# Ever been knocked unconcious during a lesson?



## equiniphile

Never during a lesson, but twice in my life, both in the last 6 months. In neither did I go completely out, I just couldn't see or hear very well at all, and could barely walk.

The first was for my sports physical, after I'd just gotten three shots. I'm thin, and the doctor said people that are thin can sometimes feel the shot spreading....ugh, I could. Weird. 5 minutes later, while leaving the doctor's office, I started to not be able to see or hear at ALL, I could see black splotches all over, and all the sudden I was really mad for no apparent reason. Swaying....took me to a table in the doctor's office and gave me juice so I would stop my blackout.

Second time I was at a track meet, someone feel into my lane, which threw off my stride, and I fell headfirst over a hurdle. Landed on my shoulder, didn't realize anything was wrong until ten minutes after....ended up being a broken collarbone, snapped clean in half. But I blacked out and had to have my teachers half-carry me to the car! Omg how embarrassing LOL!

Can't help you about what a riding instructor would do, though. I don't take lessons


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## Skutterbotch

sounds like anemia or low iron 

i get it once and a while


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## Brithorse1996

No she actually fell off i meant lol


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## Jake and Dai

I was knocked unconscious many many years ago during a lesson. I'm not even sure what happened as I was cantering along one minute and the next thing I knew, I was waking up on the couch in the BO's house. The BO suggested I get checked out at the hospital so my parents took me straight there. They kept me overnight because I had a concussion.

So based on that, I'd say that the instructor did not panic...at least not that I can remember.


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## Speed Racer

I've gotten some bad concussions, but never been knocked unconscious.

Sounds like your friend has a concussion, and I hope her parents took her to the doctor's as well as replaced her helmet the same day.

Concussions are cumulative, so they get worse every time you have one. Brain injuries aren't something about which anyone should be flippant.


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## Jake and Dai

Oh...and I will add, I WAS wearing a helmet. But to be honest...this was way way back in the day (maybe 30 years ago?) and I cannot remember if it was a safety certified helmet or not. 

I agree with SR...I do hope they took your friend to the doctor and/or hospital to be checked out.


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## Delfina

Nope, not during a lesson! My instructor is also a paramedic, so I cannot imagine she would panic plus she's just not the panicking type, very calm and quiet, even when things are going to pieces.


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## Eolith

My mom got a concussion and had short term memory loss for a few days afterward. It was pretty freaky stuff. She didn't even remember falling off. I just got back to the barn from out on the trails and found her standing with her horse looking somewhat dazed and confused. I literally had to use deductive reasoning to figure out that she must have fallen off.

The entire way to the hospital our conversation kept going in circles. We had to remind her every few minutes that she really had fallen off and we were taking her to the hospital.

Needless to say I was pretty concerned, but I kept my cool and got her the help she needed as well as making sure that both of our horses were sorted away... so no one did any freaking out.


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## Brithorse1996

What does concussion feel like?


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## Eolith

Sometimes you may not be aware that you have a concussion, but often you'll have a really bad headache and/or nausea. Regardless, if you take a bad fall (as in, hit your head hard enough that your helmet is damaged or you lose consciousness) it is always much safer to get to a hospital and have it checked out.

A good example to learn from is Liam Neeson's late wife. She was wearing a helmet while skiing and fell (I am not certain of whether or not she lost consciousness). She claimed that she felt fine however and did not seek medical attention until she began experiencing intense headaches. By the time she got to a hospital she was declared brain dead and died a few days afterwards.

Yes, it's a bit of a freak accident, but the moral of the story is: wear a helmet and get to a hospital if you hit your head very hard. Better safe than sorry.


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## SorrelHorse

Once during a lesson, and several times outside of it.

It was during my private lesson with my trainer that I do twice a week. Mondays and Fridays. It was the Friday lesson and I was riding a new stud colt that I bought as a reiner. I had enver loped on him before.

So when she aske dme to lope I told him to without hesitation, but he got frisky and started totally freaking out, bucking and kicking. I sat through it but she has a low bar at the end of the arena in a corner that she normally has roped off but didn't this time so he ran me right into it and I went head first into a metal bar and fell off, completely unconcious.

Yeah. It sucked.


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## Brithorse1996

wow what did your instructor do??


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## Citrus

I hope she went to the doctor... those are signs of traumatic brain injury or brain hemorrhage.... the blacking out is a serious indicator of something not being right.


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## equiniphile

^^Blacking out happens for a lot of reasons.

Someone in my school choir blacked out during class because we were packed so tight on the risers on a really hot day, and she was very heavy, her knees then locked, and her body was working overtime to help her in the heat, and her mind shut down momentarily and she fell off the risers.

When I blacked out after getting shots, it was from having so much injected into my arm at one time.

I've heard little kids often black out after shots because they get so worked up and all their adrenaline is coursing, they're really nervous, and after the shot they let all that nervousness out like "phew it's over" and the adrenaline stoppage makes their mind shut down.

When I blacked out the second time, I'm not sure why I did. I could barely feel the broken collarbone, heck, I didn't even know anything was wrong with it until I tried to reach up and fix my hair! So I'm not sure why I blacked out then.


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## SarahHershey

I have never had anything bad enough to knock me unconcious... but regardless, you should always be checked out. 

A friend once tripped on his shoe lace, and hit his head(didn't lose concisnous(sp)) and he figured he was fine. 2 days later he passed out while driving his tractor, and his wife called 911. When he got to the hospital, they said he had extensive brain damage, and a concusion(kinda one in the same) and they gave him a 2% chance of surviving after he had a piece of skull taken out to ellivate pressure, and fix other stuff, and they said IF he survived he had less than 1% of a chance to ever regain any of his memories, and to accumilate new ones. 

Luckily he survived, and amazingly has no memory problems 4 years after the incident. Even though he survived those odds, I doubt many others who can. No matter how minimal the incident, if it involves your head(or chest) always have it checked out immediatly.

Sorry to ramble like that, I just never want that to happen to someone again. =/


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## SorrelHorse

No, Toni kept a level head and just made sure I woke up about five minutes later alright, then she drove me to my normal doctor Bobbi who said I had to damage, which was good. I did had a big bruise on my head for a few weeks though. Dang, it hurt! But still, I was wearing a helmet when I fell so even though I wacked under the helmet when I actually hit the ground the helmet probably helped a bunch.


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## corinowalk

Ive had multiple concussions in my life and only 2 of them have come for horses. Once while i was jumping my horse for fun, turns out it wasn't fun enough for him and he though I should go on without him. I knocked a rail with my head...and immediatly threw up. The other time I had a walker rear on me out of nowhere and he busted me right in my face. Same thing happened...i got woozy and puked but no black out and no memory loss. Concussions are scary stuff. They can wait for days to cause real trouble. More than 2 and you are at high risk for a bleed. Be careful!


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## speedy da fish

I've never been knocked out... but when I was little (about 7) I either fell asleep or passed out a little and I fell off the pony! The pony was the first pony I ever rode, Silver.


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## Nutty Saddler

Never been knocked out - but many years ago I fell off a horse whilst jumping, I landed on my head and suffered temporary amnesia - everything I had done that day ( about 6 hours ) disappeared from my memory.

I can remember now what I did but it took about 6 years to regain my full memory. It has to be the wierdest feeling I have ever known - to know you did something but to have no ability to say what.


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## Brithorse1996

Well everyone my friend just had a severe concussion but is ok now. She has to miss about 3 days of school though


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## ChloeButler09

i was knocked unconcious for about 2 minutes,im told a week ago,and woke up in hospital thankfully i cant rememerb what happened(basically got thrown off)so im not scared to get back on!


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## Brithorse1996

you were unconcious for 2 minutes and woke up in hospital

that was quick =P


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## gypsygirl

i was knocked unconcious for over half an hr...i dont remember about a week except for some small snatches...my trainer & mum were pretty freaked out of course...but i dont remember anything. it was horrible though, i couldnt really see for awhile & i wasnt allowed on a horse for 6 months


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## Brithorse1996

what on earth happened?!!


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## gypsygirl

the horse reared & flipped over on me. we didnt have an arena to ride in so i was riding her in a large dirt paddock but we hadnt had any rain for a long time so it was really hard & packed. my helmet broke in two.


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## ChloeButler09

my helmet snapped aswell,and my reins have!


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## Brithorse1996

Ouch, what was riding with broken reins like?


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## JustDressageIt

I've been knocked out and have had a couple of good concussions too. When I was 8, I had a really bad fall (I asked my instructor about it a few years ago and she said that she would tell me what happened just once, then the memory was going to be repressed again) - my helmet was broken, I broke my arm, and got knocked right out. Can't remember much from that day at all. 
Since then I've fallen off and gotten concussions, and been kicked in the head once. None of them were any fun at all to deal with.


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## Arksly

I've never lost concisnous (sp?) during a lesson. But, one time I was out with my Welara pony cantering in a field. It was November, and since I am in Alberta the ground was already frozen but for some reason there wasn't any snow on the ground yet. Anyway, I was cantering when my horse took off. I was wearing the roller spurs so since they are long I got hi
with both feet causing him to buck and twist. The only thing I remember was my forehead hitting the ground (I was wearing a helmet) then waking up to see my horse all the way across the field without a bridle which must have come off in the process I
of me falling. Luckily, my mom was there and I insited on getting back on. After we were all done I got a really bad headache. So my mom took me to the hospital an it turned out that I had a minor concussion. It happened on a Friday so on Monday I went back to school. On tuesday we had our christmas concert and I had one hell of a time trying to remember my lines. Hehe
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## mom2pride

Never been knocked out, although one of my horses gave me a concussion one time while we were waiting for some xray results to come back...something caught his attention, and he forgot I was right next to him and he knocked me with his jaw...bonehead! He kind of looked at me like "omg, I'm sorry mom!"


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## dressagexlee

When I was kicked in the head by Otis, I'm think I may have blacked out, but I can't remember. But I did figure out that getting kicked in the head doesn't hurt, oddly enough! I was twelve at the time.

My most recent fall left me with a severe concussion that almost killed me, and that was with a Charles Owen JR8 helmet on. I lost a lapse in my memory from the moments before my horse started to buck to about six hours after when I came back to the sane side of things. I wasn't knocked out, but I was talking nonsense for the time being. The first thing I remember saying was, "How's Freddy?"
Had I not been wearing my helmet, I can't imagine what would have happened to me.


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## IllComeALopin

I never fell off and blacked out... but I did black out already.

In my younger years I was notorious for spending all day at the barn riding, cleaning stalls, cleaning tack, feeding, just sitting around enjoying myself and the hot summer days.... everything except, oh you know, eating or drinking. :lol:

Now thats an obsession; when your to busy doing horsey things to even eat or get a drink... sad part was the Barn Owner was constantly offering to feed me but I was always in the middle of somthing, and we had a frig there that I stocked with water. I was easily distracted back in the day I guess.


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## HorseLove4ever

I have. After my lesson on this pony named danny, me and all of my friends went to go cool out by walking our horses around the field. Apparently a tractor backfired, I fell when he bolted, I cracked open my helmet and was rushed to the E.R.

Still cant remember that week whatsoever and i never will. That story was based on what everyone told me. I couldn't ride for a month after that and still cant remember that i was even riding that day. Not even any fuzzy memories, its just blank.


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## ChloeButler09

hahaha not good i spose:')but know i have to go buy new reins! xx


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## Brithorse1996

Ouch unlucky and to JustDressageIt i bet you're glad you wore a helmet


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## ChingazMyBoy

IllComeALopin said:


> I never fell off and blacked out... but I did black out already.
> 
> In my younger years I was notorious for spending all day at the barn riding, cleaning stalls, cleaning tack, feeding, just sitting around enjoying myself and the hot summer days.... everything except, oh you know, eating or drinking. :lol:
> 
> Now thats an obsession; when your to busy doing horsey things to even eat or get a drink... sad part was the Barn Owner was constantly offering to feed me but I was always in the middle of somthing, and we had a frig there that I stocked with water. I was easily distracted back in the day I guess.


I use to be like that but now I'm actually diagnozed with this thingy that means if I don't drink water I've got a higher chance of fainting, ect.


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## Brithorse1996

poor you


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## HorseCrazy6

Here's my story. At a Halloween Party at my stables in 2009 I was riding a horse named Tyree. I didn't know that he was a spooky horse at the time. We were having this mummy race and a girl wrapped in toilet paper walked toward me and Tyree. He spooked! Before he bolted, I tried to calmly get off him, but I wasn't being very calm! My foot got stuck in the stirrup and I lost my balance. So here I am lying in the ring with my foot stuck in the stirrup. Soooooo embarrassing! But, at the time, I was mostly scared. I mean, if he dragged me I could get seriously injured. I am not sure how I did this in the short time after her spooked and before he decided to bolt, but at some point I managed to slip my foot out of the stirrup. Tyree took off, and I was so glad that I didn't get dragged!!


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## Brithorse1996

wow close one

Update on my friend

she is now fine and there has been no damage and shes back in school


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## ilovemyhorsies

I wasn't knocked unconscious, but I fainted onto the ground. 
>__<


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## Brithorse1996

lol why?


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## my2geldings

Brithorse1996 said:


> Has anyone else ever been knocked during a riding lesson and what happened?
> Did your instructor panic what did they do?


I was hit in the head a few years ago. I had 16 stitches on the inside of my lower lip. I have no recolection of that day or the following 2 days. I also had 2 ambulance rides which I also do not remember.
Anyone who has ever been knocked unconscious will not remember actually going unconcious.


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## speedy da fish

ilovemyhorsies said:


> I wasn't knocked unconscious, but I fainted onto the ground.
> >__<


yep ive done that...


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## ilovemyhorsies

I'm not sure why haha.
Maybe it had something to do with 'altitude sickness' from the 17hh horse I was on ;D jk jk


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## Brithorse1996

haha well if it was a 17hh horse i think you were better off faitning on the ground


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## ilovemyhorsies

Brithorse1996 said:


> haha well if it was a 17hh horse i think you were better off faitning on the ground


Confused :shock::lol:

I fainted off the horse and onto the ground haha, luckily someone caught me though :wink:


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## drafteventer

No, I, personally havent, but I know somebody who did. She fell off during a dressage practice and was knocked unconscious and when she came to she couldn't even remember what a dressage test was.
Scary.


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## Brithorse1996

oops sorry for the misunderstand 'ilovemyhorsies'

and drafteventer did she get her memory back?


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## wildberryxX3

Not during a lesson...

I didn't actually go completely out, but I remember falling, then waking up on the ground probably just a few seconds later, catching my horse and walking back to the barn. The farrier was there and saw my bloodied face and told me to sit down. I had ditched my completely ruined helmet in the pasture apparently sometime between falling, waking up, and catching my horse and I had managed to break my nose and wrist. I sat down on the picnic bench and suddenly couldn't see or hear so he had me lay down and within a few moments I was fine. Went to the ER that day and found out I had a concussion. =\ Not fun!


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## Sunny

I've been knocked unconscious once. It was in a car accident. We got T-boned on my side of the car and my head slammed into the peice of plastic that the seatbelt comes from. I remember seeing the car come towards us, and I remeber being on the side of the road. So that puts me at being out for about 5-10 seconds. It was like a movie, the first thing I said was, "What happened?" My friend, the driver, told me to help him look for his cell phone because it had gotten thrown, and I looked in the glovebox. -facepalm- So, I was /obviously/ confused, and I have a bit of memory loss. I only remember bits and pieces of the ambulane ride. Oh! I got lost in the hospital. I had to go to the bathroom, so my nurse helped me get there, and when I came out, she was gone! I didn't remember how we got there, so I walked around for about twenty minutes looking for my room until I found it. I had a conversation with another patient about a tongue ring while I was lost. :lol:
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Mickey4793

Outside of a lesson I was bucked into the air from a gallop coming off of a cross country fence, landed head first into the ground. 

I remained conscious, but I was in no way shape or form aware of anything so this is what happened according to my mother and ex boyfriend who witnessed it: 

I landed head first, bounced and landed back on my side. I stood up, called my horses name and reached out for him [he was running back to the barn] then collapsed back to the ground. They ran over, helped me up and walked me back to the barn where my instructor, teaching someone else lesson, had caught my horse! She asked me if I wanted to get back on and hop over some arena fences. I shook my head but agreed to get back on and walk to the barn.

Then I assisted my mom to bath my horse, went and got my paycheck from my job, and went home and ate chicken pot pie, which was the point I started coming back to it.

Because of this I am a huge fan of helmets. I would have been dead if I hadn't had that helmet on, the impact was so hard.


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## kmacdougall

I have never been unconcious because of a horse. I have an intense fear of falling off a horse so I've decided just to not do it. I have fallen off horses a few times in the last 13 years, but mostly I hang on. I've been bucked out of the saddle and held onto the underside of the horse's neck multiple times. I really hate falling off and have probably been hurt a few times just because I REFUSE to bail. However, I have EXTREMELY low blood pressure (my normal is around 70/30) and I faint a lot because of this. We're talking like, once a month. So yes, I can describe what fainting feels like. For me, first I get really nausious but subconsciously I know I won't vomit. Then I start to lose vision. And I know I'm going to faint anyway but your body absolutely freaks for you to remain conscious.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## ADollopofDaisy

i got knocked out when i fell on my head cantering. luckily i had my helmet on which saved my life. i blanked out when i hit the ground and apparently i was like sitting the ground like staring and laughing? i have no recollection of what happened until i was lying in a ambulance strapped into the board and them telling me not to move. then i was blacking in and out until i got the hospital. It was just kinda foggy afterwards. this accident caused me to be scared of cantering for three years (which i got over when a horse took off with me )


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## Brithorse1996

:O were you riding alone?


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## ADollopofDaisy

Brithorse1996 said:


> :O were you riding alone?


no, thank god i wasnt. i still dont remember what happened, all i remember is riding along and then slipping and then staring at some people in an ambulance. i got a concussion obviously, got a cat scan but i was fine. it was at my summer camp so my dad flew up to visit me.


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