# about how many times have you fallen off?



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I honestly lost count years ago. Now, I only remember the ones that I got hurt fairly bad or they were memberable for some other reason.


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## DrumRunner (Jan 26, 2011)

I'm with smrobs, I stopped counting lol...I've hit the ground quite a few times but only remember the more memorable or painful ones. It's just part of owning and riding a horse...It's not a matter of IF you're going to fall off or get hurt, it's when and how bad..and if you get back on!


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## Country Woman (Dec 14, 2011)

too many times to count lol but I always mange to get back on


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## tlkng1 (Dec 14, 2011)

Same here..have lost count. In 30+ some odd years of riding I've been bucked off, tossed over fences, come off due to rearing and shying where the horse left me on the other side of the ring and other simpler falls one of which was just in a simple canter and I just lost balance..now THAT was embarrasing. Have only had what someone would consider a serious injury once (broken humerus and 6 months of radial nerve regeneration after the surgery)..the others just left me bruised and limping for a few days.


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## yadlim (Feb 2, 2012)

When I was young and dumb, coming off was just part of riding and breaking horses. As I got older, not so much!

In the last seven years I have come off twice - though I am not sure the last one counts as my horse fell. He was having a stupid day and was terrified of a ROCK and reared over backwards. I pushed him off me when my back hit the ground. I was unhurt, he wound up with 20+ stitches as his self furfilling prophecy was that the rock really did bit him!

Seven years ago I took a bad spill and crushed my spine - I have been told that one more fall and I am paralized for life... I flat refuse to come off any more. Period.


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## OuttatheBlue (Dec 8, 2011)

I've lost count throughout the years. Luckily I still have a 'sticky seat' which has saved me in a lot of situations though. I've actually been in more accidents on the ground than in the saddle!

I like your list idea though  great idea!


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I think I am at about 15 falls, in 12 years . My riding as a child, well I dont' know how many times I fell. I forgot.


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## VanillaBean (Oct 19, 2008)

I haven't been counting since my first 15 or so. I focus on the good moments


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## Lexiie (Nov 14, 2011)

WELL.
The first time I fell off I was 5 years old, was on the trail with my riding instructor when her horse spooked, mine took off running right out from under me. I cried a little, brushed myself off, got back on and went home. I was very excited tell my mom that I had fallen and told her, "Mom! I fell off! Not Val, I FELL OFF!!!" with a face like this DDDD
As if my riding instructor would have fallen off from a little canter! HAH
The second to the 9th time was off my mare, Alibi. She's a Standardbred, and she paces and trots. Her trot is TERRIBLY bouncy, so I've fallen off of her from trotting around bareback, her popping a wheelie on the trail bareback(after a bath and showsheen), her refusing a fence. I jumped, she didn't. 
I've also fallen off of this OTTB at my barn. We were in the outdoor, after him not being ridden in almost a year. Part of the fence was down, and a crossrail was in the corner. He POPPED over the crossrail, I lost my blance and he veered right toward the fence. I fell around infront of his neck, and he stopped dead. Like "why re you on the ground and not on my back?" 
He's a really a sweetheart<3


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## Tayz (Jan 24, 2009)

I've fallen off once in the 3 or so years that I've been riding lol, and that was because it was my friends horse and it was quite the nutcase horse, they ended up selling it as he was too dangerous but I was walking him down and back and he decided he wanted to run back very fast with no listening to my legs, my arms or anything. I dont know why but I dont take many chances, maybe its because Ive got rods in my back that I'm more careful while riding, but my worst injury has been from gettin bitten on the bum by a 10hh pony haha


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## Monty77 (Aug 8, 2011)

I honestly can't even remember how many times I've fallen off, I think it must be somewhere in the teens now. The instructor I had as a little kid once told me that I had to fall of 100 times before I'm a good rider... I really hope that that isn't true.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I don't fall off, they are very complicated gymnastic maneuvers.


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## CLaPorte432 (Jan 3, 2012)

3, maybe 4 times in 15 years. :-D


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## Newby32 (Dec 4, 2011)

Geesh! I've fallen off twice in the last 4.5 months and you all have got me nervous for how many more times are yet to come!  At least I have switched the cowboy hat for a helmet.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I have never fallen off, in 4 decades of riding. I am also old & senile and I lie.


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## FreeDestiny (Jul 3, 2011)

I fell off to make my 3rd time today, Destiny wanted to put in an extra stride before a 3' fence and I pushed for the long spot, she took some weird 3/4 stride and I got left behind, went over the neck and landed on my feet. 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

^^^^^That's acrobatics, not falling!


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## FreeDestiny (Jul 3, 2011)

I decided mid fall if I wasn't going to stay on, I was going to land with dignity. Acrobatics it is! 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## MyBoyPuck (Mar 27, 2009)

7...been a lucky girl over the years.


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## ChingazMyBoy (Apr 16, 2009)

I honestly dont remember either, only the falls which were either very epic or I got badly hurt. Though, I haven't fallen off in quite a while. Touch wood.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Funny, we say, "knock on wood".


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## ChingazMyBoy (Apr 16, 2009)

tinyliny said:


> Funny, we say, "knock on wood".


Ours is commonly touch wood.
But I've head that too.


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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

Umm.. on my horse? 9 times. ALL were bolts. That little *** 

On the green mare? 12 times, but mainly it was just me sliding off of her big barrel and landing on my feet.. never getting launched.

On others? Maybe twice???

So falls for real, perhaps like 12 times total in my 9 year riding career so I'm not doing too badly. Haven't fallen for months and I shan't! I refuse to fall off!!!


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## attackships (Jan 12, 2012)

Maybe 6 times total in 15 years. I fell off mostly as a kid with a bolting pony . Last time I fell off was about 8 years ago. I probably have a lot more slow and "boring" rides compared to others in here lol.


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## SkyeDawn (Mar 31, 2011)

I haven't fallen off yet in my years of riding (only like 3 years). :x I am just WAITING for the day though. It has to happen lol. DH just started riding and he's already fallen off. I must have a sticky rear end or something.

I almost fell off a bucking horse once, but she stopped when I started teetering.


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## Clayton Taffy (May 24, 2011)

My mom used to tell me that you were not a real horsewoman till you fell off 50 times. When I hit 50 she raised it to 100. 
I was always over mounted when I was little, a fact she admits to now and is sorry. Comming from an equestrian family there were always horses being passed around from one family member to another. I think we ended up with the rank ones more often than not.

So I lost count around 100. Now I just remember the last one.


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## FlyGap (Sep 25, 2011)

Guess I'm not a real horsewoman! I'd rather think I'm a bad a** one!

In over 24 years of riding I've only been thrown twice.
Once when I was nine I was riding a friends mare and she got spooked by a snake on a pond bank. The mare twisted to the left, the saddle was loose and slipped under the horse. I held on to her belly and was drug across the pasture full of rocks and only fell off when she got back to the gate and stopped.
The second time I was 11. My mare reared and spun and I wasn't ready. So I ate dirt.
I decided I didn't like it and would not do it again. So far I haven't.
Beat on wood!


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## MyLittleHunter (Jul 20, 2009)

Haha I gave up counting after 25ish. 20 of which were off of Dallas trying to retry him after him being abused. He thought he was in the rodeo. No one dared to get on him but me. The good news is, now I'm nearly impossible to get off. I can sit through just about anything at this point, but it took a lot of dust biting to get here. lol.


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## farley (May 23, 2010)

I have been thrown alot but only a few I remeber, My first horse for along time didnt have any brakes and this one time she took off buck and through me off balance and cockeyed in the saddle I cought a tree hit the ground and was kick with one of her galluping back feet. My mother dressed me in PJs for a week until the gashes on my back started to scab. Anothr time I was riding bareback on Grady, we were trotting down one of the trail on the property when he got ****y and started buckiing I had stayed on but it was awkward, outa reaction I pulled the reins and his bumpy little trot just stoped and I fell over his shoulder. I broke my arm. An the big Fall was when I fell off my Rodeo Horse. I was 13 and rode her outa the creek the cinch slipped she bulted bucked I was picted out of the saddle but was dragged about 100 yards, I woke in the hospital two days later. My helmet had been cracked all over, I tore my rotater cup,tore three different muscles in my neck and now very pron to concusions. 
I have also fallen from a horse about a million times All my fault, like texting while riding bareback, being ten and tying off half the turn out so I can make my horse run around with no halter or bridle or saddle only to realize that she was smart enough to go under the rope. And list goes on. 
Luckily though in the last two years I have not fallen =)


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

Lost count in 1970 something.......


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## Radiowaves (Jul 27, 2010)

Don't know how many when I was a kid.... I remember a few, including the time I jumped a creek and my horse didn't! ;-) 
As an adult, only three; all three were due to ME not paying attention.... Hope I'm doing better at that now....Posted via Mobile Device


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## Country Woman (Dec 14, 2011)

I have fallen off many times to many to mention 
but I always get back on


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## xxBarry Godden (Jul 17, 2009)

In which decade?


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## Cacowgirl (Feb 19, 2011)

I've had my share of falls off various horses & ponies. The down side of riding. Today was riding my Arab,pushing cows-a first for him, he did fine, but he was sure light on his feet-LOL!


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## boldstart (Oct 11, 2009)

lost count - now that I ride trackwork it happens more than I like.
but part of the job, and if I can I get back (unless my horse has done a runner! lol)


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## countryryder (Jan 27, 2012)

I don't fall off,I do flying dismounts.


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## GunSmoke (Sep 27, 2011)

I've been riding since I was 7, I'm now 20, and I've fallen off 5 times. I'm very thankful to the trainer who got me started and taught me extremely thoroughly from the ground up...and also to my very very long legs...they tend to help in sticky situations haha.


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## countercanter (May 18, 2011)

I lost count of how many times I have fallen...but at my old barn the rule was if you fell off (and weren't seriously hurt) you were responsible for bringing brownies the next day haha.


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## SkyeDawn (Mar 31, 2011)

SkyeDawn said:


> I haven't fallen off yet in my years of riding (only like 3 years). :x I am just WAITING for the day though. It has to happen lol. DH just started riding and he's already fallen off. I must have a sticky rear end or something.
> 
> I almost fell off a bucking horse once, but she stopped when I started teetering.


Need to change my answer. I slid off my bareback horse yesterday lol. My trainer said the fall was incredibly slow, and wouldn't stop laughing (after she made sure I was ok ) My girl was laying down, but sitting up, so I got on her back (because she is so tall) and she stood up before I was prepared for it, or had any of her mane. I fell off AS she was getting up, I was like 2 feet off the ground lol.


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## karebear444 (Feb 3, 2012)

I'd say about 5 times, but the one of the worst was before I get my mare. I borrowed my cousin's horse for a local organized trail ride and she took off on me. Tried everything to get her to stop and she wouldn't. I wound up in the ER. Not fun!!! :-(


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## MHFoundation Quarters (Feb 23, 2011)

I stopped counting about 20 years ago. As a kid, tons of times. Now, not too often. I've honed my skills at riding out just about anything. 

I had 2 in the past year, one my own stupid fault, well both kind of my own stupid fault. The first, I had no business on a horse that day. Migraine & had taken rx meds that have a sedative & muscle relaxer in it....riding Missy, she got spooked by a deer. She went left, I went right. The second was a one off ride for family friends a couple months ago to see just how bad their colt was. They'd just bought a colt that was a known bucker...bucking, I'm good. Turns out he was NOT a bucker, he was a launch himself over backwards as soon as you hit the saddle kind of guy. I almost got out of his way, got a leg pinned but I was okay. He's probably on someone's dinner plate by now. 

2010, just one, a big crash that was neither my fault or the horse. Was loping Woodstock, he went down to his knee in a hole that wasn't visible from the surface and we both went end over end. He had a bad tendon injury, me a dislocated shoulder.

Before that one, I'd went almost 8 years without eating dirt. :-(


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## countrygirl36 (Feb 26, 2012)

Only about 5 times, but I've only been riding 3 years, and all my horses are amazing, my trainers always say you aren't a true cowgirl until you've fallen off at least 100+ times <3


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## palominolover (Apr 28, 2010)

Oh wow. Too many and I've been riding for two years. I've always been put on a challenging horses even when I was a kid.


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## Gilly (May 28, 2011)

Three times. Thankfully I had no major injuries besides some rattled bones from a fall off a cantering 16.2 TB.


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## Hidalgo13 (Dec 24, 2010)

0 times... :O and I'd like to hopefully keep it that way.  I am a careful rider, and during those moments where my horse bolted or I lost balance, I just hung on for dear life and managed to stay somewhat in the saddle.


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## Prinella (Jul 12, 2011)

5 times in 10 mins is my record! Jumping small pony me at 13 slightly to tall. The pony thought he'd teach me not to anticipate a jump all he did was stop and drop his sholder. Once I stopped laughing I stayed on!
3 in the last 3 years probably about 15 plus ^^ that day the 10 odd years prior


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## BarrelChick1848 (Dec 16, 2011)

Oh, I have no idea. Quiet a few times though, because I ride alot of green horses that just adore bucking.


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## Evvie (Mar 1, 2012)

I took lessons for 3 years and fell once, while I was posting bareback and it started to rain. The mare was quite tiny though and I landed on my feet without incident! All the horses I rode were very solid though, so I'm sure it had more to do with their competence than mine.


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## st0rmys3as (Feb 27, 2012)

I really don't know, I used to meticulously keep count but wouldn't have a clue now... enough times to have injury preferences  Black and blue bruises all the way, breaks are painful and long drawn out, sprains are just plain annoying, bruises caused by 500kg animals are impressive and are my all time favourite ice breaker/conversation reviver... or of course I could just not get injured at all hmmm lol


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## christabelle (Feb 13, 2011)

Depressingly, I've lost count. Most of them were due to my own stupidity. I've got the tuck and roll down pat though 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

I just tallied mine up

Around 15.

The only part of that hasn't broken so far... is my legs... everything else has been done minimum once... pretty much all on ponies too!!!


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## Fringe (Feb 29, 2012)

About 20 falls for me, I believe. Thankfully I've never been really injured. My worst fall was when a little arabian I was riding slipped and fell on top of me, and when she scrambled up she stepped on my arm several times. Somehow I managed to just end up with scrapes and bruises and I was back riding the next day


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## mystykat (Dec 4, 2011)

6 falls in 7 years. Some of them were pretty sad.. I wonder how I couldn't stay on haha


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

If someone says that they have never fell off then they haven't been riding long enough...

or the only horse they've been riding is the one you stick quarters in out front of the grocery store..tee he


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## harmony624 (Oct 29, 2011)

I fall off about once a year, so about 5-6 times.

Usually it was because the barn that I used to ride at would put me on an injured horse (they didn't know), and I was the one who got to find out that I was riding a horse with a broken canon bone, or a horse who was lame.... -_-

How they didn't know these things blows my mind.


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## HanginH (Mar 2, 2012)

Sadly more than I can remember. 

Did get bucked off a 6 year old mare 5 times in 30 minutes which was a new record and a sore body. That's when I was young and dumb. Now I am just older and a little less dumb

Other memorable falloff was at a branding for a friend. I was running my horse across a field to rope a escapee calf and my horse stepped in a hole. He went butt over tea kettle and sheared the horn off my saddle. Luckily neither my horse or myself got hurt.


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## VT Trail Trotters (Jul 21, 2011)

I fell off once so far and im not sure its the last, ha ha.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I could not even begin to count! 
I was always riding the very naughty ponies as a child and messing about on them so falls were inevitable! 
I do know that I fell off one pony 17 times trying to get him across a field without him stopping to eat. I was bareback and in a halter so not a lot of control. Every time he pulled me over his head I took him back to the gate to start again. 
I did get him across without eating eventually - probably because he was stuffed with the grass! LOL


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## Lunarflowermaiden (Aug 17, 2010)

A grand total of one. And I have been riding since the age of nine (three years of lessons then, a few years off, a few years on, now about six years of fairly consistantly riding most weeks).

And that one fall only happened last year. Horse was cantering, tripped, went down on both knees, sending me flying over her head and onto my head. I remember nothing of the flying through the air part. Only opening my eyes to stare at the sky, and wonder how that happened.


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## shandasue (Nov 22, 2011)

well in my 7 years of riding, probley about.... hmmmm 40, more or less. im a fearless 17yo if that tells you anything. thankfully i havn't broken anything yet 'knock on wood'.. should i really knock on wood sence i typed it, not said it? lol. my very first fall I went over the head and landed in a crouch on my feet! (oh yeah) my last fall i forgot a had spurs on and spurred the horse, fell off after he stoped bucking.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## WSArabians (Apr 14, 2008)

If I wrote down every time I bit the dust, my fridge would a novel. 
I don't care to remember anymore. LOL


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## lasdar (Mar 2, 2012)

3 times. The first I was riding double with a girl who 1. convinced her appy that he was a race horse, 2. wouldn't let me hold on to her. I skid 15 ft up hill, on my face. Concussion #1.
Second time was when the horse I was riding got in to a ****ing match with my friends rat terrier, the horse then spun then bolted. I didn't.

Last time was on a friends ex-race horse who apparently thought the electric fence was out to get him, he spun lechered to the left and then the right, I went left, fell on a pony who was laying on the ground then skid to a halt 10 ft further on. That pony probably still hates me. I tried to avoid it, which is why I fell, I tried to steer the horse away from running over the pony. No gratitude from that pony, I mean she could have been trampled, I think me hitting her was better, softer for me anyway. Got a concussion out of that one too, thankfully I was wearing my helmet that time, or I probably wouldn't be here now. Skinned my back too. 

Over all I think 3 in 28 years isn't too bad.


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## skyhorse1999 (Dec 29, 2011)

4 times in 6 years, never really got "hurt' just bruised. only once did the hors not stop and wait for me to get up. i will never forget chasing him for a mile until he remembered that he was too lazy to be running


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## outnabout (Jul 23, 2010)

2X in three years, am due for another one :lol:


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## aqharyder (Jan 25, 2009)

I truly have lost count in the 35+ years I have been riding, but I know I definitely fell off more when I was younger. Now, I'm not so reckless - I lunge first, pay attention, and I no longer run at full speed bareback with a halter (ah, youth!).


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## horseanimal11 (May 19, 2010)

My instructor says 30 times makes you a good rider... around here, the usual number is something like 5. So far I've hit 28, only 4 of them off my mare, surprisingly enough.


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## Jumper12 (Feb 2, 2012)

probably atleast 20...havent fallen off in a few years though some im probably past due


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## dirtroadangel (Jan 24, 2012)

Does having the horse go down and rolling over you count. Oh yea then the time my girth went lose and I went over but boot caught in stirrup upside down along with me and horse spooked so I got dragged thru the heavy brush.
Probably about 40-50.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## aqharyder (Jan 25, 2009)

Ooh, I had the cinch loose scenario - that sure was a fun one!


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## Missy May (Feb 18, 2012)

I don't like to admit the times I simply "fell" off. :wink: But, okay - twice, once when I got on my friend's horse bareback, a much smaller mount than my own, and I overshot...ooops. And, another on a camping trip. Unbeknownst to me, the grain in the feed sack tied on the back of my saddle had all shifted to one side and it had been raining for hours, _everything_ was wet...horse, saddle, cinch, everything. I had been looking down to protect my face when, and all of a sudden my then mare slowed to a crawl, I looked up and saw the trees "moving" in slow motion and it appeared to me as if we were falling off the mountian side - when, in actuality, my saddle was just sliding under aided by the grain weight shift and wet. Really embarrassing - since I had yelled, "help, help, I'm falling!" on my way "down".

Other than that, I have NEVER fallen off - I was PUSHED!


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## RunJumpRide (Sep 29, 2011)

After this weekend, I add 2 bucks and one fall to my list.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

I honestly have no idea about how many times I came off in my younger years - I do know that my first little guy, a nasty little shetland pony, accounts for probably 75% of my "offs". So, from start to 16, I have no idea, but it happened plenty.
Flash forward to my new count -- as of today, once. Yahzi and I's solo ride didn't go exactly as planned (well, to be fair I guess it went exactly as expected based on what I knew of her issues).


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## Ripplewind (Mar 22, 2012)

I've been riding for about six years, and I've only fallen off once so far.  The little Arabian I was riding decided to change gaits (from canter to trot) one stride away from the jump. I lost both of my stirrups as he was going over, and I lost balance and flew over out of the saddle, swinging to the left, and the next thing I knew, I was staring up at his pretty little white face and apologizing for jerking on the reins. I forgot to let go of the reins as I was flung off, and I felt badly for not having let go, lol.

Now, though, I have a horse of my own, and I'm just waiting for the time when I'll fall off again. Any day now, ha ha!


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

To many times to even guesstimate!
I fell off one naughty pony 19 times trying to get him across a field without eating. (It was bareback and in a halter) I did do it in the end but it was probably because he was so full of grass!


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## Susan Crumrine (Oct 5, 2009)

Yes, when you have been riding for 25 years, regularly, you cannot remember how many...

How about how many times the rescue squad was called instead?


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## minstrel (Mar 20, 2012)

I've been riding 13 years, can't really remember how many times I fell off in the first 8 years while I was getting lessons, somewhere in around 15 I think. I remember some in particular, usually the hilarious/more painful ones, but nothing particularly bad...

When I got my first horse, I fell off him twice in the first three times I went to try him out, breaking my finger the first time I attempted to get on him when he bolted away from the mounting block, bucking (I have a few bent fingers thanks to him...). I fell off him seven times in the first two months of fixing him up, usually when something was new and particularly difficult, like when I taught him to jump - I landed in the same jump three times that day. However, a while after I'd got him going beautifully and as solid and quiet as a beginner horse, he injured his stifle. After four months of rest, the vet said that he was still slightly uneven, but didn't appear to be showing much pain, and that I could try riding him again if I wanted to see how he would cope. I took him out on some quiet, walking hacks, and all seemed to be going fine, until one day, out with my sister, he spooked at a rabbit bursting out of a bush, and something clicked in him and he bolted, broncing like a nutcase, and then launched me headfirst into a stone wall, which put me in hospital for a few days, first thinking I'd broken my neck and then for brain scans thinking I had brain damage. I was unconscious for a few hours, scared my poor sister silly... and I think that was the poor horses way of telling me he couldn't cope with being ridden any more, and I never got on him again - he went as a companion to a friends horse before I went to uni. I count myself lucky that I came out of that one ok!

Since then, I've worked breaking in and bringing on youngsters in my holidays, but my first horse definitely taught me how to stick on! I fell off a grand total of four times over that next four years, twice with a youngster that, on riding in snow for the first time, decided it would be great to roll in... she did that twice in one day, both times quite quickly and without much warning! I also fell off another horse when trying to teach them about trotting poles - one of my friends got me laughing as we came trotting into the poles, and I was laughing so hard that I didn't really sit in and keep her moving, and she sort of dropped to a halt in front of the poles, and I was laughing so hard I tumbled off the front. Embarrassing... The last time was on my sister's horse, who at the time I was bringing on thinking of getting him myself, and I took him to his first ever show. He was as high as a kite, and went properly vertical a few times with me, but we worked through it and once we got into the ring he was perfectly behaved. He placed 2nd, we went for the lap of honour... and the horse in front galloped off, giving him a heart attack. He bolted, skidding to a halt by the ring gate, spinning and bucking at the same time, and I went soaring over the gate!

I haven't fallen off since, and haven't fallen off my new horse that I've had the last six months now as of yet. However, we've got our first cross countries together next month, so I'm not speaking too soon!


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