# Falls That You Didn't Bounce After



## WickedNag (Sep 7, 2010)

Just one... Landed standing on my leg but my foot planted and body twisted. The tibia (big bone beneath the knee) had a spiral break, the fibula (the little bone) split in half length wise, three breaks in the ankle and tore the Achilles tendon off. Had three surgeries, the last one being a bone graft, and spent 23 months in a cast of which 20 of those were a full length cast! 

I bought a really nice, though hard to catch, mare to ride during that time as I didn't want to spend any time out of the saddle


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## Brighteyes (Mar 8, 2009)

One time, I was jumping a holy terror of a lesson horse. I went over a jump and she cantered away, bat out of hell like. I turned 90 degrees to the next jump, putting a good deal of weight in my outside stirrup. My stirrup leather snapped and I came off the side and landed hard on my hip. I couldn't stand up, so my friend thought I had broken it. She laid me across her horse and walked me back to the barn. 

I didn't break it, but I couldn't walk correctly for several days. I pinched a nerve and still have pain and weakness from that in left thigh.


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## littrella (Aug 28, 2010)

Well, this time I wasn't riding, but a week ago this last Sat. I was trying to clean up around my pen. Leaned over trying to pull a piece of baling twine up out of the ice and snap! I sprained the ligaments and mussels in my lower back and they think I may have a small tear. On pain meds and mussel relaxers and have at least 2 more weeks before I can go back to work. Baling twine - 1, me - 0


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## mooney (Sep 20, 2010)

WickedNag that sounds painful... never mind I am betting it was. I always watch the other riding students slid right off and hop back on, of course my first fall I didn't bounce just splat all over CNR, helmet plastic, saddle pieces and my beloved back. Still can't find the dumb stirrup that start that whole thing, some where in the ditch probably sitting there for the past two years.


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## CJ82Sky (Dec 19, 2008)

oh god i'm afraid to answer this one...

i always said til y our mid 20s you bounce.. after that it's more like splat.

i've splatted a lot.
though ironically worst injuries were not falls - shattered leg (kicked by another horse while riding), spine/road rash, trampled, back and neck injuries among others... (ran over by horse), broken pinkie/hand requiring surgery and pins (horse bucked on longe in place as i was backing away total freak accident)

left knee reinjured in a fall when i just landed wrong but initial injury was playing soccer in HS and never had it fully fixed (had 2 surg, need a third but shattered leg instead and had to cancel lol) and right knee back in 1998 when my horse tripped and went to his knees and when i went to tuck and roll i was already so close to the ground i fell over my knee...sideways (had the surg for that one and it's been rebuilt nicely lol).

so yeah, hm, no major fall injuries other than knees. oh once i got a concussion. but get this - i fell off and landed square on my butt! apparently i jarred my skull and tore the lining of my brain that attaches it to the skull and they had me on meds for swelling and anti-seizure meds. only i could get the worst concussion ever w/o ever hitting my head lol! that was also ages ago.

i rode a LOT as a kid. well hell still do. and have a lot of horses so i'm just used to it being an "occupational hazard"


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## mooney (Sep 20, 2010)

Sadly I was 16 and I didn't bounce. got a minor concussion even with a helmet which turned to a million pieces. I haven't fallen alot but been in a few accidents like breaking all the fingers on my right hand (which I write with), carefully removing the skin off my neck with a tree branch, braking a few toes and so on.


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## MyLittleHunter (Jul 20, 2009)

Once, I was riding with my mom up at my former trainer's barn. His indoor looks out at the hayfields. Dallas was still being retrained from the time he spent with an abusive trainer. Anway, there was a wolf in the hayfield. It started chasing some turkeys right as I rode by the door that looks out to the field. I was not expecting to see a wolf, or get taken off with. Dallas's butt dropped and he flat out sprinted. I got taken by surprise and fell off his side. My foot got caught in the stirrup and twisted almost all the way around. I got dragged for three steps before my foot was freed. 

The wolf disappeared into the woods, and my mom jumped off our pony and caught Dallas. I just laid there in the dirt for a minute trying to figure out what happened. My mom called to me, and I went to get up. The second I put weight on my left foot I crumbled to the ground. My mom puts me up on the pony and leads Dallas while we go home. She puts the horses away, then comes inside our house to check on me. My foot was so swollen it was near impossible to get out of my boot. And once we did, my foot was black and purple with a huge lump on it.

I spent hours waiting in the hospital. They thought I fractured my growth plate, but that turned out not to be it. Basically I tore all my ligaments and muscles open. I had massive soft tissue damage. The huge lump was from internal bleeding in the foot. The recovery was long and painful. But luckily I'm young and my body did a great job healing. I have no pain in it now. It was definitely my scariest and most painful fall.


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## rottenweiler (Apr 16, 2009)

GAA! Some of these are really bad! I didn't 'bounce' from this one fall but instead rolled and rolled and rolled. Was cantering with a pack of horses at summer camp and the horse behind mine got too close. Mine bucked out and I lost reigns and stirrups and was balancing on her neck. She bucked out again and over her shoulder I went. I rolled and rolled forever it seemed like. When I finally stopped I jumped up like 'I'm OK' but nearly fell over because I was so dizzy from rolling. Not sure how everyone got to me as quickly as they did but one woman asked if anything hurt and I held my hand up because my pinky was a little sore, but she grabbed my shirt and dabbed my face and all I saw was blood all over my shirt. Turns out I split my lower lip wide open. Had to go to the hospital and get 3 stitches in it. What with being traumatized at having to go to the hospital for the first time and without my mom or dad anywhere nearby...I forgot about my pinky. Years later I came to find out I fractured my pinky finger but it healed over the fracture. I wont forget that one because it was my first most serious one. In any case, I'm currently going to a chiropractor because of my LAST one where the horse I was leasing decided to take off with me across the riding field, stop abruptly and changed directions and down I went. Seriously CRUNCHED my neck, although I waited a while to go to the chiropractor because I have had similar 'accidents' and my neck is usually better shortly there-after with no medical treatment. The chiropractor says you should have a slight inward curve of your neck/spine and I no longer have that. He thinks it will come back with time though, and adjustments. And, yes, I was wearing a helmet...that the head harness part that holds the helmet in place broke on from this fall and the helmet came down on the bridge of my nose and probably fractured it since it was red and swollen a couple days after the fall


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## RATHER BE RIDING (Dec 7, 2010)

So weird, for me, that this thread popped up when it did. Just last Friday, I had sort of a freak accident. I was riding my gelding, who is a little green, and he tripped and went down on both front knees while trotting. I ended up being thrown forward and as he struggled back on his feet, I was hanging off the right side of my western saddle. I was too far forward to right myself, so I was just going to slide off. I then realized that I could not move. I finally figured out that my left foot was caught on the saddle. It was wedged in the stirrup and caught under the skirt of my saddle. (Imagine if you were dismounting and as you went to bring your leg over the back of your horse, your foot stayed in the stirrup and got caught on the saddle.) I don't have any idea how exactly I got into that position, but by this time, my horse started crow hopping and I really thought that I was going to be in a lot of trouble. Luckily, the hopping was enough to loosen my foot in the stirrup and I plopped to the ground flat on my butt, no bounce 

I believe that my biggest mistake was not riding in boots that my foot could have slide out of. If my boot had not come out of the stirrup on its own, I hate to think what could have happened. This scared me enough that I will never ride in lace up boots again.

I have had my share of falls and injuries, but even though I was not hurt in this one, it was by far the scariest. I have never been just plain stuck and totally helpless before.


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## kaitums (Feb 22, 2011)

I'm 22, and I've had some interesting falls. My most recent being scraped off at a walk on my good friend's gelding, Sky. So embarrassing, and rather funny after the fact. Really stupid fall. Just got a couple of bruises and a jammed finger outta that one.

ANYWAY. The worst fall I've had was about 4 years ago at college. It was the first lesson back after winter break, and the horses were all fresh. The gelding I was riding decided that the mechanical door on the indoor was the scariest thing on the planet, after seeing it a million times previously. He took off bucking across the ring. I stuck it for about 5 or 6 bucks, when he twisted violently to the right, and I went soaring to the left. Straight into the wall. (I was told later, the slam echoed to the classrooms at the end of the ring) I slid down the wall and laid facedown in the footing for a minute or two before rolling over and trying to get up. I tried VERY hard to get back on, but my instructor refused to let me seeing as I couldn't breathe. I ended up being forced to go to the ER, and found out I severely bruised all the ribs on my left side, jammed my shoulder and bruised my nose. The doc said that a slight more amount of pressure would have shattered all my ribs. Long term I found out that that fall (flight?) also curved my lumbar spine. I now have a nice subluxation. ughhhh. I spent the next three days laying in bed loaded up in vicodin. wheeee!


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## Sunny (Mar 26, 2010)

Since you asked if one left us with scars, I feel obligated to answer. :lol:

It was my 14th birthday. My friend and I were riding at my uncle's farm when we decided to race back to the barn at a flat-out run. We were tearing along the fence line, absolutely flying, when suddenly I was in the air, upside down, backwards....and then dangling from the barbed wire fence in which I had landed. I had had a tack malfunction; the piece of leather that holds the D-ring for the cinch had cracked and broken. As a result, the saddle went flying off of the horse, as did I. As I said, I landed in the fence and was hanging in the air by my clothes, facing opposite the direction we were running. (According to my then-terrified friend, I came up and did a back flip/turn type maneuver before I hit the fence.) At first the only pain I felt was in my tailbone, as that was the only part of me that hit the ground. I stood up and began to walk back to the barn. Adrenaline still flowing, I said, "At least the fence didn't get me." I raised my ripped shirt, and my friend screamed, "Oh my God, Taylor! Yes it did!" I was gushing blood from my side, which had been devoured by the fence barbs.

Now nearly four years later, I have four lovely scars along my side. It looks like I was clawed by a cougar. :lol:
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

I've never had one that I couldn't get back on after a few minutes to catch my breath. As a child, I "practiced" being a stuntman, lol, and taught myself how to land and roll to not get hurt when falling. My wife, however, has with her last one. We were crossing a ditch and when we came up the other side, her horse kicked out at mine. She ended up going over her horses head and landed in front of him. Some how both her horse and mine managed to go past her with out stepping on her. She ended up fracturing a few ribs and dislocated her shoulder.


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## Amlalriiee (Feb 22, 2010)

^Sunny, ouch!!! 

Actually all of these are ouch...but landing in barbed wire is just a bad image!

I've only had a few falls where I didn't bounce *knock on wood*. First was a fall jumping, I front flipped over the horse's head, landed flat on my back and it knocked the breath out of me pretty good. The other time was also in a lesson. I hadn't checked my saddle before cantering, and the horse was a 3yo still learning to canter rather than dead gallop. He took a corner at a dead gallop, the saddle slipped, and I flew off the side landing on bleachers. Bleachers do NOT help you bounce...that time I messed my elbow up (couldn't fully bend or straighten for months afterward), ripped the skin completely off one of my shoulder blades, and broke my helmet clean in half. 

I guess I've been fairly lucky...My worst accident had nothing to do with falling-my horse flipped her head back and knocked my teeth out a few months ago...broke that bone that holds them all in place  The teeth are back to looking normal now, but it still hurts!


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Happened about 4 years ago. 

Had a horse go bronc on me who previously was quite sane and quiet. Broke 3 ribs on my left side, my right collarbone, and got a massive concussion. I believe that's when I acquired my retinal tear, since my vision was whonky for a few days afterwards.

Got the vet out the next day, because when a horse goes 'bad' suddenly it's usually a physical issue. Yep, sure was. He had arthritic changes in his spine and hocks, and he just couldn't take the pain anymore. He was retired that day. He's my Senior Pasture Maintenance Engineer now (pasture puff), and is fat and happy. 

I was 49 at the time, and I don't bounce anymore; I splat and break things. :?


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## CJ82Sky (Dec 19, 2008)

ouch to all of the above!!!


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## HollyBubbles (Jun 22, 2009)

*Pic and vid following...*

I'm 15 (16 tomorrow) and thanks to scoliosis, I don't bounce.. Normally, I think the only fall I actually haven't been injured in was the one I really should have.

In 09 I was jumping bubbles and we were going over decently sized jumps, and of all times for me to lose my balance it had to be over to 30cm set up in the middle of the paddock, that takes talent though you know :wink: being able to jump 1m but falling off over 30cm. Anyways, I didn't stride myself correctly, bubbles was strided correctly but I was a stride behind, so I didn't go into position when I should have, got bounced backwards, lost my right stirrup and she turned left so needless to say I turned right. Sat on the ground swearing at my stupidity for a few minutes before getting back on with a sore hip and half covered in mud, doing the jumps again, then a few days later I find out I have cracked ribs... haha whoops. - I have the video of that fall but on youtube it's in the middle of another video so I won't bother posting that one.

Then about 2 weeks ago I was riding my 7yo (whom has never been on dairy pasture) He was being lazy and wouldn't trot so I tapped him with the whip and he pretty much exploded. It was like someone had set off a nuclear bomb up his bum, he bolted bucking and pig rooting and twisting, I stuck it for about 20 metres then suddenly found myself sitting in mid air beside the saddle going "OH SH*T this is a long way down", so I let go and bailed out, landed on the ground, smashed my helmet and sat there wondering why nothing hurt and watching him go bronc round the paddock. I come out with a green/blue/yellow/black/purple bruise over the inside of my right knee and part way down my leg. It looked more impressive in person though.

__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content








The video is me on a horse I trialled, and for obvious reasons didn't buy.. But it is the exact same manner that I was thrown off Mitchell. (And the vid is also the fall I should have been severly hurt in jufging by how I landed, but got out of without a single bruise, although if you look closely at the vid you can actually see me bounce, I didn't bounce coming off mitch)


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## MIEventer (Feb 15, 2009)

Sunny said:


> Since you asked if one left us with scars, I feel obligated to answer. :lol:
> 
> It was my 14th birthday. My friend and I were riding at my uncle's farm when we decided to race back to the barn at a flat-out run. We were tearing along the fence line, absolutely flying, when suddenly I was in the air, upside down, backwards....and then dangling from the barbed wire fence in which I had landed. I had had a tack malfunction; the piece of leather that holds the D-ring for the cinch had cracked and broken. As a result, the saddle went flying off of the horse, as did I. As I said, I landed in the fence and was hanging in the air by my clothes, facing opposite the direction we were running. (According to my then-terrified friend, I came up and did a back flip/turn type maneuver before I hit the fence.) At first the only pain I felt was in my tailbone, as that was the only part of me that hit the ground. I stood up and began to walk back to the barn. Adrenaline still flowing, I said, "At least the fence didn't get me." I raised my ripped shirt, and my friend screamed, "Oh my God, Taylor! Yes it did!" I was gushing blood from my side, which had been devoured by the fence barbs.
> 
> ...


OMG SUNNY!!!! How horrible! I've had encounters with barbed wire fencing, just getting to close to one on a trail ride and scratching my leg, but nothing to the extent of yours!!! You poor thing!

I bet now, you double check all your tack! I'm so sorry


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## Sunny (Mar 26, 2010)

Oh, I certainly learned my lesson about tack checking!

Actually, a few minutes before the accident my friend said, "Hey, your saddle looks loose, you might want to check it." I pushed it off, saying I'd fix it when we got back to the barn. If I would have checked the cinch I would have noticed. 

Every time I think about that fall I thank my lucky stars that it was my side that got the barbs, not my face or eyes. :shock:
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Amlalriiee (Feb 22, 2010)

I forgot I have pictures from my recent incident...no pictures from that day when the teeth were all pushed out of place, but here's a picture from a few days later after the dental surgery, along with a picture of my smile now so that you can see the difference. lol. My lips aren't ACTUALLY Angelina sized.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I don't have any scars from coming off of horses. I have one above my nose from being bitten in the face, one on my shin from having my horse spook into the horse in front of me while we were riding and getting kicked, and one I just acquired on my thigh a couple of months ago from getting kicked by a horse in the pasture.

My only broken bones didn't come from falling off either: I broke my nose when the horse in front of mine kicked out at my horse's head and she flung her head around to avoid it. I broke my toe when leading my horse by a road...I was looking at the cars.

I'm in my mid-thirties but so far I've always managed to get back on my horse so I guess that counts as still bouncing.

Some of my favorite falls of all time: 

When galloping on wet grass my horse's feet slid out to the side and she fell down. We both slid on our sides together in tandem across the wet grass. My friend said it looked really cool. I didn't get sore at all from that one.

Walking through some bushes a tangled vine entwined my horse's front legs. When she tried to move it brought her suddenly to her knees. I was deposited into the bushes.

My friend was riding directly in front of me and we were both trotting on a narrow trail between trees. My friend's foot got caught on a small tree about five feet high. As she rode forward the tree was bent down and then released suddenly, snapping back at me and my horse. It would have hit my horse smack in the middle of the face if she hadn't been so quick at jumping three feet to the side to avoid it. That was one I couldn't ride.

Barbed wire fences terrify me! If a big truck comes by on the road and there is barbed wire nearby I get off and lead my horse. Just in case.


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## HollyBubbles (Jun 22, 2009)

gottatrot said:


> Barbed wire fences terrify me! If a big truck comes by on the road and there is barbed wire nearby I get off and lead my horse. Just in case.


Amen to that, when I was probably 10 or 11 My friend and I rode down the road on the neighbours pony and horse (with permission of course!) I was on the 14yo dead broke gelding who was just hard to stop, but unflabbable. My friend was on the newly broken horse who was terrified of traffic.
So here we are walking down a hill in plain view when a horse truck appears about 500m away. Lace gets off the horse because she knows he is scared of traffic, and there is a bank and a fence on one side of road. We flagged down horse truck and tried to get them to slow down, you would think most respectable horse people would slow down but apparently not these ones. They fly past us, Barney breaks loose and gallops off down the road, leaving lace behind on the side of the road. Billy and I take off flat gallop down the side of the road trying to catch Barney, who's saddle was underneath him by this time (don't actually know how he managed that, it was pretty dang tight)
Billy and I catch barney and wait for lace to get down the road cursing at the horse truck. Then we had to take the saddle off and redo it on a poor shaking barney in the middle of a gravel track. Then we carried on, but went through the neighbours paddocks to get back (again, with permission)

-That could have ended very nasty if Lace didn't get off willingly before Barney took off :shock:


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## mooney (Sep 20, 2010)

WOW guys I knew there would be some interesting stories out there but ouch! don't really want to go through some of those even the once where you could get back on. I would put the pics of my accident but you wouldn't know what you're looking at, just a red and black mess. At least teachers understood why I couldn't sit in a hard back chair, even with it all wrapped up. I'm really lucky I didn't get massive scars from that one, I do from being cloth lined by a tree when on the trail my helmet visor got caught on the tree branch and wiped my head up cutting up from my chin to my collar bone. And ended up sitting on my butt behind my horse. That was embarrassing and very painful.


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## rottenweiler (Apr 16, 2009)

there was one time, also at horse camp. I didn't fall off but was pretty shaken for a bit after. We had this 'trainer' who had us doing stuff in the arena. We had to lean down to the side and pick up a bucket that was on the ground, while riding our horse and not stopping to grab it, just grab the handle as we went by. Well I made several passes and missed every dang time. Then finally I got it! When I sat back up straight my horse started to bronc buck. I just froze but then I heard people say 'DROP THE BUCKET DROP THE BUCKET!' since that is what was freaking him out. Well I more so tossed the bucket to the side so he veered off to the opposite side to get well away from it, still bronc bucking. He slammed sideways into the arena fence and then slowed down and calmed down. I was quick to get OFF even though the trainer was saying 'you did good, you stayed on! Don't get off!' I had a massive cramp in my side and was shaking pretty bad so I needed to catch my breath. Had a nice bruise on my leg a day or so later from being slammed between the horse and the fence


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## apachiedragon (Apr 19, 2008)

I've had some doozies, but there was one where I definitely splatted. I was training a herd of paints for a guy so he could sell some of them off, and the area that I rode was about a quarter mile down a gravel road from the pasture. I had been working with Phantom, who I now own, who at the time was a three year old stud. Had gotten him going really well, and wanted to work with Quincy some, who was a 6 year old mare, and who was a lot unpredictable. So I got my hubby to come out and ride Phantom while I worked with Quincy just in case something went wrong. We had a nice long ride and she was really good, so my hubby asked if he could ride her back to the pasture just to feel her out. So he got up in my English saddle, and I got into his WAY too big Western one on Phantom (who I had been riding bareback and every other which way with no problems for a while). He is taller than me, so rather than move his stirrups all around just for a cool-out walk back to the field, I let my legs hang. About half way back down the gravel road something startled Phantom. We assume deer, but we never saw anything. He lost his mind, flew backward, spun around, and took off bronc-bucking, with his head between his knees. And me in a too big saddle with no stirrups, and loopy reins. I didn't stand a chance. I came off at the top of the third buck, and my hubby said it looked like he'd launched me. I went flying up and came down hard, on my hip, in the middle of the gravel road. Splat. And didn't move. I couldn't. All the air was knocked out of me. Phantom made a beeline for Quincy and cowered beside her, and my hubby bailed off and came running. He thought for sure I was dead when I didn't pop right back up. He's seen me fall a lot of times, but that was the only time I fell and stayed down when he was around. I had gravel embedded in my hip, and was so bruised that I couldn't walk for nearly a week without help. 

Another. I had a temporary electric line run around what is now my arena, but used to be just grass. I went out and was sitting on Buck while he grazed. No halter, or tack. I was just sitting and "communing", lol. All was fine until he grazed under the line, and it shocked him on the back of the head. He bolted forward and the fence caught me around the waist and jerked me off his back. When I landed, it was on the back of a straight leg, and I hyper-extended my knee. I was home alone. I managed to crawl to the sidewalk, but I couldn't make it up the steps to the house to call for help. So I sat in the driveway and cried, leg swelling. By the time my hubby got home (he's a paramedic) he had to cut my jeans off just to look at my leg. This was almost 11 years ago, and it still hurts me if the weather gets bad, or if I push it too hard.


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## Delfina (Feb 12, 2010)

I tried cantering my trainer's gelding bareback, he dropped his inside shoulder and broke into an unbalanced, rushy trot.... I went flying, found the only rock in the arena and scraped all the skin off my right arm.

Several weeks later my QH for some unknown reason took off at a full gallop just as I got halfway on her. I went flying, scraped all the skin off my left arm and fractured my wrist (which I didn't discover for a week or so).

I now have matching scars on my right and left arms! A gift from each horse! LOL


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## Jacona (Feb 24, 2011)

Injured a few times, bruises from clipping fences or bushes. Road rash from falling off after a spook at an idiot with highbeams on in the middle of a cloudy but dry afternoon.
But my BEST injury was on a hack with my dad, generally rather sad stable, a lot of horses gotten older and at auction. A few that were just happy to walk after a leader and ignore their riders. I told them I has some experience riding and they put me on a prickly little mare with the most stubborn attitude. She walked under a tree and started crow hopping, I ended up bashing my helmet into a few branches and seeing stars. Then she reared and tossed me neatly onto a branch and left for home at a dead gallop. 

I got a bump on the head and a cracked rib. It was fun breathing hard for a few weeks. One reason I dislike hacking at stables now. You never know what you'll get.


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## mooney (Sep 20, 2010)

Jacona I have been there to, and don't enjoy going on hacks off the CNR because of it.


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## spence (Nov 8, 2009)

i don't bounce, i'm 25 and top 230, so i'm not small either. didn't start riding til in my 20's, either.

although i never really had a splat until last year. my horse, twitch, snagged a leg on an electric fence wire i'd forgotten was down and when he decides he's going to GO, he's already GONE. like a rocket. needless so say i found myself on the ground in a hurry. sat up, saw the wire dragged for a couple of strides and laughed because i knew exactly what happened. hurt like hell the next day, but that was it.

second splat recently. one and ONLY occasion with an english saddle. threw it on twitch and was riding around by the house here. started losing a bit of control so i was slowing my horse and suddenly... "THWAP!" dang stirrup leather broke and as the iron hit the ground, i came right behind it. square on my back, somehow. TOTALLY winded but i was in great shape the next day.

last friday was the good one. went out to ride the mare we're selling for just a bit as it was getting dark. between the old silo turned trash pit and same electric fence that got me before. just before the moon came up, so it was pretty dark. mare spooked at a critter (likely skunk) in the pit, all i needed to do was keep her going straight to NOT go through that electric fence. nope, once she hit that she was gone like a rocket. don't remember falling off specifically, or walking home, or the wife catching the mare. i do remember going back out to leave for the hospital, though, and i've got a fractured C6 vertebrae in my neck out of the deal. however, i was cleared to go back to work and ride again on monday. 

work's been ok, a little sore before i go to bed at night. got on twitch for just a bit day before yesterday. this one shook me up good. that mare's a few select nasty words to start with, and i told the wife i want her gone ASAP even more now. she'll make somebody a lovely horse, just not us. and she's just really... mareish. anyhow, i'm still crossing my fingers that i'll finish her, or that somebody just has to have her, because i don't want to be stuck with her.


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## HopalongCassidy (Dec 19, 2010)

LOl, ha just the 18th of this month did i not bounce back up. My doesn't sound bad but it hurt like hell and still does. I made a thread here it is.

http://www.horseforum.com/general-off-topic-discussion/getting-off-my-high-horse-but-78901/


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## HopalongCassidy (Dec 19, 2010)

sorry this was a double post. :-(


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## sarahver (Apr 9, 2010)

When I was younger, and had more bounce, I had a few falls that make my hair stand on end now that I think about what could have happened.

I was breaking in young TB's for the track for a real old timer type of trainer - tougher than an old pair of boots. This particular youngster was a big bay mare, 2yo and already over 16hh. She spooked at something and took off straight for a fence. She jumped sideways at the last minute. I didn't.

I went straight through the fence, taking the top rail with me, ended up lying on my back on top of the wooden rail completely winded. Well that trainer was STRAIGHT into me "What the hell are you doing, get back on that bl**dy horse what are you waiting for you idiot..."

I couldn't even breathe enough to tell him that I couldn't breathe, I must have looked like a pathetic little goldfish that had jumped out of its tank and was flapping around on the floor. I got back on when I caught my breath, not too badly injured apart from some nasty bruising down my back.

Not too sure I would be back on so quick if it happened to me today!


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

I've got loads of scars from horses.
I have an interesting one going from my right shoulder to my left hip. That was caused by gravell rash when a horse bucked me off onto the road.

I cracked my tailbone riding on the beach, I was bareback on a horse that had had showshine on it. Went for a gallop, horse spooked and I ended up on my bum in the sand. Couldnt sit down properly for nearly 6 months. Had to buy a special cusion with a cut out!

My worst fall to date has got to be when I was riding a young event horse. I was in an arena schooling him on the flat. Something spooked him and I don't remember the rest.
My mum who was watching said he took off, attempted to jump out of the school, hit the top bar and summersaulted. Unfortunatly for me I stayed with him. I ended up underneath him, unconcious and bleeding heavily. I remember coming to in the ambulance and the 8 hours in A&E whilst they Xrayed and scanned me everyway possible because they thought I had broken my neck.
I was Very very lucky. I didnt break my neck, I had some soft tissue damage to my neck, extensive scarring on my right arm that had to be scrubbed because it contained gravel, a major concussion and wounded pride.
My helmet had a hoof print on it and the button from the top was found 20m away!

This is a photo of my arm after 2 weeks of healing and some maggot therapy!


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## bellagris (Dec 6, 2010)

Oh I've got a few, but my most recent 2 falls went like this:

I finished up a training session on my mare, turned her out and me and the BO decided to work a couple of her horses, I rode her broodmare who hasn't had much riding and she rode her show horse for the season. I start riding the mare around the ring and she is just fired right up (i'm not a feisty horse person, i don't want a sleeper, but hot under the saddle isn't my thing) anyways i'm trying to slow her down, I get her to a walk, and all the sudden she rounds herself, gives a buck (which i sat) but then she reared and my one foot slipped from the stirrup (my heels were down really far from the buck as it took my by surprise), she gave a big buck and sent me over. I landed on her neck and rode that way at a canter for about 80 feet with one foot still stuck in the stirrup until the mare started going towards the other horse who was dancing on the spot. I decided my best option was tuck and roll...i didn't really roll, but woke up about 4 minutes later thinking it was summer (it was winter) and not remembering coming to the barn...i took about a month off from that one with a nasty concussion!

My most recent was on this really well broke mre, i have been practicing my dressage equitation and so learning the ques and such. The mare is a bit lazy and so will come out of the canter on a whim and is always needing motivation in any gait.

I was having a bit of trouble keeping her in the canter and so my BO said to get on the long line and then i can just focus on the cues. So we're going around and she decides i should canter without my hands (I wasn't comfortable with this at the point i was at but when i voiced that i got the "suck itup and push yourself" so made my attempt), so I'm going around cantering and asking for it 9it was actually going pretty well i had managed to flow through the upward and downward transitions quite well as the mare is notorious for slowing down), then she of course slows right down to a slow trot and as i am rebalancing myself so i can be centered when i ask for the canter again, the BO cracks the whip (this mare gets grumpy at the sound) so she crow hops then gives a little buck and i just went flying, bounced, hit my head on the weall and broke my brand new helmet! I did get back on and was lead around while I was seeing stars. But had a headache for a few days after that one.

The goal...don't make the same mistake twice and balance balance balance!


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## WesternJake (Jan 29, 2011)

First time back in the English saddle after about 1 1/2 years, and I was on Jake, not an English horse. His canter is choppy and is being worked on, so needless to say I ended up hanging around his neck until he slowed down enough where I could swing over and land on the ground. Me and my trainer were in hysterics. 

Same day, same ride, in the English saddle. Jake was trying to go a direction I didn't want him to. I asked him to Ho, and turn right and he stopped, and I didn't think he was going to go right, but he did! And I went left! Landed on my butt in a manure pile. Oh my gosh, did my tailbone hurt for a LONG time after that! I was really happy that Jake didn't take off though. As soon as I was off, he just kind of stood next to me like "What was that!?" lol. I definitely did not bounce on that fall!

Emily


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## WesternJake (Jan 29, 2011)

I remembered another: 

The ring I ride in is really just a small grass paddock, so when it rains a lot, the ground is quite squishy/wet. We also lunge in this paddock, so the grass in the centre gets churned up. I was riding Western, taking Jake along the outside left rail and turning right and simultaneously asked for a lope. As soon as I did, we took maybe 1 stride and he went down on his right side. I managed to pull myself away from the saddle, the horn only touching my abdomen. My right leg was under him, but he rolled up quickly enough for me to pull it out. I thought I was fine, but a few days later when I was riding, I noticed that putting alot of weight on it in the saddle (especially at the trot) caused some pain. I pinched a nerve in my lower leg, and it's actually still a bit swollen, and this happened several weeks ago. If I kneel down or ride in a saddle that has long stirrups, it agitates it a lot. 

Kind of s.ucky, because in my saddle, either the stirrups are either on the 3rd or 4th hole and my drill master wants me to ride on the 3rd hole which causes issues at the canter (I get a stitch in my side), but riding on the 4th hole causes me to basically hover over the saddle and never sit in it. :/.

On Jan 10th I was at drill, unblanketing Jake when he sidestepped suddenly and planted his entire back hoof on my left foot (the one I sprained in September, of all things). I had cowboy boots on, so not a lot of protection. It's still slightly bruised, slightly swollen and slightly tender. I couldn't walk for a day without limping. :/

Emily


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## mooney (Sep 20, 2010)

WesternJake, I had a 2200 pound belguin mare step on my foot and I found out once your foot to swollon to twice normal size cowboy boots don't come off. I think I was horrified when it had to cut off with a pair of leather sissors, so know what you mean about taking along time to feel the same again.

This topic has really taken off, but I guess when around horses your bound to have more than your fair share of accidents.


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## WesternJake (Jan 29, 2011)

mooney said:


> WesternJake, I had a 2200 pound belguin mare step on my foot and I found out once your foot to swollon to twice normal size cowboy boots don't come off. I think I was horrified when it had to cut off with a pair of leather sissors, so know what you mean about taking along time to feel the same again.
> 
> This topic has really taken off, but I guess when around horses your bound to have more than your fair share of accidents.


I couldn't take my foot out/put it back in without extreme pain. Even now it still hurts to put it in there. Definitely not fun.

Emily


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## mooney (Sep 20, 2010)

Yeah I think the pain wasn't helped by the fact I had just bought the dumb boots for showing only a week earlier!


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## HollyBubbles (Jun 22, 2009)

I remembered another one to :L

When I was 9 I got my first loan pony (that lasted all of a month, dirty little cow she was...Arab mare 7yo newly broke, neighbour said "she'll be right" my parents were none the wiser at that point neither was I)
I was just learning to canter and it was going great, I was cantering straight lines because I wasn't confident enough to turn yet (I learnt to ride a bike the same way haha!)
She didn't want to canter on my last attempt so I squeezed and prodded her into it determined not to lose. She decided no, so threw a massive buck and sent me flying upside down to land neatly, still upside down, on a concrete block of all places. Smashed my helmet to pieces and sat up wondering where I was. ended up being forced to the hospital because I kept trying to go to sleep and had a nasty concussion.


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