# Injury from saddle horn



## sarahfromsc (Sep 22, 2013)

Yes, but in a more delicate area.


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## Countrygirl21613 (Apr 3, 2016)

All I can say is OUCH! This one is the first I've ever had like this. First time on a horse in almost 10 years and get a huge bruise.


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## sarahfromsc (Sep 22, 2013)

Hope it doesn't stop you from riding!


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## Countrygirl21613 (Apr 3, 2016)

Definitely not. Since it's been so long since I've rode, I've started lessons again. That's where I was when this happened and I go again on Wednesday.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

I have heard of sternum injuries from connecting with the horn too fast.

I have also heard of some women coming forward too fast and somehow their bra managed to get hooked to the horn, when they came backward equally as fast.

Yet another reason I always rode barefaced, lol. Or ride in a horn-less saddle


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## Reiningcatsanddogs (Oct 9, 2014)

I got one below the sternum a few months back when we took a big jump on the trail and my upper body got too far forward on the landing (note to self, work on core and back strength). There is a reason that people use a hornless saddle for jumping!


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Glad you weren't hurt worse.

It is rare, but worse injuries can happen. I wonder why more non-ropers don't ride hornless saddles.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

You might consider something like this:










http://www.horseforum.com/horse-tack-reviews/jms-sheepskin-saddle-cushion-review-after-673170/

Like having velcro on your butt. Makes it much easier, IMHO, to stay in place when things get interesting. It has been a night & day kind of difference with my slick seat, slick fork saddle with horn!


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## Darrin (Jul 11, 2011)

Met a guy who claimed he had one of those long, skinny metal horns (what the heck they use those for anyway?) actually penetrate into his abdomen. Horns can do some nasty damage, luckily I've only had a bit of fat pinched myself.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Darrin said:


> Met a guy who claimed he had one of those long, skinny metal horns (what the heck they use those for anyway?) actually penetrate into his abdomen. Horns can do some nasty damage, luckily I've only had a bit of fat pinched myself.


Cutting and trick riding is all. Regular horns can do awful injury, too.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

Darrin said:


> Met a guy who claimed he had one of those long, skinny metal horns (what the heck they use those for anyway?) actually penetrate into his abdomen. Horns can do some nasty damage, luckily I've only had a bit of fat pinched myself.


I'm pretty sure those are on barrel racing saddles. They are just about the right height for the rider to grip the horn while the horse is going around a barrel on two legs

If your friend's saddle also has a deep seat and low/rolled cantle it probably is an old barrel racing saddle. The deep seat is why they make such comfortable trail saddles and they generally fit most any horse, except those with no withers


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## wbwks (Apr 5, 2014)

I had one to a very delicate area ... my young horse bucked or kicked or something (it was maaaaany years ago) and I popped forward and hit you know what smack dab on the horn. I ended up with a skin tear then tag you know where. Years later I had it nipped off at my OBGYN. 

I have a sheepskin on my saddle too, I didn't get the big one shown above, just the one that covers the seat. Love it love it love it! 

Getting a bra hung up on the horn is also common.


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## jenkat86 (May 20, 2014)

wbwks said:


> Getting a bra hung up on the horn is also common.



Ugh...the first time I went trail riding with my now-husband this happened. I went to get off and had one of those bras that snap in the front. Yeah...you know what happened! I was so embarrassed! 

...maybe that's why he married me!


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## Saranda (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh how I appreciate my English saddle while reading threads like this!!  

Hope you're healing well, OP!


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## Countrygirl21613 (Apr 3, 2016)

Thank you everyone for your replies. I rode and had my second lesson today and did very well. No new saddle horn injuries to add and my bruise has shrunk in size to about half of what It was and is no longer painful. I go back again next Wednesday for lesson #3. I CAN'T WAIT!!


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## Spec (Jun 13, 2015)

Yeah, the horn will get you if you're not careful.  
It sucks! I had it happen to me once. It was a while back, but I was riding Spec down the gravel road when he was a youngster and a sprayer came by (if you don't know what a sprayer is, it's a huge piece of farm equipment that is basically a tractor with tall wheels that elevate the tractor cab/booms/tanks like 6 feet in the air. Look it up on google.) besides feeling like a tense, loaded spring, he handled it well. There's where my rookie mistake came in: as I was petting him for being good, something moved the brush behind us for some reason he had a freakout. He lunged forward, crowhopped, and stopped all in the same motion, throwing me onto his neck/the saddle horn. Oh and Circle Y puts silver plates on their horns, and since my saddle is old and the plate was starting to come detached, it scratched me and I had the grossest, ugliest bruise/scratches.. I also cracked the visor of my helmet during that incident.. If I wasn't wearing it, I swear I'd have a crooked nose right now. :icon_rolleyes:


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

How difficult would it be to remove the horn? I've always wanted a hornless saddle, but I can't find one that fits my horse. Would the leather of the saddle frey if you removed the horn?


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

4horses said:


> How difficult would it be to remove the horn? I've always wanted a hornless saddle, but I can't find one that fits my horse. Would the leather of the saddle frey if you removed the horn?


No. Leather will not fray. And saddle repair shop can do it. And offer options on how to cover the empty spot.


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## 6gun Kid (Feb 26, 2013)

I cant begin to tell you the number of saddle horn injuries I have had over the years!


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## Ollie (Jun 15, 2016)

I had the same injury 6 days ago and actually fell off. My bruise is still getting larger and now measures over a foot. I probably should have gone to the ER but did not. I don't feel fatigued or weak as if I were losing blood internally, but darn the one area on my left lower abdomen that took the most impact hurts when I bend over. If you feel weak, dizzy or have blood in your urine I would be worried. Hope you heal soon
Sharon


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## ceelee (Feb 16, 2019)

Hi, new to the forum. In Aug. 2009, I was cooling down an Appaloosa-in-training in a regulation outdoor arena for my trainer friend when the horse suddenly exploded into a bronco bucking idiot from a dead walk. I hung on trying to settle him while trying to time it where I could bail. Then i was looking at horizon, sky and then landed flat on my back, bounced off the sand/blue gravel base onto my left side with left arm tucked under my ribs. Couldn't breath or gather enough strength to call for my friend in the barn. She came running when the horse ran back towards the barn. Ambulance ride down a mile of pot-hole filled dirt road off a mountain, I had tons of tests and xrays in the trauma center to realize I had 7 broken ribs, 2 broken vertebra and my sternum was broken in 2 places. Thankfully, no spinal cord damage! A week in the hospital, kyphoplasty surgery on my T-8 vertebrae, and sent home with vicodin and Oxy. I was 1.5" shorter and my chest looked like a strange curvy sliding board. Follow-ups with thoracic surgeons had me at John's Hopkins in Baltimore for complete sternal reconstruction 6 months later by the chief of Thoracic Surgery. He said it was the worst sternal fracture he had ever seen. 2 months later, I was sitting on my sweet Paint horse, and faced a long road of re-gaining my confidence and learning to relax to ride, it was like learning all over again. I have had a few spook falls since then, and had 3 concussions so my doctors advise against riding. So I am regretfully retired from riding at 66, and my horse is retired at 16. He will be mine until the day one of us passes, and I thank him and God every day for getting me through the worst trauma of my life.


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## gunslinger (Sep 17, 2011)

Wow ceelee.....sorry to hear you're retiring.....that's not a day I'm looking forward to....


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

Had a friend that was a pretty good cowboy trying to break a horse from rearing. as the horse came up he pulled on the reins and tried to step off the saddle, instead the horse came over backwards on him and the horn caught him in the throat. Spent a long time in the hospital and couldn't talk for a long time. When he finally got his voice back it was a hoarse raspy sound and to the best of my knowledge it still is.


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

Last summer my mare bucked me off during a ride. I was still riding in a saddle with a horn at the time and my inner thigh caught on it and left me with an ugly and painful bruise for about the next 3 weeks. I still managed to make it the rest of the 20 miles of the ride, it wasn't until after I realized how bad it was bruised!


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

Galloping in two-point across a field, horse stepped into a hole and stumbled. I made contact with the pommel (close contact saddle, thankfully - no impaling devices) and learned for the first time that I have a "pubic symphysis". The worst I got hurt riding without leaving the horse's back.


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## carshon (Apr 7, 2015)

While in High School I used to break horses (this was many years ago) I was breaking a young mare for some people that had spoiled her rotten - and she had learned to rear when she was unhappy- I had made great progress and was getting ready to declare her ready for them to finish when riding her in the field she decided she just did not want to go and she reared up straight onto her back legs - I leaned forward and to the right and thank God I did. She came over backwards on top of me - I hit the ground so hard the backs of my earrings came off the posts - the saddle horn left a dent on the ground above my shoulder. I thought I had broken my pelvis as I could not feel my legs. come to find out the owner had come out to take a picture of her "baby" being ridden and the mare had decided she wanted to go to the fence for a treat and not go forward. The picture shows the mare halfway up in the air.

I was done with that horse that day - the owners never did ride her and she got more spoiled and mean- I am sure she eventually ended up as dog food.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

Oh terrible stories! I know some bad ones too. My mother has a hole in her thigh from endoing a horse and having the horn come down on it, and a friend of mine had it much worse coming down on it during a bronc ride.

Here is my kind of funny story though. I was trick riding, loping around the arena standing up when my strap broke. I came down on the horn. It hit a bad part to hit, but kind of to the side, so mostly in that spot where your leg meets your underwear. I was bruised up, but really not hurt that bad. The teasing I took from everyone watching was quite funny though. Lol

I’ll show a picture of the horn for full effect.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

mg:, @Knave! That's seriously nasty! No wonder people don't showjump in Western saddles...

Worst thing of that sort happened to me at age 12 jumping bareback on a horse with high withers. Normally we were fine, but I just landed very wrong, and forward on the horse. :shock:


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

boots said:


> No. Leather will not fray. And saddle repair shop can do it. And offer options on how to cover the empty spot.


Like a drinks holder, perhaps? ;-)


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## AndyTheCornbread (Feb 3, 2019)

Knave said:


> Here is my kind of funny story though. I was trick riding, loping around the arena standing up when my strap broke. I came down on the horn. It hit a bad part to hit, but kind of to the side, so mostly in that spot where your leg meets your underwear. I was bruised up, but really not hurt that bad. The teasing I took from everyone watching was quite funny though. Lol


 @Knave LOL!....and I have no further comment other than to say you would not catch me dead riding around in a saddle like that holding the horn. I would literally NEVER live it down if my friends saw me.

As to the original question. I have lost count of how many times I have been racked on a saddle horn. I ride with a night latch now so I can grab it and lock myself down pretty good if things go pear shaped when I am riding. They are a lot easier to hang on to than a wade style integral horn built into the tree. Just grab the latch low, lock your thigh into the saddle below your hand and lean back to ride the buck out on your pockets.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

@AndyTheCornbread the horn is made to hold onto for other reasons. Just to save face I will show you why there is a horn like that on a trick saddle. My friends don’t make fun of me. 

Also a picture of the old paint so you know it’s not always slow, this colt is just learning.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

On another note my regular saddles have horns for a reason too!


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## AndyTheCornbread (Feb 3, 2019)

@Knave yep, I have a horn on my saddle for the same reason(cattle work), even though my kids think that is where you hook the sled to when they want to get pulled around  I have seen trick saddles before but I am not spry enough to ever use one. Even if it wasn't on a horse I'd probably just hurt myself being around it, and then my friends would really howl. I'll leave that kind of saddle to folks like yourself with gymnastic talents.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

@Knave, my DH thinks you have "hazardous hobbies"! :rofl: Was just looking up from his crime thriller at the screen...

@AndyTheCornbread, I spent my first 11 years in Germany, where I learnt to ride - and everybody on Continental (English) saddles. The only people we knew who rode Western were the ones who struggled to stay on their horses, and they literally used the horn to hold on to so they'd not fall off! :rofl: One of them used to "yee-haw" when he was riding... I remember him, his name was Tony, young fella about 20-something, he must have been starring in a cowboy movie in his head! :rofl:


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

Lol. It’s always nice to give you friends reason to laugh @AndyTheCornbread. 

I personally think the rope is a better bucking strap.

Sorry to have taken your thread astray OP. I hope your stomach gets to feeling better.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

I'm sure this will help, @Knave!


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