate, no matter how well the horse is trained,


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

Hmmm. Let me see if I can catalogue my falls:
Age 11: a lesson horse bolted full tilt with me on the trail, seemingly unprovoked. No injury.
Age 12: my first horse bolted with me when we were cantering in a lesson. I didn't help matters by panicking and screaming. Fell off and landed on a trotting pole with my tailbone. Cracked the pole. Probably cracked my tailbone, but never had it looked at. Still have a bump there.
Age 12: same horse: I tried to do walk and trot bareback on him and he took off bucking. No injury.
Age 12: same horse: my mom gave me a terrible leg-up and I landed hard behind the saddle. Horse exploded bucking. No injury.
Age 12 or 13: you guessed it, same horse! Veered suddenly while trotting in a lesson and I toppled off. No injury.
Age 12 or 13: same horse again. Spooked at nothing at the end of the ride. No injury.
Age 14: new horse! Stopped in front of a jump then popped over it awkwardly. No injury.
Age 14: borrowed a lesson horse for a day camp. Came off over the first jump on show day. It was the most enormous and awkward cross rail imaginable. The cups were on the highest holes on the standards, seriously. Momentarily stunned, but no injury.
Age 15: started lessons at a great new place on a wonderful horse. In my very first lesson, she had a freak slip in a wet spot at the canter. Her front end went right down and I somersaulted over her head. Came up laughing. No injury to either one of us.
Age 16: same horse tripped in trot and I somehow slid off her shoulder and landed on my feet. The instructor shouted "WHAT was THAT??" and we both laughed. No injury.
Age 16: different lesson horse. Spooked BIG and very suddenly at the canter. Found myself suddenly on the ground and the horse standing 10 feet to my left. No injury.
Age 17: winter riding on a different lesson horse, again. Out on a road. Friend ahead of me said "watch out for that icy patch" but we were already on the icy patch. Horse immediately slipped and fell on her right side. I came up laughing again. Slightly scratch on right hand.
And then I didn't ride for 16 years or so in there...
Age 35: was coaxed into hopping on an acquaintance's green horse for a quick lead line pony ride. Got a bad leg up and the horse crow hopped and I sailed right over to the other side. A little bruised, but fine.
Age 36: had a lesson in an indoor arena where snow kept crashing off the roof. One particularly bad crash happened at the exact moment I was trying to do a simple change, and I was off balance and the horse shied. I sort of hung there for a second, decided dropping was easier than hauling myself back up, and dropped onto my shoulder. Knocked the wind out of myself and my shoulder was sore for a couple of days.
Age 36: had been riding a green six year old pony and it was going fairly well. However, one day my coach had me get on from the ground without doing any groundwork or lunging first, and the pony exploded backwards once I landed in the saddle and we both hit the dirt. Twice. Some scratches, tore my jacket.
Age 38: I was hacking the horse I now own, Elle, around the back of the property, near the bush. She doesn't usually spook much or at all, but something made her do a huge, sudden 180 and a very short bolt. Landed in soft grass. No injury.


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## Danneq (Sep 18, 2020)

Three falls, for me. All three times, it was because the horse/pony spooked. The first time I was a little kid (eight?) and landed pretty hard, but wasn't hurt. I was really shaken--like physically, I mean. Mentally I was ready to ride more (or at least pretended I was) but after a few times around the circle I just felt physically bad.

The second two times I was a little older (fourteen?) and were off of my pony friend. My pony friend and I adored each other, but he was a scaredy cat. One fall was from the wind making the roof rattle, the second was from someone stomping down some stairs too loudly. Both times I tucked and rolled, so fortunately no injuries. My seat wasn't good enough to stay on him when he spooked, but I learned what all his triggers were and avoided them. My pony friend was a good good boy and I hated that he was scared so often.


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## horseslover84 (Nov 9, 2020)

after reading all of your falls stories I do feel like a rookie ….
The most cruel fall I have ever heard of was the fall of my guide dog’s trainer she was a competitive reining rider when she was 16 years old she fell down and her horse stepped on her and she broke her two legs …
in her optimistic and happy way of telling it it’s sounds like “oh yeah once I rode my horse, fell down, broke my two legs and life continues not a big deal…..” deeply in my heart I was like "oh gosh poor young lady….that’s doesn’t sounds like a big fun….."


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

Last time I fell, I was leading Ace to turn out, He turned around and kicked at Kirby, got his feet stuck in the fence, As I was trying to get him unstuck he bumped me, I fell back hit my head on the pipe gate, he fell on me . I had a goose egg on a cheek bone, and walked crooked for a month.


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## kiwigirl (Sep 30, 2009)

So the moral of this thread, after reading all the tales of disaster, near disaster and down right horror stories is - that we are all heroes and should give ourselves a pat on the back for sheer bravery and because sometimes we are just downright lucky!


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