Bad fall, let's hear yours

I'm not sure it was a few years back, so I know body protectors have changed since then, probably made better, it just scared me at the time so I don't have one.. But if I plan to jump any higher than I am now, or do x-country... Body protector here I come!

My last bad fall as at my last horse show. I rode this mare named Snickers. I could tell that she full of energy and that today was going to be a very hard day to control her. I tried calming her down before we went to go into the ring but she just wouldnt calm down. I told my trainer but she dismissed it. I went in for my warm up round. Horrible. She tried bolting. We missed all the strides. It was just horrible. Then, my trainer kept me in the ring to go for my first round. She seemed a little calmer. I was wrong. At the end of the first line she started bucking. Like crazy bucking.Most of the time I can take her bucks but these were crazy. I ended up flying backwards and landing on my head. As soon as I hit the ground I started screaming. Everything was black for about 10 minutes. In the end I had to ride the ambulance to the hospital and stayed in the ER for 4 hours. I wore a neck the whole time. I got a horrible concussion and wasnt able to ride for about 3 months. Worse time of my life D:

Totally thought I would show off how fast my horse was. That's normally how it starts hu?;)
Well anyways I kicked her into a fast lope and she was feeling kinda full of herself and went into a full fledged bucking bronco throw down. I hate landing bad, so I attempted to jump off, wound up bending my knee the wrong way and forgot to let go of the reins, so she pulled me a good 10 feet before I thought..oh. Maybe I should let go.
My knee was swollen to the size of...of...something big lets just say that. 2 days later I had to squeeze it into my Q-Baby's and ride at a drill competition. My knee got wacked. A LOT.

It was my horse's first event. Ever.
Well not totally. He has been to a jumper show before and done excellent. I take pride in the fact that my horse has a very calm mind and rarely freaks out over anything. So of course, I feel confident on his back. Even though we are doing XC, I felt okay.

Wrong.

We had done dressage, didn't do too hot but I was ready for XC. I don't have a body protector but I was confident I wouldn't need one. I've never come off this horse before, and maybe only one of two close calls. My trainer always tells me I need to get him more forward through XC because he tends to get behind the bit. So I'm pushing him forward as we hit our first fence. Yay, made it! Piece of cake. Second fence that I thought would be a problem, no big deal! Now here comes the third fence. Oooooooh the dreaded hanging log. I'd never had a problem with them up until now. Well, Ike takes a sharp right and I just FLEW over his shoulder. Slammed straight into the fence. Yes... the maybe 12" hanging log. In the "Grasshopper" level. *facepalm*

Ike took off back to the warm up area where my sister was with her horse. My sister grabbed him and lead him back to me. I on the other hand was on the ground struggling to get up because these darn people wouldn't let me get up! When I get hurt, I tend to get angry. I forced myself up, through the tears, and got out of the way. I wanted to get back on so bad. But they wouldn't let me. Poor Ike came back with my sister, practically hiding behind her. The poor guy had never had me come off before. Scared him just as much as me. Instead of being mad at him, I have him a hug and insisted on trying to get back on. Nope. Not today! I'd hurt my lower back really bad. Very slowly led him back to the trailer (very slowly....) and iced my back.

Basically the next two weeks I couldn't sit down very well, or bend over. I ended getting back on him for warm up for my show jumping round but didn't ride him in the class. I didn't want to ride poorly because my back hurt. He needed to have a good ride, so my sister ended up riding him for me in that last event. He did awesome of course, and in warm up I'd been able to jump him.

What was I most mad about? I didn't even get a cool bruise! :P

Likeike17- haha it sure is annoying when your sore and it hurts to do much and you don't even have a bruise or a scratch!!

I had a horse rear and flip over on me in a dirt paddock when the ground was really hard. My helmet literally broke into two pieces, it saved my life ! I was unconcious for over half and hr and had to be med-flighted to a hospital. Had a severe concussion. I was too dizzy to even walk for a few weeks, and I couldnt ride for 6 months.

I have had a horse flip over on top of me and made a trip to the hospital. I literally couldn't walk for a week. I bruised every bone in my body from when the horse fell on me. My gelding in the middle of the canter in a hunter under saddle classes started bucking and threw me over the arena fence. He was on the inside of the arena and I was on the outside
(ruined a $250 hunt coat. I was not happy!!) And the perfecta was when I was kicked in the head by one of my horses and lost half my teeth, bleed on the brain and broke like half my face (and I am currently working on getting my teeth fixed 4 years later.) And I still ride and train because I'm nuts. But I love my horses more than live its self I wouldn't have it anyother way. What doesn't kill you only makes you stranger! :]

Was at a regional championships for interschool equestrian in the 1.10m showjumping class on my unofficial (HC) horse. He wasn't feeling right in the first round of the day. Anyway, I fell off just before the last jump - we jumped the second last jump (a double) and I was half off the side by the end of it, clinging on to the back of the saddle with this horse spinning in circles, so I jumped off and landed on my feet... only to discover from the ambulance lady that my ankle was broken :( x-rays later showed that both the end of the tibia and fibula were snapped clean off.. The pain wasn't bad and the only reason I cried was because I couldn't compete at the state champs the next weekend.. xD

My worst fall was when I was 15 in a lesson. We had just started cantering, and maybe five strides in the horse decided to start bucking like crazy. I didn't stand a chance and flew off, hitting the arena wall before falling on the ground. I had the wind knocked out of me. As soon as I could breathe again, I immediately stood up. Put weight on my right leg, then weight on my left leg... and my leg snapped beneath me about 6 inches above my ankle.

Moral of the story: Stay on the ground until the shock wears off! My leg broke when I hit the ground, and had I waited 30 seconds more I might have felt the pain instead of immediately trying to stand on it and making it that much worse.

Oh my gosh, heymckate, that is crazy! I'll have to keep that in mind as I tend to pop right back up when I fall.

My worst two are not near as bad as most of the stories on here.


My jumping fall was mostly just really embarrassing even though my instructor was the only one who saw. I was supposed to be cantering a little 2 foot course (just four fences). So I started with my hunter's circle, picked up my correct lead canter from the walk (yay!), came around the turn perfectly, waited for the jump, rose into my two-point with a lovely release, and glanced down at the jump. Of course the Arabian I was riding had no intention of going over something I had peeked at. So she slammed on the brakes and let me go ahead of her. I somersaulted over her left shoulder and landed on the top rail of the jump. Luckily I was wearing my protective vest or I would have really hurt my back.


The other fall was off of a OTTB mare who was so lazy I usually needed spurs. For some reason she was really spooked when I got on and kept trying to bolt across the arena, so my instructor had me doing little circles along the fence. Well she decided that enoguh was enough so she bolted coming out of one of the circles. We got across the short side of the ring okay but I was a bit unbalanced when we hit the rail on the other side, and instead of stopping like any normal horse would have this mare hit the fence and spun. I came off and did a complete flip over the fence and into a briar patch. I had a bruise in the shape of the top rail of the ring on my thigh for weeks.


Oh! And I just remember one fall where the horse went right and I went left. I have this image in my head of both the horse and I being completely off the ground, and the bottoms of all four hooves being totally visible. Luckily she was moving away from me so she didn't end up landing on me.