# Your worst trail experience



## dashygirl

I'd like to hear some of your stories about the worst experience you've had on the trail (or stories you've heard from other people). It could be an accident, something you've seen, how a horse has reacted to something, etc.


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## Mingiz

Howdy dashygirl My worst ever trail riding experience. We were riding in the mountains and coming back in we got on the dirt road and my mare and my friends MFT had been having a hissy contest with each other all day. We were at an ext trot and I never felt it but I heard it, my mare in stride kicked out to hit my friends horse and instead got my friend right about his boot and broke his leg. I never had felt so bad in my life...Needless to say I traded her for 2 grulla fillies.. She was a great ride and trail horse but had a streak in her and she would rear and lunge forward so after she had done that on a mountain trail a few times and then broke my friends leg she had to go....:mrgreen:


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## dashygirl

Oh my goodness! Your poor friend!


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## ChevyPrincess

That is horrible! Let's see, my worst trail expirence... the first time I rode my mare on a trail was horrible. She likes to walk out, but, none of my other friends horses did that, and plus she is old and grumpy. So she would through a fit _every time _I had to turn her around and go back to the others. She is SO impatient! I ride her in a hackamore because she has a teeth problems, and we had to cross a road, and a car was coming, and she didn't want to stop. I wheeled her around in a circle, and the dumb driver didn't slow down, so her but was inches from his car, and she didn't know what it was, so she kicked out at it! Luckily, she missed the car!! But it was an overall, scary, annoying, not enjoyable ride. :?


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## Mingiz

Well he wasn't as upset about it as I was. But it did help him to quit smoking. His Dr told him that it would take him longer to heal up. So he did and is still smoke free....


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## justsambam08

Well, we were riding out on trails that these horses had been on probably hundreds of times before. It was myself, my mother, some other people, and the BO. I was on my BO's new rescue, who she'd taken out plenty of times so she was confident that I could take her out. We were on the last leg of the trail, when all of the sudden my horse just bolted. To this day I have no idea what I did, or if I did anything, to set her off, but I held on for a good few minutes before finally just letting myself fall. I stupidly put my arms out, I even knew it was stupid as I was falling, and I shattered my right wrist.

I did go back one other time to that particular barn, and of course the BO put me on a dead horse and I was thinking to myself "I want to GO" the whole time we were out on a trail. I'm such a speed demon xD


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## ChevyPrincess

Ouch! I am super lucky. I have never broke a bone on a horse fall, luckily.


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## fuzzyfeet

Hmmm, I've got 2:
my first one was when I first started trail riding (I was 10 and my pony was 4, not a great combo) we where crossing a really shallow stream (like a foot and a half in the deep spots) and Wally decided he didn't want to go in the water, so I got off and led him through, and he bumped into me half way across, and I landed face down in the very muddy water. My aunt and her friend, who I was riding with, had a real hoot about that one. The other time, we where galloping, and Wally figured it might be fun to stop and put his head down. lol. You can imagine what happened from there.


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## dashygirl

fuzzyfeet said:


> we where crossing a really shallow stream (like a foot and a half in the deep spots) and Wally decided he didn't want to go in the water, so I got off and led him through, and he bumped into me half way across, and I landed face down in the very muddy water.


Something similar to that happened to me. I was riding this horse I was trying out to buy, and we were crossing a river (something he was very acclimated to doing) when he decided to plop right down and have a good 'ol roll in the water. I jumped off before he had the chance to lay on my leg and I had to have someone chase him down so I could get back on! It was quite funny.


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## dee

My worst experience was not something that happened to me, but that happened to my husband - and I had to watch helplessly. 

We were trail riding with our local round up club when a helicopter flew low overhead. I mean LOW! I could have stood up on my horse's back and grabbed the landing gear. I don't know what was in that pilot's mind - safety sure wasn't! Anyway - a lot of the horses spooked - but my mare just danced around a little. However, my husband's horse took off in a blind panic and both horse and husband disappeared over the side of a deep gully. We all raced to the side of the gully and you could see where the horse had rolled down the side. The horse was standing at the bottom, soaking wet but hubby was nowhere to be seen. After a couple of seconds, he popped up out of the water choking and spitting. The horse was unhurt and all hubby got out of it was muddy clothes and a very bloody scratch over his eye. We were not very smart, because he climbed back up on his horse and we finished the trail ride - another 6-7 miles. We never did figure out who was flying the helicoptor and/or why it was so low. Probably a good thing, too!


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## LoveTheSaddlebreds

One time, my dearest friend, Holly and I took two of her ponies out on a trail. I was on Butterfinger, a moody little shetland mare, and she was on Phantom, a sweet little quarter pony gelding. Her trails arent flat pleasure trails, theyre steep and rocky and wooded and very hard to ride. We had just halters on the ponies, since they were extremely easy to ride. Half way into the trail (the trail's about 5 miles long) we heard little kids in the distance. Holly remembered her new neighbors and thought theyd like to pet the ponies. So we went off the trails (stupid) and headed in the direction of the voices. Once we could see the house, we saw the kids were going inside and no one was out anymore. We turned around and also realized that we had no idea where the trails were. We went in circles for two hours trying to find the trails when we heard running water. The stream was right next to the trail. We went towards the stream and phantom crossed it with no problem, but when butterfinger came to the water, she froze and wouldnt move. That was very unlike her. I kept trying to get her to move and became frantic when I heard dogs barking and growling behind us. Two dogs were about 50 feet away from us in the woods and staring at us and butterfinger wouldnt move. I jumped off and pulled her towards the stream. Finally she jumped over and tried to take off. I held on tightly long enough to jump on and gallop away with holly and phantom. The dogs chased after us for a little bit but soon lost interest. I hated it. -.-


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## Cougar

Oh, I've had a few..

I was galloping bareback in Camble Valley Park with two friends. I was on one of their ponies. Well we cut through the people trails but didn't think about it too well. We had ridden in there the night before and barely made it under the tree branches on little ponies. And now we were galloping through there on big ponies.... the smallest was in the lead and made it through, the medium one snapped a huge branch and the branch fell onto me and knocked the wind out of me.

I had a mare rear up and flip over onto me and my cushioning was a fence post. We snapped it. I fell off at that point. She scrambled, reared back up and came down on my leg.

I fainted once off my old chestnut mare. She ran over top of me. I had huge hoof print bruises on my back. 

By far the scariest was swimming in a river and having my horse go under.

By far the most painful was the silliest, most recent fall. I got swiped off backwards by a tree branch. At a walk. I hit the front of my face on my horse, then fell and hit the back of my head on a rock and also my back landed on a rock. I'm hopped up on pain killers as we speak. I did something seriously horrible to my back.


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## Tayz

Cougar said:


> Oh, I've had a few..
> 
> I was galloping bareback in Camble Valley Park with two friends. I was on one of their ponies. Well we cut through the people trails but didn't think about it too well. We had ridden in there the night before and barely made it under the tree branches on little ponies. And now we were galloping through there on big ponies.... the smallest was in the lead and made it through, the medium one snapped a huge branch and the branch fell onto me and knocked the wind out of me.
> 
> I had a mare rear up and flip over onto me and my cushioning was a fence post. We snapped it. I fell off at that point. She scrambled, reared back up and came down on my leg.
> 
> I fainted once off my old chestnut mare. She ran over top of me. I had huge hoof print bruises on my back.
> 
> By far the scariest was swimming in a river and having my horse go under.
> 
> By far the most painful was the silliest, most recent fall. I got swiped off backwards by a tree branch. At a walk. I hit the front of my face on my horse, then fell and hit the back of my head on a rock and also my back landed on a rock. I'm hopped up on pain killers as we speak. I did something seriously horrible to my back.


 
That's awful. you've had a lot of bad things happen to you. Your a magnet of trouble lol.

My worst trail ride ever was the second time I'd ever rode a horse. I was on holidays and went on a horse trek. I had already been on one the week before and had really enjoyed it, so I decided to look for another horse trekking place. I found one and went for a trek with my family. I was put on a young horse named Lofty. He was really young and defiently not bombproof.
When we were out, it was really quite windy, and at one spot we had to go one at a time. I was behind two horses when suddenly Lofty burst into a trot. At the time I though he had galloped, but it was only trotting. I tried to pull him back and he came after a few seconds. Then a few minutes later, we came to a huge clearing where we could spread out a bit. Lofty burst into a gallop(or really fast canter) and began galloping towards the edge of a huge cliff. I didn't know how to control him or get him to stop, so I held onto the western pommel and hoped he would stop. But he didn't, and as we got closer to the cliff, I knew I had to do something, so I yanked on the reins and pulled him around and he finally came to a halt. The trekking instructor then rode over to me and told me my coat was freaking the horse out. I took my jumper off. And we kept going with the trek. But I told the instructor that I wanted a lead rope attatched so the rest of the way I was being led by the instructor. 
It has taken me 7 months to get my confidence back in horses.


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## Cougar

I was a reckless, unsupervised kid with several horses at my disposal. Those are only some of the horror stories I have. I've smartened up as I've gotten older but boy do I ever have some not so pleasant stories.

A fall off that wasn't trail related but rather amusing is when my horse refused a fence because I used to jump ahead a lot when I was younger. I went flying over her ears, landed on the pole like you'd sit on your horse, one leg on each end and got slivers where you certainly don't want slivers.


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## dashygirl

Cougar said:


> I was a reckless, unsupervised kid with several horses at my disposal.


Haha, yes, I know what you mean. We often learn the hard way in this situation, but it does make for some interesting stories.  I know when I was a kid I didn't learn my lesson until something no-so-good happened to me.


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## kiwigirl

My worst experience was on a borrowed Standardbred filly. It was an 8 hour ride and 2 hours into it we had climed a razorback ridge that was bulldozed so it could be fenced. There was just enough room between the 8 wire fence and a rather steep, high drop to ride our horses. Unfortunately at one point the hill had slipped, all that was left was a goat track about 2ft below which the horses had to drop down onto and then sort of skip across. There was not enough ground left by the fence for a horse to walk across. Unfortunately it was right at this point the horse that I was riding and I decided to have a difference in opinion. She thought she could hug the fence and I knew that she had to take the goat track. Well, she compromised by just leaping! I am sincerely grateful that we did NOT fall down into the gorge. However she was so close to the fence that I got my knee caught on a large post. We made it across to a wider piece of ground thank goodness but my knee was the size of a football! Fortunately my knee wasn't broken because the post I hit with it was! Unfortunately I had to keep going on the ride and it was the longest 6 hours of my life. It hurt to ride and it hurt to walk!


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## IheartPheobe

I have three stories, all from this summer. 
The first time, we were in the cow fields and they are connected by gaits. We had to open the gait so the trail leader stopped her horse, telling us to go a couple feet away and stop there. I was behind her on Rocco, and Rocco refuses to halt on trails. So she stopped at the gait to open it, and Rocco and I went on and then tried to stop, but he refused to and we ended up going a little further down the hill. The trail leader came back to the front and her horse began to rush toward us. He was more focused on fighting her and not watching his footing. He slid and started to fall, but he got up pretty quickly and she was unfazed. I don't know how- it was horrifying to watch. :|
The next one was not so bad. I was riding Pinnochio on a trail & he was very jittery. We did a lot of galloping, and the trail leader was worried that he was too hyper so she told me for jumping, I'd have to fallow a slower horse instead of her fast, jittery pony. I turned around to fallow Jen. We started to go for the jump, and I'd been fighting Pinnochio a lot and decided to let him go. Bad idea- he went too fast and ended up jumping "next to" Jen and her horse. (It was an XC jump.  ) He ducked out and then lept over the jump. I held on for dear life and eventually got back into the saddle. 
Another one- I was riding Babe on a trail and we were walking down a "rollercoaster". I was behind Emily, who was on Gollywog. Golly was only being ridden by her and was SO hyper. He took off somewhere down the hill and Babe took off after him. The hill was so steep that she fell on the way up. :'( We were both OK, though


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## SmoothTrails

I have 3 pretty not so great experiences. 

My first was at about 8 years old, my parents and I decided to ride in the Christmas parade. The cops were behind the horses and midway through the parade they decided to turn on their sirens. My mom's horse lost it, but my horse and my dad's were just fine. The bad part was that my dad panicked thinking that my pony was going to freak and grabbed my reins. So he accidentally pulled the reins away from me.  I was lucky because my wonderful pony just followed the other horses to a near-by parking lot.

My second experience was actually one of my first trails, on that same pony when I was only 8. We were trail riding on the Mississippi River during hunting season, and somebody thought we were deer for a second and shot in our general direction.  My pony was a good boy though, so he only took off trotting and slowed down pretty quick.

And my final one was the most unexpected. I competed with Competitive Trail Riding with my TWH from the time he was four until he was 8. We were at a ride at the Biltmore Estate. And, all of these people are horse people, so as we're going down the trail we notice this woman is down in the woods relieving herself and had a friend holding her horse. We thought that she would come out at a normal speed, instead she came running out of the woods. All three horses jumped, but mine jumped REALLY hard to the right and left me sitting next to him on the ground where he had been standing. We ended up having to pull him out of the CTR because he had pulled a muscle and was totally freaked out for the rest of the time. Needless to say, we had to work quite a bit more on spooking in place.


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## Painted Horse

Let's see, What the worst? You decide.
First off, you need to understand, that I don't ride in arenas or fairgrounds. I ride in some pretty rough stuff.

On a pack trip in the San Rafael Swell area. Going into Robbers Roost. We were winding up a narrow trail, A pack horse rushed up and bumped a saddle horse/rider. That horse went over a 40' cliff, Rider baled, but horses crashed and broke it neck. Dead Horse.

And ride in the same area my friend's horse ruptured an aorta ( at least we think.) it was trotting along and suddenly started weaving and become unbalanced. Rider got off and the horse laid down and died, all with in about 5 minutes. We took the saddle, cut the brand off and left.

While riding in Yellowstone Park, a friend had a horse break a leg. We had to cut it throat with a knife because park rules prohibit carrying any guns in the park. Since then we always sneak at least one pistol in. Never want to have to put horse down that way again.

I was riding a young green colt. He was pretty herd bound to the gelding I had my Brother in law riding. We came to an area that I thought looked boggy, So I tried to get him to circle around to the right, My Brother in law went left. The colt was upset and fighting me, lunged into the area ( and it was very wet boggy under the grass) and immediately went dow and started thrashing, I stayed on about 3 bucks and then came off, The horse landed on top of me. I was under his belly and reached up and grabbed his halter and pulled his head down to stop him from thrashing any more. My Brother in law, seeing my legs sticking out from under the horses belly and thinking my head was under the mud, came a running, waving his arms, trying to scare the colt off me. Didn't know I was trying to calm the horse. The colt paniced and started fighting again and got a hoof up on my chest and as it pushed off with that hoof, broke two ribs on me. It was a long painful ride back to the truck 15 miles away and a two hour drive back to home.

I was also riding with some friend in the desert, I was the 4th horse to cross a small stream, I felt my colt struggle a little like the mud was holding his feet. The 5th horse right behind me, went down as it followed into the same spot, in what turned out to be quicksand. His whole front end disappeared. The horse was covered in mud from the cinch forward. His back feet stayed on firm ground and hauches never went in. The rider was flipped over the horses head and landed on his back in the river.

Here we clean the mud out of the horses nostrils and eyes.









While at a CTR, I witnessed another fellows horse slip while crossing a ditch. The horse fell and landed on the rider. He was under water, with the horse upside down on top of him. The ditch was so narrow the horse couldn't roll off. The horse was trapped like a turtle upside down. We all jumped off and grabbed the horses legs ( trying to not get struck by the flying hooves as the horse struggled) and pulled him off the rider. He about drowned. Besides being underwater, the saddle horn had knocked the wind out of him. He pulled from the event. Too sore to ride.

I could describe a few more, but that's probably enough. Just remember, It's not a matter of *IF* you will get hurt by a horse, It's just a matter of *When!*
If you hang around as many horses as I have, for as many years as I have been riding, You will see many wrecks. Be careful.


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## horseluver2435

Luckily, I don't trail ride in the rough areas Painted Horse does! I can't imagine being stuck in any of these situations! Anyway, my worst experience was on a trail ride on the trails behind the barn, with two of my friends. I was on a Quarter Horse named Boomer, who I had to show for two years. (Showing a trained Western horse in English is NOT fun) He was slow. And I mean slow. Most of my friends assumed that because he was slow, he was also a peaceful, bombproof horse.
They were very very wrong. 
We were supposed to be cooling down, and finally decided to head back. On the way, with Boomer and I in the back, a deer pops out in front. First two horses are fine, and we're about to shout to scare it off when Boomer sees it and flips. I can't really remember exactly what happened, as it was two years ago, and I always have difficulty remembering how I fall. But I do recall falling, and slamming my head onto the ground. /----/ This close to smashing my head on a decent sized rock. Meanwhile, Boomer's stuck where he is but panics and scares the first and second horses. Luckily no one else fell off, but to be safe we decided to dismount and walk back, since we were nearly there.
Needless to say, I didn't want to take Boomer back on trails for a while.
I'm very lucky. Been riding for almost ten years, and never broken a bone. I've had close calls, this one of them, but nothing ever too serious.


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## dashygirl

SmoothTrails said:


> We were trail riding on the Mississippi River during hunting season, and somebody thought we were deer for a second and shot in our general direction.


Holy crap! That's terrifying!


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## dashygirl

Painted Horse said:


> Let's see, What the worst? You decide.
> First off, you need to understand, that I don't ride in arenas or fairgrounds. I ride in some pretty rough stuff.
> 
> On a pack trip in the San Rafael Swell area. Going into Robbers Roost. We were winding up a narrow trail, A pack horse rushed up and bumped a saddle horse/rider. That horse went over a 40' cliff, Rider baled, but horses crashed and broke it neck. Dead Horse.
> 
> And ride in the same area my friend's horse ruptured an aorta ( at least we think.) it was trotting along and suddenly started weaving and become unbalanced. Rider got off and the horse laid down and died, all with in about 5 minutes. We took the saddle, cut the brand off and left.
> 
> While riding in Yellowstone Park, a friend had a horse break a leg. We had to cut it throat with a knife because park rules prohibit carrying any guns in the park. Since then we always sneak at least one pistol in. Never want to have to put horse down that way again.
> 
> I was riding a young green colt. He was pretty herd bound to the gelding I had my Brother in law riding. We came to an area that I thought looked boggy, So I tried to get him to circle around to the right, My Brother in law went left. The colt was upset and fighting me, lunged into the area ( and it was very wet boggy under the grass) and immediately went dow and started thrashing, I stayed on about 3 bucks and then came off, The horse landed on top of me. I was under his belly and reached up and grabbed his halter and pulled his head down to stop him from thrashing any more. My Brother in law, seeing my legs sticking out from under the horses belly and thinking my head was under the mud, came a running, waving his arms, trying to scare the colt off me. Didn't know I was trying to calm the horse. The colt paniced and started fighting again and got a hoof up on my chest and as it pushed off with that hoof, broke two ribs on me. It was a long painful ride back to the truck 15 miles away and a two hour drive back to home.
> 
> I was also riding with some friend in the desert, I was the 4th horse to cross a small stream, I felt my colt struggle a little like the mud was holding his feet. The 5th horse right behind me, went down as it followed into the same spot, in what turned out to be quicksand. His whole front end disappeared. The horse was covered in mud from the cinch forward. His back feet stayed on firm ground and hauches never went in. The rider was flipped over the horses head and landed on his back in the river.
> 
> Here we clean the mud out of the horses nostrils and eyes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> While at a CTR, I witnessed another fellows horse slip while crossing a ditch. The horse fell and landed on the rider. He was under water, with the horse upside down on top of him. The ditch was so narrow the horse couldn't roll off. The horse was trapped like a turtle upside down. We all jumped off and grabbed the horses legs ( trying to not get struck by the flying hooves as the horse struggled) and pulled him off the rider. He about drowned. Besides being underwater, the saddle horn had knocked the wind out of him. He pulled from the event. Too sore to ride.


WOW! I don't think I've ever heard that many scary things from one person before! You certainly are a trooper.


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## startinyjet

I was 13 yrs old ...visiting my father in B.C....never road a horse before...he put me on a green beautiful paint horse and we went for a mountain trail ride...on the way back horse took off and went down a trail that wasnt used ...I held on ...riding sideways ...hitting my head on every tree.(this was in the 70's no helmets)..crushed my glasses by sitting on them ...Man I was lucky...Dad made me ride her back down the mountain while he held the reins behind his horse ...


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## sparksgirl

about 9 days ago, one of my horses(my project horse) threw me almost to the moon after running in a blind panic for a few hundred yards-- not injured anywhere-- just my pride!


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## boldstart

This happened earlier this year.

Was riding with a friend on one of her horses. We had turned down a gravel road with a dead end and stopped about half down it and we were talking if we should turn back home or go on for a bit. While we were talking, both horses ears ***** right forward and started staring at something we couldnt see. It was only about five seconds after that we saw some young alpacas in the paddock near us running to see us. We knew the horses were going to flip out, so we quietly took up our reins as short as can be and then it just happened so fast. My friend and the hrose she went on, spun around so fast almost hit the horse I was on. Friend ended up near the main road only having stopped him before he bolted onto it, and ym hrose.. well was just stupid. We ende dup in a ditch, then he got spooked by some alpacas we had seen before and that were coming over to see what the fuss was about. He then jumped back onto the road and was chased by the younger alpaca up the fenceline until we finally got away from then. Quite scary that was.

And then on teh way home on a blind corner friend had her hrose spook onto the road. Thankfully no cars were coming.


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## skittle1120

About 3 years ago, I decided I had to have this gorgeous Appendix Quarter horse, who we named Sniper... He earned his name... 

First time I rode him after I got him home, he spazed out looking at the cows and bucked me off, took off, and I had to walk back to the barn... Sometime after that, I was riding with my cousin, and Sniper trotted sideways down a dirt road because the goats in the pasture we were walking by scared him... 

The worst one with him though was the day we were galloping up a dead end road and Sniper decided to take a 90 degree right hand turn for no reason and slammed me headfirst into a big maple tree... I don't remember any of it, but I was told the EMT's debated on sending me for a helicopter ride that day... Ended up with a very severe concussion, a broken arm, and still have neck and back problems...

Stupid me kept riding him, till he broke my new Australian saddle when he bucked me off onto pavement and kicked my dog right out of his choke collar... The dog survived, barely, and we found the horse the next day, trying to hide behind a tree from me with the saddle rolled under his belly and the reins dropped like I'd ground tied him were he was...

I didn't realize at the time that the tree in the saddle was broken in 4 places (I was still really angry), so I righted it and rode him the 4 miles home, after giving my boyfriend who was following us in the truck orders to shoot Sniper if he dropped me again... He behaved the best he ever did for me that day...

I sold him shortly after that, and fortunatly, the guy that has him now was able to correct his issues and loves him... I'm just glad he's got a good home and isn't still racking up hospital bills for me...


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## toadflax

These are GREAT stories though I'm not sure why any of us would ever get on a horse again after reading them.

My two worst:

I was 7 months pregnant and riding with a group of friends through a rough forest trail. The lead horse stirred up a bunch of what we call ground bees, actually yellow jacket hornets, and if any of you have experienced it you know it's a rider's (and horse's) worst nightmare. I let my mare take off at a gallop up the hill and through the trees, thinking all the while "This is why they tell you not to ride when you're pregnant." I bailed once we were clear of the hornets and just let her go, knowing she wouldn't go too much further than she had to. One of my friends rode after her and brought her back, I climbed on and we finished the ride with several good welts to nurse once we finally got home.

The other time was when my Arab was very young and in his second year of trail riding. It was a chilly autumn day and my dog and a couple of friends were along. We got to a river crossing where the water was a few feet deep and moving pretty fast, and Diamond was never too fond of water, especially early on and especially the kind that moved and confused the heck out of him. Something spooked him when we were halfway across and he just lost it. I stayed on for about three good bucks before I lost it too. The depth wasn't a problem except he tossed me in **** over teakettle and I couldn't get my bearings underwater, I couldn't find the bottom or the surface. I really thought I was going to drown while my friends watched. But I didn't, though it was a very cold ride home that day, and that dog would never go out with us again.

If a horse needed to be put down on one of our trail rides we'd have to beat it to death with a cell phone.


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## dashygirl

toadflax said:


> I was 7 months pregnant and riding with a group of friends through a rough forest trail. The lead horse stirred up a bunch of what we call ground bees, actually yellow jacket hornets, and if any of you have experienced it you know it's a rider's (and horse's) worst nightmare. I let my mare take off at a gallop up the hill and through the trees, thinking all the while "This is why they tell you not to ride when you're pregnant." *I bailed once we were clear of the hornets* and just let her go, knowing she wouldn't go too much further than she had to. One of my friends rode after her and brought her back, I climbed on and we finished the ride with several good welts to nurse once we finally got home.


You bailed? As in you jumped off? I'm assuming you and baby were ok?!!


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## toadflax

Oh, yes, I jumped off---and the baby is 18 years old now, no harm done. 
Luckily we were headed up hill and the ground was closer than usual. I didn't have to do a Wild West dismount, I just swung myself off and let her go.


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## SmoothTrails

dashygirl said:


> Holy crap! That's terrifying!


The funny thing was that they were some distant realtives. They freaked when they realized they had been shooting towards us. It was a good example of why you don't shoot until you can see your target.


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## equiniphile

*Okay. I have a few bad ones......

So my parents (this was before I was born) were riding 2 of our horses, a Missouri Fox Trotter and a Paso Fino, in the metroparks. They veered off the trail for some reason, idk why, and then the horses were having a hard time walking. So they look down, and they're sinking in quick sand! This is in Ohio, mind you! So they try to pull the horses out, and when they can't they call 911. Before help even arrives, my parents' horses are up to their necks in it. Their heads are held up high, nose in the air, so they don't drown....When help gets there, they pull the horses out with equipment and such and everybody lives. the end haha. But it was freaky because you never expect quicksand in a park in Ohio!

Okay, another....Well, to explain how I ride and how the miniature mare just runs free by us, here's a short video:






So yea. That's how we were riding, and my mom was walking, and we were actually in that field lol. That wasn't when the vid was taken but yea...So I was cantering, and then all of the sudden my bridle snaps in half! It was older, and I hadn't oiled it in a while, so I take full responcibility....So I get off to see how bad it's broken, and find that the cheekpiece on one side is snapped clean in half, and the bridle wasn't gonna make it back to the house. Especially with the way Arthur fights for rein when he wants to run lol. So I take a lead rope I carry just in case and wrap it around Arthur's neck in an attempt to keep him steady till we reached the barn. Yea, a battle lost before it starts. Well, it might maybe have possibly worked if a hot air balloon hadn't appeared 200 feet up, blowing fire and freaking out the horses. Arthur breaks loose, and canters with Lulu in the general direction of another few fields....we run, desperate to get the horses before they reach a road, call 911 and tell them to post police on either end of the street to warn drivers there's loose horses. We're freaking out while walking through the back 1000....until we get to the house and find both horses grazing in our backyard. YEA. Arthur had somehow lost his saddle blanket from under his saddle (?!?) and I just found it like 4 months later in the woods, all chewed up by some animal who'd stolen it lol.

And another....when my mom and dad were riding in the parks yet again lol, my mom was on a TB mare off the track, and a deer jumped in front of the horse. Connie (the TB) reared and pivoted, leaving my mom in the dust and galloping off
*


----------



## toadflax

I love the video, that little mare's like a big dog, really sweet.

Hah, and there were your parents out having adventures before you were even born, good for them--! Quicksand, what a nightmare, it must have been horrible to wait and watch and not be able to do a thing to help the horses, wow.


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## SuperStarsSugar

My worst one's kind of funny. I was riding bareback on my mare Sugar and we had just come out of the woods and both of us were distracted by the burgeoning herds of mosquitos fluttering around us, and we got about 20 feet into the field before these phantom sheep jumped out of the bushes. Now, Sugar has lived with sheep before, but the "now you see 'em, now you don't" aspect startled us both, and she jumped sidewaysbut my butt didn't jump with her, and since there was no horse under me, I hit the ground. Hard.


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## dashygirl

Equiniphile: what a cute mini! And what a sweet name, Lulu, I love it. Good thing the saddle didn't slip under Arthur since you lost the pad! That could have been REALLY bad.


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## equiniphile

dashygirl said:


> Equiniphile: what a cute mini! And what a sweet name, Lulu, I love it. Good thing the saddle didn't slip under Arthur since you lost the pad! That could have been REALLY bad.


No kidding! The girth was nice and tight, though lol


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## Smarby

So i ride English, but yeah, i saw this thread and had to share one of my favourite hacking stories, haha.

Me and my friend took 2 of her ponies round a forest track at the back of the house. Both were bareback. After walking round the loop the first time, we decided to have a gallop. All was going well, we were both having so much fun and galloping about, weeee. As we got to the end, her horse started weaving about back towards home and my friend fell off. She stood there and then suddenly stumbled backwards and landed really akwardly. I leapt off my pony, but, stupidly, let go, so the 2 horses when galloping off back towards the stables. My friend was lying motionless on the ground and groaned and said "Get the horses..." really weakly. Oh man, i ran so fast. But i fell into a ditch. xD Climbed out of ditch and ran to the stables. I was so worried my friend was dying. After rescuing the horses and sticking them in the stables, i ran all the way back to where she fell [i honestly though she was going to die] and i couldn't find her! She was HIDING BEHIND A TREE. Maaaan, i was so angry with her. haha.


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## toadflax

Wow, some jokes just aren't funny, you must have been ready to kill her since she wasn't dying already.


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## Smarby

Haha, i was. I burst into tears because i'd been so distraught that she was seriously injured and then she went and hid behind a tree. I can laugh about it now, but she had a lot of groveling to do to make up for it, haha.

Another pretty hairy hack was when Dougal decided to plunge head first into a ditch during his napping fits. I went flying over his head and landed on my face. Not fun.

One of the scariest, for me, was when Dougie was napping really badly. My friend offered to get on and she if she could ride him through it and he suddenly went mental, reared up and flipped over. Luckily, she fell off before he hit the ground and neither of them were injured. I felt so bad Dougal did that though. S:


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## toadflax

okay, what's napping? State side that means sleeping.


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## dashygirl

Smarby said:


> So i ride English, but yeah, i saw this thread and had to share one of my favourite hacking stories, haha.
> 
> Me and my friend took 2 of her ponies round a forest track at the back of the house. Both were bareback. After walking round the loop the first time, we decided to have a gallop. All was going well, we were both having so much fun and galloping about, weeee. As we got to the end, her horse started weaving about back towards home and my friend fell off. She stood there and then suddenly stumbled backwards and landed really akwardly. I leapt off my pony, but, stupidly, let go, so the 2 horses when galloping off back towards the stables. My friend was lying motionless on the ground and groaned and said "Get the horses..." really weakly. Oh man, i ran so fast. But i fell into a ditch. xD Climbed out of ditch and ran to the stables. I was so worried my friend was dying. After rescuing the horses and sticking them in the stables, i ran all the way back to where she fell [i honestly though she was going to die] and i couldn't find her! She was HIDING BEHIND A TREE. Maaaan, i was so angry with her. haha.


I think I would have peed myself. Ha, your friend sounds like a funny person to hang around with though, it's cool that you can laugh about it now. :lol:


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## Smarby

^^ We have the best laughs. Just not at that precise moment. :lol:



toadflax said:


> okay, what's napping? State side that means sleeping.


When a horse won't go forward or past a certain point so they buck/rear/spin/freeze/plant ect. Napping is Dougie's specility. 

The first time Dougal ever napped [a couple of weeks after I got him] was probably my scariest ride for me, as i completely wasn't expecting it. We were going into the forest and he suddenly started spinning round, and then bucking. And before i knew it he reared up, almost flipped over and stepped backwards into a ditch. That was pretty terrifying.


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## toadflax

Yikes, but you've stuck with him?


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## Smarby

Yeah, we're getting there. He has improved dramatically, and when i took him out yesterday on his own, even though he was naughty and he bolted a couple of times, he didn't nap at all. Which is a total first. It's been a very long battle, but he's deifntly getting there. 

Another nasty nap, was in the days where he would plant and not move or respond to any cue, no matter how strong. And so i tried the "wait it out" method where you sit and wait for the horse to get bored and go forward.
I sat on my pony for over an hour. And he only moved forward when my friend lead her horse past. As soon as the horse was gone, he planted again. Those were not fun times.


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## toadflax

Well, I just looked at his photos, he's young and you sound determined, he'll likely come along fine. He's a handsome boy.


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## WesternGrl10

There was this one time where I was riding a spooky horse, Cisco, without spurs, which isn't very smart but my riding teacher wanted me to control her. We were doing great for about 10 minutes until a rabbit hopped across the trail. Of course, Cisco being one of the fastest horses in the barn, took of, bucking and bolting. I got her under control after some time, but I'm now paranoid of Cisco.


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## 7Ponies

My worst experience, I was out riding with my friend and we had gone back through some woods and into this big open field, all surrounded by woods. We were walking around the field and could hear thunder but couldn't see where it was coming from because we couldn't see much of the sky. We wanted to get back, but we couldn't find the path back through the woods! We must've walked around that field 10 times, and it started to pour and lightning, and I was a wreck. My friends horse kept wanting to go into the woods but we couldn't find the path. Finally we realized that my friends mare knew where the path was (that's why she kept trying to go into the woods in the same spot). So we gave her her head and she lead us back to the correct trail through the woods! We got home safely, but I was drenched, even poured water out of my boots after I got off. What a ride!


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## Klassic Superstar

My worst trail ride... I was in 6th grade on my first horse who was too green for me and I shouldnthave got her or at least had way more help. Anyways, a friend and I were on a trail and we had just pulled my horses mane so it was oober short, we had been on this trail before many times but of all things to spook at it was squirl, both of us heard the quirl and thot nothing of but the squirl jumped to another branch over us and either made somthing small fall or somthing idk! but my horse just lost it! She bloted off, i lost my sturrups and was just clinging on for dear life! the trail split two ways and in the middle... i thot she was going to go left and she went right and I was flung up about 15 feet into this huge tree and scraped back down while my friends horse took off and flung her into stinging neddles! but I rolled on the ground thot it wasa eathquake cause the ground was shaking, next thing i knew i looked up just in time to see my horses hind hooves smack my in the head. Idk how long i was uncouse for but when i got up my friend was creaming at me cause i was coverd in blodd, and couldnt walk and my horse was missing!, wound up to have almost sliced my ear off, hada branch stickout of my leg and had to pull it out and find my horse and when i did about 30minutes later had to walk along the road home. it sucked


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## toadflax

I'm terrified of lightening, we would have been two wrecks together. There's a moral to this story, too.


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## ilovetoride

*alligator!!*

So i was riding TW mare and my husband was on trusted QH. We were visiting down in the lowcountry. Hubby hasn't ridden much. Did you know they have the weirdest birds down near Charleston....they make some really strange noises. Freaked out the horses the first day. Anyway, taking hubby on a 'real' trail ride through the rice plantation. Just as we were coming up on a pond the mare saw a gator slide for the water and splash...she did a 180 and tried to bolt. Hubby was behind and told me later that he thought it was going to be the ride of his life back to the barn! ha... no trust in me at all! We were all fine...and continued our ride through the rice fields.

The first time we put saddle bags on the TW mare she bucked me down a hill until the leathers broke and the saddle (and me) came off. We put them back on her and went on with our ride.

One time this summer we were on a trail ride with my 7 yr old daughter. She was having some trouble steering the QH and got stopped in front of a 3' fence (split rail). she was asking me how to get him to move and then whhoooppp - over the fence she went. from a standstill. i couldn't believe she stayed on.

another time last spring the 7 year old was trotting in field and the QH decided to head for the herd which we were standing on the other side of a large bon fire. she thought Jack was headed for the fire and jumped off of him while he was trotting. She was fine. I have never seen anyone jump straight up like that - in order to clear the horse.

fun days!


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## Kashmere

Wow quite the stories people :shock:


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## Painted Hotrod

Well!
My worst experience was with the I had my old Mustang, Harley. It started as a nice quiet ride until in ended up being rocky, hilly, muddy, & swampy. Harley was hot headed at very nutty at times, haha. I handled him fine until a sudden drop off popped up. It seemed like he was galloping straight down hill like the movie 'Man From Snowy River' .. He done great until he lost footing, and we flipped head over heals probably 3 times. I broke my collar bone, busted my right knee, and messed up my back (more than it already is :lol: )


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## CowgirlShay

*WARNING SUPER LONG ! and has some rambling xD 
read if you dare! the worst and best trail i've been on  
(best cuz it was exciting)
*

OoOo what a fun subject! okokokok my "wooorst trail ride" was pretty much a good 

trail ride gone wrong! lol 

ok so my family and friends were at this natural regional park or whatever and a friend insisted that we go trail riding (this was before i started riding ALOT) and i of course wanted to go xD 

soooo when we get there the people say they forgot about our ride and stuff so we were like what the heck?! and then they decided to add 3 extra hours so we can stop and fish in this beautiful area

so of course we said yes! 

so the next day we're all excited and when we finally start the trail everything's fine except the part when my friend Eric kinda jump/dismounted cuz his saddle slid :/ 
(hes kinda afraid of horses too...) 

only when we stop at the trail-guide's friend's cabin does it start to go a little...um u kno
it was getting late, and the friend, "mountain mike" decided to give us directions for a shortcut to get back, so we say bye to mike and we end up getting totally LOST! like scary lost we had to go through these thick bushes and go up and down hills and edges that were so steep the guide's horse and him would fall and slide down a couple of times...(then again mike got him kinda drunk so it made things worse) eventually we had to dismount and let the horses free, they knew the land better then us and the guide lol

after hiking around for about 30mins we find 2 horses, so when we went to flat ground some people went on them while the rest hiked the guide went somewhere else to find other paths, making no difference really and then he came back and blah blah blah nothing we decide to go back to where we started (which no one was sure where) and then "yaaay" our rescuer, mountain mike who started this, lol was worried and went out to make sure we were on the right trail, he had all these horses, and a mule carrying food (ya idk...hes weird) and he takes everything off of them and puts the food on the ground, (so bears will find it and maybe follow us eek!) and we got on his animals and led us slowly home, on a moonlit ride, and we almost sued them, and almost fired the guide,...but we didnt

it was supposed to be 5 hours, but we got 12 hours out of it! lol (we got back at midnight and started in the morning xD )


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## dashygirl

ilovetoride said:


> Just as we were coming up on a pond the mare saw a gator slide for the water and splash...she did a 180 and tried to bolt.


You're brave to ride where gators are...I wouldn't want to get within 50 yards of a gator!


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## dashygirl

Painted Hotrod said:


> Well!
> My worst experience was with the I had my old Mustang, Harley. It started as a nice quiet ride until in ended up being rocky, hilly, muddy, & swampy. Harley was hot headed at very nutty at times, haha. I handled him fine until a sudden drop off popped up. It seemed like he was galloping straight down hill like the movie 'Man From Snowy River' .. He done great until he lost footing, and we flipped head over heals probably 3 times. I broke my collar bone, busted my right knee, and messed up my back (more than it already is :lol: )


Oh my gosh! Were you alone?!


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## Painted Hotrod

Yeah, I was :?


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## toadflax

Wow, how was your horse after that?


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## toadflax

CowgirlShay said:


> *WARNING SUPER LONG ! and has some rambling xD
> read if you dare! the worst and best trail i've been on
> (best cuz it was exciting)
> *
> 
> OoOo what a fun subject! okokokok my "wooorst trail ride" was pretty much a good
> 
> trail ride gone wrong! lol
> 
> ok so my family and friends were at this natural regional park or whatever and a friend insisted that we go trail riding (this was before i started riding ALOT) and i of course wanted to go xD


This reminds me of my cousin's worst and only trail ride at Yellowstone--totally a non-rider and with bad knees anyway, after going down and up the canyon he wasn't dead but he wished he was.

As much as I love riding, 12 hours is at least 6 too many I think.


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## dashygirl

Painted Hotrod said:


> Yeah, I was :?


How did you get help with all of those broken bones??


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## Painted Hotrod

My horse came home without me, and my parents know where I ride at. 
It was right behind my house.


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## IheartPheobe

Haha, funny story. Not so horrible. We were riding in the cow fields and not all of them are occupied. . Well, Caroline was leading the trail and she was convinced the next field over had no cows in it. We usually ride with the cows, so it's not like it was a problem if it was.. but since she didn't know, she ended up leading as us into a giant group of cows. Like. . we ran straight into them. tehe.  We're lucky our horses are so bombproof and used to it!


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## Thatgirlsacowboy

Painted Horse said:


> We had to cut it throat with a knife because park rules prohibit carrying any guns in the park.


 
That is insane! That would have absolutely broken my heart. 

I'm not trying to be morbid, but would breaking the neck be a more efficient way if a gun wasn't an option? Just curious.


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## Kenz and Dixie

well my is when I was little I was on my horse Dixie and she stumbled and I fell off and broke my arm and then she almost fell on top of me! I was scared!


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## Kenz and Dixie

*agree*



Thatgirlsacowboy said:


> That is insane! That would have absolutely broken my heart.
> 
> I'm not trying to be morbid, but would breaking the neck be a more efficient way if a gun wasn't an option? Just curious.


 
I agree with you


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## skittle1120

A properly placed cut on the throat is painless and very quick... Way better then trying to break a horses neck, which most people probably wouldn't be strong enough to do...


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## Thatgirlsacowboy

^ 

Yeah that's true. I never really thought of the strength needed to break a horses neck. Good point.


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## dashygirl

Painted Hotrod said:


> My horse came home without me, and my parents know where I ride at.
> It was right behind my house.


Your parents must have been mortified.


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## MyGalSal

*Trail Riding Experience - Worst Ever*

Well, I just moved to CT a few months ago. I've always been a trail rider, and love to hack out. A friend that I met at my new barn took me out with her a couple of times and we were a really good match. Another woman wanted to join us, and she said she had been riding "dressage and lower level eventing" for many years (10 - 12 years); but hadn't done much trail riding and wanted to come along. We told her that we walk, trot and canter and she said "no problem"! Well, we were very respectful, asking if she wanted to trot prior to changing gates. All was fine until the next thing we hear is a canter stride coming up behind us, passes us and the woman took such a spill....l....rolling and just laying there. We helped her up and made sure she was all right.........but the thing that bothered me was that she wasn't completely honest with us prior to setting out. I'm no expert; however, her honesty about her riding experience and level was less than truthful. This could have turned into a really bad situation. Although she talks a good game, and she may have read every horse related article about how to ride correctly (and I love dressage riders), but she hasn't realized yet that her horse can't read and she must apply the techniques with her horse and ride as one! Yikes. Don't ever lie about your true abilities.


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## Amir

My old lease horse flipped his sh!t at anything bigger than a normal car. So he would go spaz at utes, 4X4s, vans but especially buses and trucks.
So long as we weren't riding head on to them he would be ok and just flinch if one passed. If they came head on he would go mental. I managed (just barely) to stick to him for it but not this one time.
About a year ago I went on a trail ride by myself (good idea, I know ). It was all going well until we were almost home and this mac truck came hooning up the road towards us. Didn't slow down, but instead decided to speed up.
Horse flipped out and went nuts and backed himself into a fence. We were on a down slope so when he bucked coz he freaked himself out by hitting the fence I had no chance. I was thiiiiis close to landing in front of that truck.
Why can't drivers be nice and slow down and try to go as far around us as they can?!


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## Marrissa

Before Storm passed away we were out working on the sand dunes. Well out in the middle of nowhere people like to drop their junk. I stay clear of those parts and would work on the sandy lanes and hills. He decided to bolt for home going all out his fastest. I was doing my best to get him to stop. I tried one rein stopping him (he'd just turn his head and keep running straight so I decided letting him see where he was going was best for both of our sakes), hauling on both reins, pretending like I was going to do a flying dismount (my shifted weight like that would usually get him to stop since he would anticipate me jumping), etc. He ended up heading straight through an area full of junk. He back leg stepped into a square hole of fence and he slammed to a dead halt and ducked his head. I went flying and landed on rock hard ground. I pulled his foot out of the fence and got back on.

Then he bolted yet again for home like 5 minutes later and ran through a different area of junk. There was this big rolled up fence we were approaching at a dead run. He tried to just step over it while galloping but didn't pick up his feet enough and tripped. I was sent flying about 4 feet forward. I got up and turned around it time to see him still falling. He flipped end over end, landing on the side of his neck first then completing the flip. I was terrified. I remember thinking "Oh God. This is it. This is when he'll snap his neck and I'll lose my boy." He got up fast, I checked him over head to toe, checked the saddle to make sure it wasn't broken, and decided after two falls in a row (usually I stick like glue) I was done and walked him back home. I was p*ssed after I found out he was fine.

Yeah after that we worked on his bolting and he behaved a whole lot better.


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## whitetrashwarmblood

Alright, I'll try to remember as many as I can...

There was the time I was on a trail ride with my friends. We were trotting, I looked down for a second, and when I looked back up the mare in front of me kicked out and got me in the knee. Fractured the tip of my knee cap. She had a borium shoe on, which took of a good chunk of my skin. I still have a nasty purple inch long scar there. 

Another was when I was riding a little Arab gelding bareback with a halter & lead rope while trying to pony a TWH gelding & a Anglo-Arab gelding at the same time. I was trying to take them from the stable they were at to the pasture that's barely a mile down the road. Well the two geldings were cooperating, but the lil Arab was NOT! I was probably on him for only 2 minutes before he decided he just wanted to take off. I was still hanging on to the other two geldings while trying VERY hard to stop the Arab. One rein-stops, etc. Was not working. So I did the only thing I could do, I reached forward & put my fingers in his nose and yanked his head around. lol That got him to stop.... for a few seconds. The two geldings decided that they'd better just stop moving all together, but Shadow the arab thought it was the best time to take off like a bullet! So I ending up on the road landing on my butt and wrist, mostly wrist. The only thing that was going through my head while watching cars go by was, "How embarrassing." lol Especially since I have to pony those horses everyday back and forth. You'd think they'd be used to it by now. haha 

I didn't even realize I hurt my wrist that bad until about 20 minutes later. I could tell that it hurt, but nothing near the pain I had when I got kicked. I ended up having a pink cast for a month. Got it off to find out that it was still fractured, got a blue cast for another month. Got the 2nd cast off about a month and a half ago, Doc says theres still a lil bit that hasn't healed yet but no more casts for me! lol
Here's the bone I fractured, circled in red. (except I broke the one on my right hand, not left.)










There was a time when I was on a ride with two of my friends, and we were cantering down the trail. I was in the middle on Athena, my friend Tiffany was in the front on her pony Tucker, and my other friend was behind me on King. All of a sudden Tucker trips, and does a complete summersault. I was completely shocked, it looked so weird almost like a movie effect the way he flipped. I remember vividly his hind legs sticking straight up in the air, with his nose stuck in the ground. Thankfully, Tiffany flew to one side, and Tucker landed on the other. Both were okay. 

The most recent scary fall on trail happened to my friend Tiffany. 
We were galloping bareback, I was on Athena, and she was on a borrowed paint horse, Annie. Athena was in the lead, but I started hearing Tiffany yell 'Stop! Whoa!" etc so I slowed Athena downed to a canter. Annie sped up so the horses were head to head. Annie must of bucked a few times because Tiffany on her neck! Like sitting in front of her withers. Unfortunately, Tiffany lost her balance and started to fall. BUT she grabbed Annie's neck, so now Annie is still galloping, with Tiffany chest to chest with her hanging on to her neck. Currently, I thinking "OMG!!" 
Tiffany eventually falls, and gets ran over by Annie. I stop Athena, jump right off, and over to Tiffany. She had a mild concussion, a huge bruise on her chest, and a big cut/scrape just below her belly button. (Which later we decided was from Annie running. Her knee must of came up, hit her in the chest, and the shoe on her foot scraped Tiffany and torn her jeans/underwear.) She also was lightly bruised just about everywhere on her entire left side. And later we found Annie in the barn devouring an entire bale of hay. lol 

Once I was at the beach with Athena, and a friend with her Arab. I was bareback, my friend was smart and was riding with a saddle. Athena spooked at _something _reared straight up, did a 180 in mid-air, and took off like a bullet home. I flew off during the 180. Completely fine (besides having a sh!t ton of sand in my pants), sand is wonderful to fall on. I was more worried about Athena, who thought she was brave enough to run the whole 5 miles of neighbor back to the stable alone. Thankfully, she stopped right at the entrance to the beach. I hopped back on, and we went about our ride. 

I didn't fall off on this one, but it was still an adventure. 
When I boarded my mare, at my old stables. Me/Athena, and my friends Jesse/her horse Comet, Aidan/his horse Playboy would race in the 40 acre pasture. Of course, we're stupid and ride bareback. Playboy is a slow pleasure horse, who just comes along for the fun. The real competition is with Athena and Comet. Usually Athena is first, and will usually win. This time Comet weaseled her way to the front, and would NOT let Athena pass. Every time Athena would get even close to going around her, Comet would pin her ears, snake her head around to bare her teeth, and try to kick at us! This is at a full gallop! So me and Athena are swerving back and forth while we're all going up and down hills, barreling around trees, jumping over logs, through the creek, etc. The entire race Comet kept her first place status, with her owner laughing the whole way! 

I wasn't there to witness this fall, but my friend Jesse was riding her other mare Rose bareback, at night on a trail ride with another friend. They were on the road coming back home. Something spooked Rose, and she went one way and Jesse went the other. Jesse landed on the road, breaking her right radius, and cracking two ribs. Now Jesse has a nice blue cast to match the one I had just a few weeks ago. haha

There's probably tons of other stories, but those are the most recent ones that I can remember. If I think of anymore, I'll post them.


----------



## Painted Horse

What! No pins in your broken wrist? Here is what my wrist looked like. When a young gelding I was ponying, head butted me when he spooked and it knocked me back.









Thatgirlsacowboy, I guess you have never butchered a large animal. But breaking their neck is very very difficult. Think about steer wrestling. How hard does a cowboy twist a steers neck when they bull dog them? If that amount of effort doesn't break the neck on a 500 lb steer, how could I get enough leverage to break the neck on a 1100lb horse? I always carry a gun any more. I don't ever want to have to cut a throat again. It's hard enough to put down one of your horses. Especially one that you brought along for a ride, that was healthy enough to come. And thru some accident can not continue. Its emotionally upsetting to just make the decision that the best decision is to put them down. But to have to wrestle a horse that is in pain, stressed or distraught while in the emotional roller coaster is too hard to do.


----------



## whitetrashwarmblood

Holy cow! Ouch! 


Yup, no pins for me. :lol:


----------



## dashygirl

Ack! When it comes to broken bones I get a bit squirmish. Lol.



whitetrashwarmblood said:


> I didn't even realize I hurt my wrist that bad until about 20 minutes later. I could tell that it hurt, but nothing near the pain I had when I got kicked.


My boyfriend recently broke his elbow rollerblading. He didn't realize it was broken until he got home, he had continued rollerblading for 30 minutes after he fell! The adrenaline lessens the pain significantly.


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## heyycutter

hmmm, when i was on a trail with a friend and her horse was in front of mine, and her horse tried to kick my horse, but ended up kicking my ankle.it didnt break, but hurt like heck! lol


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## Painted Horse

My wrist wasn't broken. I just tore the ligaments. They had to transplant a new ligament. 6 weeks in a cast, 6 weeks in a removeabe splint. Then they removed the pins.

The old saying the 4H instructor told my kids. Your not a cowgirl until you have been bucked off, fallen off, biten, kicked and stepped on.


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## dashygirl

Painted Horse said:


> The old saying the 4H instructor told my kids. Your not a cowgirl until you have been bucked off, fallen off, biten, kicked and stepped on.


Very true!


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## PaintedBrat

My worst time was probubly the last trail ride i was on. The mare i had at the time was old, whyle my mother was on a green 9 yr old mare. We met up with some friends and they took us up some trails called holy trail and doe crossing, they had alot of angles and dangles. We reached a spot that seemed nice for lunch but my mom wanted to keep moveing. I was third in line, when i got past thetop of the hill in that spot, a whole hive of bees decided theyd had enough of being walked on. My mare and my mothers got stung quite


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## PaintedBrat

(sorry idk why it posted)
They got stung quite a few times. It sucked. 


My worst time is not quite as bad as most of these.


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## luvmyqh

to make long story short. me and a friend were cantering up a hill my friend got bucked off horse started towards the road i took my horse at full speed to get hers befor it got to the road but there was a truck comming so i ripped all my nails back and bleeding to stop my horse right in front of the truck. and saw the worst thing happen 3 feet in front of my face!! to say the least my friends horse dyed right there in the ditch and the truck was totaled


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## letsgetserious

luvmyqh said:


> to make long story short. me and a friend were cantering up a hill my friend got bucked off horse started towards the road i took my horse at full speed to get hers befor it got to the road but there was a truck comming so i ripped all my nails back and bleeding to stop my horse right in front of the truck. and saw the worst thing happen 3 feet in front of my face!! to say the least my friends horse dyed right there in the ditch and the truck was totaled


Oh my God that's horrible:|


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## Curly_Horse_CMT

*My Worst Trail Experience*

I think my worse trail experience happened almost three years ago. I was riding alone on my best trail horse, my Curly mare. We were riding in a area that we knew well, which was about fifteen miles away from my house. We rode to our destination and we were on our way back, just going at a nice easy canter on a sandy trail lined by thick trees on either side when I decided to push her into a full gallop. I figured, heck, there wasnt that many people that were going to be down there since it wasnt hunting season yet and it wasnt a week day so I let her go. Shaneequah (my mare) was eager as ever to go and we went around several easy corners and flat sections before we went around a sharper corner and BAM! there was a suburban creeping along at about ten or so miles per hour. I freaked out but I knew I couldnt slow her down enough without hitting something, at this point that object being either the car or a tree on my right side. I blew her through closer to the tree by the car and my whole right side slammed into the tree. My hand and arm especially got bent back and scraped up. Needless to say, due to me being stupid I got a bunch of badly cut fingers and a sprained wrist for it :shock: 

I just about passed out, the pain was so bad. I had no cell phone, which wouldnt have even made a difference since there was no service avaliable. And, even worse, the people didnt even stop. I DID, however, see a guy drive by on a golfcart and wave at me with a smile on his face :-| Luckily, Shaneequah wasnt hurt and she knew the way home. It was my writing hand that got injured and my "rein" hand, so I had to use my weaker hand to steer her. She listened really well to me and went nice and easy so I made it home ok.


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## PinkPonies

My worst trail riding experiance has got to be when my horse Norman spooked at something, bolted, then he "tried" to jump a 5ft high fallen tree, fell over and dumped me in the tree lol! But the worst part was he then ran away before I could grab him and he was gone for 15 minutes but he did come back to me thankfully!


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## shanoona

My worst trail? I was starting only to steer the horse at canter... And our "stable-owner" had 'pefect' idea-let's go on trail! I told her I will stay in the stable... But not, I could't... :-/ I got little pony, with words "He is small, U will get it"... But this little pony was crazy pony. He was getting oats every day and not doing anythins but stying in the box... And I was really beginner, I was lucky to trot and be able to think about something but not to fall off... And I was the only pony in the group of 15 horses and riders! So, when they were trotting, Max wanted to keep the tempo and he wanted to canter. But I knew that if I let him canter, I will not be able to steer him and he will want to race and will put me off.... However, I had to let him ,because we were too slow... I loosened the reins and it was just *kick* *kick* *hop* *hop* And I was sitting on the ground, My helmet covered in mus, pony running away from me ad not able to move at all... Finally I got up, But all my body hurt.... Someony caught the pony an we rode further... then the owner shrieked me that I am stupid to let him put me off... But I just couldn't sit that! And I told her to let me at the stable... Anyway, I had riding banned fro two months by the doctor, I had sth with pelvis... But after a month I saddled up again


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## charlicata

I have been riding for many years, but my worst trail experience was in October of last year. I trailered the gelding I had to a state park for a big trail ride. He was a 19 year old retired show horse (Saddlebred). I had ridden him there before with one or two horses, and he was fine. That day he wasn't. Before I go any farther, keep in mind, I was thrown from a horse I was trying out for my MIL in May of this year. I flew through the air and landed on a trampoline frame. In this one, I received 5 broken ribs, a punctured liver, one collapsed lung and the other partially collapsed, and a small piece broke off of my spine. I NEVER thought my gelding would act this way. He started spazzing as soon as I got him out of the trailer. I worked him in a grassy area and got on. Well, I rode him through a small bucking episode when I first got on, the after we crossed the parking lot, he decided to have another little episode. Rode him through that one, got off, checked everything to make sure there were no irritations anywhere. Lunged him once again because it usually calmed him down. Got back on after that and it was 3 normal steps, progressing on to crow hopping, then on into a full out buck. This time, he turned and I lost my balance. I honestly didn't think I would be able to get up. Anyway, we never got on the trail. It actually took me 5 hours and 2 tranquilizer shots (from a very nice vet who came back after taking his horses home) to get him back on the trailer to come home.

I ended up selling him in November before I bought the little mare I have now. He was bought by a trainer who wants to put him back in the show ring.

My family still thinks I'm nuts for sitll wanting to ride.


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## specialdelivery

i am very new to riding but have had one very scary experience. my inlaws have show saddlebreds and have bred them for many years, while visiting them in BC my mother-in-law figured we should go for a ride on their horses. i was so exited as the mountains are beautiful to ride through. our ride was going great until we entered one of their pastures. one of their neighbors had put their herd on the pasture without letting the inlaws know. the three of us were on a narrow whinding trail that was a steep slope on one side and and a steep grade up on the other. half way down the trail we heard a bunch of snorts and whinying, the neighbors herd was barreling toward us and were very aggresive. there were about 15 other horses throwing kicks and biting. my horse a 13y/o mare was pushed off the side but kept her calm. i had to swing both of my legs over her other side to avoid my legs being crushed by kicks. we moved as fast as we could through the herd to get to the gate and i had to get off to open and close it as i was the only one who could mount up without help. i had used my MIL crop to swat them off as i was managing the gate. luckly no one was hurt, the horses you could tell were very sore and had bite marks all over them. this was one of the first horse rides i was ever on where i had to be in control, i paniced my bonnie did not. the situation could have easily been tragic since we were on the side of a mountain, but our horses pulled us through, i am soo greatful for them. i now have the full brother to the mare i was riding that day, and look forward to uneventful trail rides this summer, in the praries.


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## mom2pride

I've never been seriously injured while riding, but probably one of the worst trail rides I had was on a Morgan/Shetland cross I owned. He could be a really stubborn ******, and along with bucking he would BACK anywhere, didn't matter what he went through, or over. Well one day we were on a trail ride and he decided he was going to have a fit, threw in a few bucks, then started backing...and backed through about a half mile of TREES!!! I couldn't stop him to get off, and the trees were too close together to slip off safely, so I was stuck on him the entire time! When he did finally stop, and I was able to ride him around and out of the 'bush' and mom and the friend and I looked at the damage like "how in the world?" It was like a mini bulldozer went through there, because he went over little trees, took branches down...it was crazy!


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## PaintsPwn

Hmm... I almost ran over a turtle. That's as exciting as my trail adventures have gotten..

Oh! And I'm pretty sure a deer was considering coming after us (was baby season)... That would've been fun 8|


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## XxemmafuriaxX

hahah wel funny this post came up as i had a slight disaster just last weekend!! well me and my boyfriend decided to go for a hack along the rambla (dry river bed in spain) but decided to take the dogs with us (that was a first) and my green 7yr old mare doesnt really see eye to eye with dogs haha wel anyway it all went fine for atleast an hour furia finally got over the thought the dogs were there to eat her and decided to leave all four feet on the ground instead of kicking out every 2 minits haha when my silly dog laika thought mmm i wonder whats up their and climbed up a steep hill next to us only to find out she couldnt find her way down so she forced herslf through loads of bushes and got stuck and started yelping really badly so i got scared and turned round to look for her silly me!!!!! hahah furia couldnt see what was in the bushes but was clever enough to know there was something!!! hahah and decided it was very scary horse eating monster haha only thing is she started flailing herself around and i could see a 6 foot drop geting closer and closer called out to my boyfirend who was watching frozen with fear i decided i couldnt do anything as she is very stuburn and hard to calm down when spooked got my feet out of the styrups but a tad too late i fell down with her and ended up on my back very winded! she got up unscathed with that look on her face asif to say wtf just happend there!!! hahah then decided to come and see if i was still alive by giving me a huge nudge in the head with her nose hahahah shes such a sweetie haha luckily she was alright and i got away with only a few bruises!!!!! :?


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## Pidge

Hmm....I think I would have to say my worst trail experience would be for about four years ago. My friend had two mares, a super easy to ride but stubborn quarter pony who was about 13 and a two year old green broke white demon horse. She didnt like riding the evil white demon at the time (now thats her baby but w/e) so she decided she wanted to ride lady (the quarter pony) and leave me, as the inexperienced rider even, to deal with stormy.

The trails were right next door so it wasnt very far but there were very skinny trails and in the woods so there were trees everywhere. anywho the ride was going fine...stormy was acting well...until kare took off on lady. she said she wanted to lope down the trail cause there were a few jumps (fallen logs). I wasnt comfortable with loping just yet...but stormy will be stormy...and she wasnt going to be left behind...so as soon as lady was out of sight she jerked the reins from my hands and bolted down the trail. Taking a sharp turn on the wrong lead which make her turn wide on a not wide turn...I hit my shoulder on one tree and my knee got slammed into another...right shoulder left knee...two different trees two different turns...I ended up knocked completely sideways hanging onto the saddle horn an cantel with my one not hurt leg still in a sturip....stormy then continued to run and jump said log that kare had gone to jump before stopping behing lady.

I slid off onto my not hurt legs and flopped over into the leaves on the ground. Kare checked my knee...I could move it an nothing was popping or sticking out so it wasnt broke or anything bad like that...She helped me stand and gave me lady's reins...no hope of me riding home with a bum knee...i was a real wuss back then. she jumped on the demon pony and rode her home while i walked lady. It was only about half a mile...

My knee swelled up a bit and changed a zillion pretty colors cause of bruises an i got out of doing anything in athletics for a week...but that was in. I had to be super stubborn an not limp around my parents...they would have just freaked out if they had found out lol...now they know but eh the past cant be helped lol


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## Jessabel

My worse trail experience... I had a lot of bad trail experiences in my early days with Vic. I think the worse one I can remember is when we were going down a lane and he hesitated for some reason. I urged him forward and all of a sudden he tossed his head and took off at a canter (we were going away from the barn). Then he stopped dead and pivoted back toward the barn, which threw me halfway sideways and over his neck and I got a lovely saddle horn in the gut. I didn't fall all the way off, but I was clinging to his side for dear life until I got him to stop. Thank God he doesn't do stuff like that any more. :wink:


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## ScharmLily

My worst experience was with my demon horse maddy. We went for a trail ride with another girl for the first time, and she didn't like the other horse. Not only that, but she also doesn't really like much of anything, including me and our other gelding that my mom was riding. The whole ride she tried first bolting, then bucking, then kicking to get me off. My mother and the other girl were oblivious and decided to canter up a hill without asking me. By then maddy had had enough of me ruining her plans of running free, and she reared and fell over backwards taking me with her. Luckily for me she rotated a bit so I fell to the side and avoided being squashed, but I did end up with a broken ankle. Maddy ran the second she got up and got all the way to the road with sparks flying from her shoes. My mom went after her and found her grazing in someone's lawn. Of course, this left me stranded in the woods with a broken ankle. I thought it was just sprained at the time and didn't take it very seriously. The other girl lent me her pony so we all got home ok. Needless to say, this incident was the last straw with that evil mare and we sold her as soon as possible.


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## Phantomcolt18

My only really bad experience trail riding i had scared the CRAP out of me. Where we are we have to walk along the edge of roads and sometimes cross them to get where we need to go. Well this passed september My friend on her paint horse(who is kinda nuts) and me on Phantom were riding through a field and we decided to let Phantom lead again. He's led before so no big deal. We were coming up to a road that had a blind spot where there were a bunch of trees and stuff so you couldn't see down the road to see if any cars were coming unless u stepped out a step or two onto the road. Well i stepped Phantom out and he did great then i saw a car coming from the opposite way(they were coming from the right over the other side of the road)no problem so i turn Phanotm around to take him back down the trail and he stops dead on the road. I urge him foreward by kicking him and the thing he did next scared me so much. He began backing up towards then other lane. I had the reins foreward and i was pounding his sides and screaming at him to move forward because we were getting closer and closer to the dotted line in the road(did i mention it was a 50mph zone ugh) no matter what i did he kept backing up into the road then we crossed the yellow line thats when i really started to get scared. The car kept coming then finally i guess they noticed a horse in the middle of the road and they stopped about 4 yards form us. By this time Phantom had stopped moving. I was shaking like a leaf i literally, in my head, saw the car hitting us and me going flying while my baby got hurt. I cried the whole way home we could not figure out what made him do it. but now when we come up on a road Phantom is not allowed to lead and every time i think about it i wonder what could have happened if that car hadn't stopped. 
SCARIEST MOMENT EVER


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## Tannerlady

I ride English, so I don't have any absolutely terrifying trail stories, but the camp I go to has some amazing trails, and they've given me some interesting stories. These are all from last summer. 

I was in the advanced riding class last summer, so we're given all the young, spooky, touchy horses to ride. We call them our SPED (special ed ) horses. 

Anyway. I was riding one of them, a young dappled mare named Skye. Her main problem was bolting whenever she had an open space in front of her. We were riding on this gorgeous trail, with a pretty steep hill on one side, and a giant drop off on the other, when we came to a hill that was probably a good 55, 60 degree angle- you couldn't see the bottom of it. The horses were all pretty jumpy, side-stepping, tossing their heads, etc. I have no idea why I thought it would work, and I thank god it did- I gave Skye her head (something I would never _dream_ of doing, even in an enclosed ring), and let her pick her way down. I was shaking so bad, I don't know how I managed to stay on. I just kept picturing Skye bolting, me having no reins, and both of us tumbling over the edge of the cliff. (She did manage to run me into a tree branch though. )

Another time, I was on a young, _very_ spooky mare named Buttercup (the horse in my picture. :]). Our trail leader was one of the barn directors, whom I love to death. I was riding right behind her, and she was on another young, spooky mare (she always chose the worst leads, ). Anyway, Elise (the counselor) liked to take us on the trails that weren't actually trails. Anyway, Buttercup spooked at a tractor before we even left the barn, and then decided to skitter, side-step, and bunny hop across the road. We finally made it to the trails, and Elise turned off onto an itty-bitty trail, with thorn bushes on either side. While the rest of us are sitting there getting poked to no end by the thorns, Elise was just sitting there humming. 

Each time we turned off onto a new trail, I would jokingly (kind of ) berate Elise for her choice of a trail. Finally, she decided to let me pick a trail. I pointed to the left, because it wasn't as overgrown as the trail on the right, and seemed like a better choice. 

Definately not a better choice. Not only did it end up being the same trail I went on two years ago, where we ended up having to gallop madly back to the barn because of the presence of ground bees (thankfully they had moved on by last summer), but it turned into...well, not a trail. Towards the end, the grass with well above the horse's heads (they were having a field day ), there were tons of fallen logs to go over/around, and there was a cliff on one side, and a hill on the other (like many of their trails are). Finally, we managed to see the edge of a field. However, the only way to get to it was by walking through a thick stand of trees. Elise being Elise, she gives her young, spooky horse her head, squeezes her forward...and closes her eyes. (She's a character. ) Buttercup found a way around the trees, but it turns out that the field was an unmown hayfield...needless to say, we were about 20 minutes late getting back to camp. (They were getting ready to send out a search party. xD) 

Not so much a terrifying trail, but it was...interesting nonetheless. 

There was a trail however, that I wasn't on, but scared me either way. Myself and some others were sitting by the ring across the road, where you can see parts of the trails. Long story short, we saw one of our counselors walking towards us holding two horses, and our first thought was that someone had been bucked off or something. We got pretty scared when we saw the ambulence pulling into camp though. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad- one of the girls had gotten stung by a bee, which she's alergic to, and used her epi-pen like she was supposed to. They called the ambulence to make sure she was okay, but it was still rather terrifying before we knew what had actually happened.


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## Icrazyaboutu

I have one for each horse...

Bart is my little old man. He is 12.3hh and 19yo now. A year or two ago we were in Big Bear(mountain) and riding a really narrow trail(like 12 inches wide) one side was the mountain and one side was a drop off. There was a little itty bitty stick crossing over the trail and Bart decided he would not be able to make it over so he turned and faced the cliff... I jumped off and eventually we got him to walk over it then I got back on and his tail brushed the bushes and made them make a noise. He jumped then bolted. It was... fun...

Tater(sold) was pretty bad on one of our 'trail' rides. I was in the process of selling him and had ridden him over to this lady's house to show her him. Well, the mare that she wanted to trade me for Tater broke her halter and really got Tater acting dumb we both agreed that Tater was not for beginners and I started on my way home. All I had to do was cross a field then a street then I was in my front yard. Well, Tater started 'naughty' trotting as I liked to call it and I knew bucks were on their way. Well, I was right, he reared and bucked and backed and trotted and wouldn't stop. I was so scared I was going to fall off(I was bareback and he had bucked me bareback before but never out of my yard) we made it home but I was so scared and he bucked and trotted and was just horrible all the way home! I was sooo scared!

Dozer is my new guy. Tater's replacement. I got him end of March beginning of April and trained him a bit(so he would have a one rein stop) and took him on a nine mile trail at the end of April. EVERY SINGLE HILL HE WOULD RUN UP AND DOWN!! Not worrying if he ran through horses, bushes, off the trail. Nothing stopped him! After trying to stop him on a few hills I stated bumping hard! and he finally starting turning in circles when I bent him. Up a really big hill my grandpa decided I had controlled Dozer enough and let his horse canter up a BIG hill, what did Dozer do? He tried to do the same thing but I kept bending him and we eventually got caught in a tree that we had spun into! It was horrible! My cousin got on because she is stronger and he was still horrible for her but he was still amazing on flat land. Now that hill problem is all taken care of


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## Padrona

My horse and I got sunk in quicksand. If that doesn't scare the sheeeeet right out of you, nothing will. I saw a beautiful little stream crossing with water only 6" deap - beautiful crystal clear. It was hot - thought she'd love a drink. She flat out REFUSED to go down to the water. I got kind of ticked because she never misbehaves like that. I growled at her and gave her a good kick. She went down to the water and promptly sunk to her belly. 

She started to struggle and managed to get turned around and get back out but both of us were scared to death and shaking. 

I found out another guy had sunk his horse the week before and he had to climb off over the horse's hindquarters, and then pull him out with the reins.

After hearing that, I called the park headquarters and had them section the area off with red tape and warning signs. 

Definitely a nightmare.


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## trailhorserider

Hmmm. I actually kinda had a hard time thinking of a bad trail experience. I guess I have been pretty lucky! I've been dumped a few times, but haven't been badly injured (yet). 

My scariest moments have come from having saddles roll with me. One time I was trying out a new saddle, a Reinsman flex-tree. It as right after a snow but the roads were clear and I was riding my Mustang out towards the woods. All of a sudden he spooks and spins and the saddle rolled with me and I fell into the ditch on the side of the road. Luckily the mud was soft. :-o 
Then I look up and he is bucking like a bronc above me and I am thinking I better get out of the way, but in the meantime John took off onto someone's property, bucking, with the saddle hanging on his side. He was so scared I couldn't even catch him. Finally, a neighbor was able to catch him. That kind of hurt my feelings that John wouldn't let me catch him. But he was really scared by the whole incident. I discovered on my next ride that there was a culvert right there that was normally dry, but due to the snow it had with water trickling through it making a noise, so that is what spooked him.

Second incident, I was riding my old Arabian out on a trail and he was really hyper so I let him run up a road that went up the side of a mountain. Well, I ducted to miss a tree limb and the whole saddle rolled over onto the horse's side with me and I hung on for a few strides and then thought "crud, I'm going to pull him over on top of me" because I was still holding the reins. So I let go and dropped off onto the ground. I don't know if he was still running or doing a fast trot by the time I dropped, but hitting the ground hurt REALLY bad and it took me a good minute or two to figure out if I was hurt or not. 

Now, while I LOVED that Arabian, I always thought that if I fell off, he would run home and leave me for dead. And I was in too much pain to jump up and grab him. But you know what? he came back and stayed right by my side until I could get up and take hold of the reins. This turned out to be a good incident in my mind because it meant I had a better relationship with my horse than I thought I did. 

The saddle was slide over so tight on him I could hardly un-cinch it to re-saddle him. 

Which brings me to the moral of both stories. *Breast collars can save your life. * I've had it happen twice now, where a saddle has rolled on the horse, and I honestly think that if I had not had a breast collar on both of those horses, the saddle would have rolled under their belly and me with it! At the very least, it saved both saddles from getting kicked to pieces, but I think it saved me grave injury too. 

Everyone says breast collars are for keeping your saddle from sliding back going up a hill, but if they are properly adjusted, they will also prevent a rolling saddle from going completely under the horse. So I ALWAYS use a breast collar for trail riding now. I feel naked without it!


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## trailhorserider

I guess I should mention, tightening your cinch once in a while is a good idea too! :lol:


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## chodas777

Yep, had a scary one a few years back. Was having a lovely canter heading away from stables (they were apx 1/2 km behind us) and had to make a u turn because of a dead end, however my horse decided he was going home,nothing I could do to stop him and he just went for it. Everything I tried and nothing worked, part of the bridle broke and I was basically hanging on for dear life. When we arrived back, my friend /old owner of the horse/ owner of the stable told me to go straight back out as letting him finsih now would send a bad message to him so off we went again.....not to far though! I was glad to get off that day and needless to say I brought a new bridle too!


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## Sghorselover

Ok so i thought i posted this but heres my story!

We were on a family vacation in hawaii.!
i was on a trail ride in hawaii and i was just trotting along and i want looking where 1 was going. i hit a tree branch and i smacked me in the stomach and i rolled off the back of the saddle and the horse. the horse trotted away and i was left scraped up and in the mud.


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## lacey011

My worst trail experience ever happened when I was 13. I had a 7 year old QH/Pony cross gelding that had always been the best trail mount ever. He had never been spooky and had never bolted at anything. Well...we went out for a ride one morning and we were trotting along our normal path, when all of a sudden he bolted to the right and I went to the left. I landed on my side, cracking my hip and tearing a nerve in my upper right thigh. I was so furious with myself for letting my guard down that I almost didn't notice the 6 foot black snake coiled up on the side of the path..only a few feet away from me! My fearless boy had finally been spooked by a snake. To this day I have no feeling in part of my upper thigh and am always a little more cautious when riding him.


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## dashygirl

trailhorserider said:


> Which brings me to the moral of both stories. *Breast collars can save your life. * I've had it happen twice now, where a saddle has rolled on the horse, and I honestly think that if I had not had a breast collar on both of those horses, the saddle would have rolled under their belly and me with it!


I agree that they are necessary. When I worked on a dude ranch breast collars were required for every dude horse. My boss's son was actually assigned one summer to make breast collars for every saddle they had (he was a saddle maker of sorts, so this task was right up his alley). It really did take him the whole summer!

I've seen way to many saddles slip off due to lack of breast collar. One time I had a really heavy guy slide off into a cactus! That was a nightmare of a ride. We were pulling the spines out of him for hours! When you have a string of dudes 10 horses long it's difficult to keep a close eye on each one. 

Though a good rider should be able to tell when the saddle is slipping in any way, shape or form, I don't ride without one. Much better to be safe than sorry!


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## fire walker TWH

My worst experience ever was on a trail last summer. guy friend of mine started dateing a girl who liked horses. she told me she had experience so i put her on my "guest" horse eddie, a haflinger. on the road everything was fine but as we hit the trail that wound back and forth through the creek eddie decided he was tired of her unbalanced, puling on the reins constantly.e laid down. she began screaming and as i turned i saw that she was actually pulling back on the reins pulling eddie of ballance and over on her.I yelled at her to get off him and get her feet off the stirrups. she jumped off and actually ran away from the horse! he jumped up and ran toward another friends horse. when she reached out to get his reins he did a perfect rollback and the horn of his saddle caught my friends reins.it pulled the barrel reins out of her hands and as eddie ran it pulled sugar(my friends horse) right along with him. which spooked eddie and made him run full throttle. my friend was helpless to do anything but hang on. I was the trail leader and host and i was in complete awww. when i realized that eddie was pulling sugar and my helpless friend toward the exit trail which lead to the road i knew i had to catch up before it became a really huge wreck. My poor old mare had been a brood mare and wasnt prepared in her training for what happened next but i figured i really didnt have no choice.I began to drum her sides with my legs and asking for all the speed i could get. mind you i fell off 10 or so years ago galloping and asking this horse to run was the last thing i wanted to do since i have a fear of going faster than a running walk.(Tennessee walking horse). she obliged and poored forward like a frieght train. just as i was nearly neck to neck my friend started standing on one side of her mare and actually jumped off backwards going full gallop! believe it or not the woman actually landed on her feet! My mare veered hard right and eddie kept on running hard out with sugar. as they reached a little clearing i once again came up behind them and i guess sugar decided she had enough of eddies bull and sat back on her haunches sliding stop styl. the reins broke and we were able to walk right up to her and praise her for being such a good horse and standing for us.I swear i think sugar new she had to stop eddie. anyway once sugar stopped, eddie decided it wasnt so fun to run without a hostage and he stopped to graze. my friend repaired the bridle with a spare piece of leather and we tried to round eddie up for well over an hour. our horses were exhausted and so i decided we should all ride back to the barn and he would follow us. which he did, but the whole time he came charging up from behind and trying to spook the other horses.they had all had enough of his shannanigans though and wouldnt have non of him.the self proclaimed "experienced" girl had to ride the rumble seat all the way back. I learned a valuable lesson that day, well several actually but the more important ones are that 1. if someone new riding with you says they are experienced DONT take their word for it! 2. always carry repair parts with you in case of accidents and a medical kit 3.make every single person around your horses sign liability waivers. we avoided several real dangerouse events that day by the grace of God.
And you know what, I was kind enough to let that girl use my horse and my time but she never offered to pay for the bridle she let be destroyed or even offer to clean the saddle that was scuffed ripped and muddy. I guess i should just be happy that people and horses all came out unscathed.


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## LittleHorse

Me and my friend went on a Halloween trail ride. She was on her mare and I was on Blaze who was usually a really good guy. Anyways we were trail riding around this huge lake but the water was down in like a crater so we were riding on the rim (It was a trail but on one side its just a cliff straight down to the water and on the other it was a hill, so you were basically higher than normal land) Anyways, the group got to the highest part and thats when my friend's horse started acting up. She started doing little rears and backing up and each time she backed up she got closer and closer to the cliff. She was inches away from the cliff when her horse did a rear and then ran forwards and stopped. It was so scary watching that and realizing that a couple of more inches and they would have fallen! After that Blaze started acting up big time he was throwing his head, yanking on the reins, and trying to take off. I got so frustrated I started crying!! It was not a good trail ride and definitly my worse.


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## kmdstar

My worst trail experience was just a spook, it wasn't TOO bad but at the time it was this huge deal because I was a REALLY bad rider LOL. The first horse I ever rode was my favorite although she always took advantage of me, she spooked and ran down a hill and I rode nicely along on her neck. I didn't fall off surprisingly. I don't have too many exciting trail experiences LOL, I pretty much only trail ride my own mares and they are both very good on the trails...Starlite ran away with me one day though, I wasn't such a horrible rider then which made it not be too bad.


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## englishrider

howdy i hate to say my worst trail ride... okay so i was like for 4 and i wanted to go on a horsie ride on vacation and we went. so we went up this huge beautiful mountain and we posed for a picture and my horse started backing up and the trail guy kept saying pull back the reins and i as little so i didnt know that that also meant back up but at like the tip of a clip the trail guide hopped off and helped me... ugh i hate that story:-cry:


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## BlueJayWay

Worst trail ride for me was being stalked by a bear. I think he was just curious but man was it scary. Another time we thought we had a cougar around us as well. I'd rather be on my horse in the woods rather then my feet. My horse lets me know when something is approaching.


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## Solon

We have a very open 'trail' around here. Paved with a bit of gravel/grass/dirt on the side for the horses. Lots of bikers, joggers, walkers, roller bladers.

There are a lot of idiot bikers. They think it's funny to reach out and touch your horse as they go by. One did that with Solon once and goosed him. He bolted. Was scared half to Hades. Got him calmed down then turned and stood in the middle of the paved trail just staring at the biker. 

Solon had his head raised, ears forward, nostrils flared, gave out a huge snort. He looked way taller than his 18 hands. Jet black horse looking at a puny biker, I was hoping he was pooping his pants. He turned away pretty quickly.

It wasn't the first time that's happened. One of these times, Solon is going to get tired of it and plant a size 8 hoof right upside the bike and destroy it. Hopefully he misses a leg. 

I do not like the bikers on our trail. No sense at all.


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## Painted Horse

Most of the mountain bikers around here are really pretty good. They give notice, they pul off and stand while we pass. I really can't complain about most of them.

But there were two last summer. It was almost dark, We were almost back to the truck. The trail comes down off a big mountain, across a flat and up a pretty good grade. We were on the flat and these two bikers were comeing down the hill really fast. They started hollering for us to get out of their way, because they wanted to keep up their speed so they didn't have to work so hard on the uphill side when they hit it. I heard them and got my daughter and myself off to the side of the trail. They blew by and the got all excited, So we let them run. It was a good place to let them blow off the steam. Pretty quick we caught the bikers. They had slowed way down and were working hard to climb the grade. Our horses came thundering past them in the near dark. There are lot of moose in the area and the bikers thought the two horses were moose coming after them. We gave them a good scare. Told them it was payback for spooking the horses.


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## CarlyCole

Hmmm... I had a Buckskin mare named Sassy (in my profile pic)... and Sassy fit her all too well. Great horse as far as riding, reining, etc. But she had no skills with other horses. She was the Queen at our barn and ran all the other horses away from their hay, feed, etc... I had to fight her all the way on our 6 1/2 hour trail ride and it was no fun. I ended up having to sell her to someone with a little more patience. For me, trails are supposed to be fun not stressful when you're having to fight with your horse because her previous owner never socialized her. :-| Poor thing.

And yesterday on our trail ride a couple decided to smoke their cigarettes the whole time. Very inconsiderate in my opinion. I come to trail rides to have a good time and relax... not to smell your cigarette smoke. :evil:

Other than this we haven't had any disasters... fingers crossed! 

HAPPY TRAILS!


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## smr

my worse one I wasn't even riding. I had rode my atv out the paster to feed the horse when a friend come riding up with his 4 year old. We were standing there talking when his horse got into the electric fence. The horse went crazy and finally broke away with the kid still on his back. It was the scaryest thing I ever saw. The kid road it out for aways then fell to one side, his boot got caught in the saddle. He was just hanging under a horse running at full speed. Finally the kid fell off and hit the ground. When we got to him I expected the worse. The kid was awake and crying so that was a good sign. I rode them out on my atv and put the horse up while they went to the ER. Other than being completely black and blue the kid was OK.


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## hudson6393

Worst ride... On a trail ride with several horses, for some reason my horse, whom I had never had a bad experience with (had this one for about a year) Broke out into a run, stopped, flipped over backwards on me, got up, did it again, got up, did it again. Third time, I came off. I heard the sound of a watermelon cracking... guess it was my head hitting the gravel road. To this day, I do not know what caused that horse to do that... could have been something as simple as a bee sting. It took 4 months for my smile to straighten out.


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## Jordan S

. They asked me my riding experience beforehand and when I told them I ride twice a week so that was the ticket for them to put me on the crazy rearing, side stepping horse.


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## mom2pride

Hmmmm...I have been extremely fortunate in that I have never had any 'terrible' accidents involving horses, even on the trail. 

Probably one of the worst was when my friends and my mom were racing down this wide dirt road; my horse swerved to avoid my friend's gelding as he came storming up beside us with his ears pinned and teeth bared, running us into a tree limb that jutted out into the shoulder area of the road. He spooked jumped forward, then sideways, did one more twist, and a half rear to which I came off. He stopped but then spooked as one of my other friends on her horse reached over to take up his reins, and took off down the road. Punk! Guess he thought her horse was gonna try and eat him too.


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## Poco1220

Okay well I guess this is more funny than anything but it seemed terrible at the time:

Here I am out riding my paint and a very inexperienced friend was on my little appy mare. About 5 miles out I decided I had to pee... NOW. Mind you I was over 30 weeks pregnant at this time and HUGE. So I climb down from my just over 15 hand mount, repeat whoa over and over as I lean against the stirrup to hold myself from the frozen ground (it would be the middle of winter) and do my business on the side of the back country road.

When I'm done it suddenly occurs to me there is no way I can get myself back onto the horse with this HUGE belly in front of me! I tried everything under the sun with no luck. I was just too big and he was too tall. My other horse was shorter but my friend couldn't get up on her own either so I didn't want her to get off and lord knows I wasn't gonna walk my butt the 5 miles back.

So here ya go, the middle of winter, some huge ol' pregnant girl is on the side of the road her horse falling asleep as I packed snow against a mailbox until I formed enough of a sturdy snowbank to climb up on and use as a mounting block hahaha!

You bet your butt as soon as spring came around I taught that horse how to lay down on command. I will never be packing snow on the side of the road again!


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## Ne0n Zero

Back when I was still taking lessons at my old barn (this was before I knew much about really riding WELL) my friend and I were on a trail, me on my QH Beau, and her on her older TB Justin. We were trotting up a steep hill, and her horse tripped on a tree root and fell over on top of her. Both were fine. He got up and started to canter up the rest of the trail hill towards the barn. Of course, I had the bright idea to try and chase him to catch him so the BO wouldn't find out we'd been cantering/jumping on the trails and stuff or whatever (she was a bit psycho) and when we got to the top of the hill, full gallop, he turned a sharp right when I wasn't expecting it. I flew off, landed hard on the back of my neck, flipped over, and my left hip/ribs slid into a fallen tree trunk. I thought I had broken my neck, and because of my hip, I couldn't walk for three days after that. For about 3 months, my ribs would randomly start hurting as well. I was lucky I was wearing a helmet, because my head SLAMMED into the ground when I landed on my neck.
Anyway, I started yelling for my friend, who ran up and saw me on the ground. She helped me up and we ran/limped back to the barn, only to find our horses standing OUTSIDE their stalls, turned to face us, with sheepish looks on both faces.
Of course, I got back on and rode for about an hour after that. x_x

(A few months later, I was trying to mount bareback and slammed that rib right on his withers, OW.) I then had to go on this thing for school called the "Rural Plunge" which involved walking 6 miles up and down hills.. my hip certainly didn't like that. I also happened to get a chest cold on that trip and coughed so hard/frequently my rib cracked again. Needless to say, I went home.


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## flytobecat

We have an arena near our place. They run cows, gymkanas, and other stuff on a regular basis. Its about a 20 minute ride to it across a 2 lane road & county land (not sure if that counts as a trail). It had just gotten dark (there was a full moon) and I decided to ride Mona down to this arena & see what was going on. I know not the smartest thing, but I've done this a hundred times. 
On our way back, we came across a rattlesnake in the middle of the trail. The horse does that famous quarter horse spin. I end up on the ground, going duh. Horse looks over her shoulder decides I'm dead & takes off for home. Mean while, I'm like where's the snake.
A friend of mine was giving lessons at our barn. She sees my horse come back without me, catches her, jumps on, and heads back out to find me on my horse. I met them at the road. I get back on Mona & ride her home while my friend walks beside us.
Scared me to death, but no major injuries. I had a sprained ankle & Mona knocked a big chip out of her hoof when she jumped the horse gate at the road.


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## JenC

I haven't been riding very long, still pretty new to it, but here are my fun stories:

1) Cantering out in a group up a hill, and my horse decides he wants to go to the side, around, and ahead of everyone. I nearly fell off. I was hanging off the side of the saddle.

2) Having a quiet trail ride by a basketball court, when I hear.. "Heads up". When my head goes up, I see a basketball flying right at me and my horse. I just shortened the reins and waited for the reaction. Luckily all he did was spin, and since I was prepared, I stayed on.

3) Had just gotten a new saddle, and was loping around the arena w/ my instructor. She yells at me... "You're leaning, stop leaning" That is when I realize, I am leaning because my saddle is falling off! lol Luckily I was able to jump off and land on my feet, jogging along side my horse, with 1 rein still in hand. That was my first experience with the emergency dismount. 

Lessons learned..... 
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS keep your heels down! 
Expect the unexpected 
Check your cinch during your ride


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## GoldSahara

These stories are great. Either I have experienced similar or I haven't and am VERY thankful for that . 

I have a couple good stories. First time riding EVER at age 6 or so. On a dude string the saddle slipped under the belly, luckily I didn't and I rode back to the barn bareback. lol

Last year on my honeymoon in Maui I went on a dude string ride with my NON horsey husband, and of course my horse was great, and his was okay, until the very end when she pinned back her ears and CHARGED the lead horse. My brave husband did great. I was afraid it had ruined him on horses for good, but luckily it didn't.


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## Strange

Hmm, well for about 6 years I worked as barn staff at a summer camp; teaching girls to ride, helping them advance their skills, take them out on trail rides, etc. I happened to have my horse with me that summer and it was one of our first trails of that particular session. A friend of mind was leading the trail, riding a notoriously looky, but usually not spooky, mustang gelding. We're not really sure what he heard, but before we were 10 minutes into the ride he completely lost it. Started bucking, rearing, etc. and bucked my friend off into a tree. She was unconcious and Barb (the mustang) took off at full speed back to the barn. Since the large pasture was closed off to the horses we had the gate to the dirt road open and he took it. Took us three hours to catch him in the 20 acre pasture. He was lucky not to break a leg because the reins were dangling and he had been galloping flat out across the field. My friend was okay, luckily, and so were the 25 girls we were on trail with. The rest of the horses, remarkably, didn't feed of Barb's reaction to whatever it was that spooked him. Just a bad day, really.


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