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Most terrifying horse riding moments?

6K views 37 replies 36 participants last post by  Vernette 
#1 · (Edited)
I was just thinking about some of the craziest, scariest things I've ever experienced on a horse.
  • The first was when I was even more of a beginner, and took up the opportunity to ride an out of work farm horse on a big big trek rounding up cattle. Spent the whole time fighting this mares mouth, and I felt so bad, but the only way to get her to stop was to jag, and even then when her friend galloped, so did she! And she was a rearer. Never been so afraid in my life haha.
  • The second was when I was on my gelding without a bridle and he decided to take off (; I had absolutely no control over him, and he was obviously very unsure as to what was going on. When he started doing this weird bucking canter, I knew I had to jump off. When I did, I must have slipped under him as he cantered along, because he stood on my leg. Permanent nerve damage, swelling and bruising.
I'd love to hear about other peoples mishaps! Maybe I could learn something from them hehe.
 
#2 ·
I did something really silly on my TB once!

I tried to ride him back to his paddock bareback in a halter and lead rope, without tying the rope to the other side of his halter (he doesn't neck rein).

Horse spooked, realized I didn't have control, and BOLTED back to his paddock at full speed. I made whoooaaas and gave tentative pulls on the halter, but I really was terrified he would buck if I yanked hard. All I remember thinking was, I have to stay on his back, because the speed we were going at, I would have splattered if I hit the ground!

Andy went past his paddock and just kept flying. We were coming up to a gate, and I wasn't sure if he would jump it (he had before to get to a buddy) so I just braced myself and HELD ON. Luckily he did a massive sliding stop and turned away, and I was able to hop off and marvel at the fact that I was still alive. At least I'd had the sense to wear a helmet.
 
#3 ·
Just recently, when I was going on a trail ride, a racecar suddenly flew roaring out of a blind turn, drifting right at us, and my usually very safe with traffic gelding spun and bolted home at a blind gallop. He wasn't responding to any cues at all, and the racecar was still following us (!!!), and we were approaching a swampy field with barb wire fencing very fast. The only thing I could do was to whack at the side of his neck and cheek with my whip until he jumped out on the very hard, rocky road and then galloped a bit more until stopped.

I didn't feel any emotions at that moment, and I still haven't wrapped my mind around what happened. My gelding is okay, thankfully.

Last year, during a trail ride, we were almost hit by an aggressive ATV driver in the forest, and my gelding tried spinning and bolting as well. Luckily, I managed to stop him with the one rein stop right away, but then he started broncing out of panic. It was a real, hard rodeo-type of a bronc, and I hanged on for my dear life until he finally stopped after what seemed like several minutes. After I hopped off, he was trembling, looking into the distance with an empty gaze and emptied his bowels almost non-stop for the next hour - he had been afraid for his life and I'm very lucky I got him under control. I couldn't force myself to hit the trails alone again for many months to come after that.
 
#4 ·
The scariest thing I've experienced on horseback was back about three years ago.

I was riding with a friend and we were galloping through a field. He went through a patch of trees and I tried going around the patch of trees. My horse at the time continued to follow the other horse through the patch of trees, and I lost my seat and came really really close to falling off. So close, that my chin hit the horn of my saddle. I don't even know how it's possible to slip that low and not fall. I sported a good bruise under my chin for a week and swear I saw my life flash before my eyes when I was hanging there.
 
#5 ·
Cantering around a corner during a lesson in my teen years, my massive tank of a horse tripped. I remember it in slow-motion: expecting her to recover then feeling us falling, her fighting to right herself but ultimately rolling over me, seeing my mother & trainer running towards us.

I was so worried about my mare, all I remember about the ER was that they had to cut my boots off for the examination, lol. Thankfully, aside from bruising, swelling & stiffness, neither horse nor I were seriously injured.
 
#6 ·
There are a couple from my childhood mare, who had a bit of an issue tripping. I wasn't the smartest teen apparently because I still used her for all sorts of stuff. Once I was jumping her and she tripped going over the jump, I hit the ground and looked up to see her falling towards me, apparently she saw me or something because she twisted and hit the fence instead of me.

Another time she tripped and came down, trapping my leg under her body, she started to roll towards me to get up and I started kicking at her with my untrapped leg until she rolled the other way. All in all she probably fell with me or on me something like 15 or so times, somehow I was never seriously injured.

This one always sticks in my head too. I was riding my lesson horse in my new saddle which was super slippery, apparently whatever I had used to clean it was a little too conditioning. :lol: He saw some fake flowers outside of the fence and leapt sideways to escape, normally I could stick those type of leaps on him, but with the saddle, I sort of just slipped right off the side. Somehow I ended up underneath him and had maintained a hold on my reins too. He freaked out even further and started rearing repeatedly with his hooves on either side of my head. Once my trainer's yells got through to me I let go and he bolted away.

My most recent is with my current horse. It was about two years after I bought him, 6 months after I had moved him to my parent's house. I knew he was herd bound and it was spring so I figured it would be a little worse than usual. We went out on the big loop ride I usually do, I thought that I would take care of the issue in one good wearing ride. Man was I wrong. The entire ride was spent circling, doing serpentines, leg yeilds, etc, etc. He was jigging, spooking at everything under the sun, and completely lathered. After something like two hours we were coming to the end and he had settled a little, but not a lot, my body was done so we continued the loop to get home. The last mile is along the highway and as we came down it there was a lawn mower parked on our side for sale. On the other side of the highway were two pick ups parked. He immediately went into even higher alert and started freaking out, I had him just barely on the right side of control and was doing everything I could to get him calmed. He settled a little bit and we started past the lawn mower, something freaked him out again and he tried to bolt into the highway, which just happened to be occupied at the moment by a semi truck coming in one direction and a big pick up in the other. I was not even two seconds from jumping off and letting him kill himself, but I managed to get him stopped. After that we got past the lawnmower, the rest of the way down the road, and back to the house. I still get nervy when I have to ride on the highway now and that was like 5 years ago. He's thankfully not nearly as spooky or herd/barn sour as he was back then and I just put him on SmartCalm which has worked wonders to get rid of the worst of his edge.

Yes, I am totally aware that all of my terrifying moments are due to my own enormous stupidity or hubris.
 
#7 ·
Me and my friend rode her horses when I first started. I was on her wp and English appy and he was a big boy. She was other barrel gelding and apt he things we did on those horses!
We played Simon says and I almost got bucked off luckily he was a little lazy and when we slid to their butts to see how far they would go with us sitting there I kicked and all of a sudden I was right behind his withers! Her mom told us to wear helmets and not to do anything stupid while she was gone for a bit well we took the two boys out to a big feild in a halter and lead and let hem graze while we were on them. We saw her moms car coming home we ran the horses to the barn there was a big stream in the pasture (around 8 feet) and my horse cleared it and her horse splashed at the end. We rode up to the barn and into the stall area and to the arena. We said we wouldn't tell her but we did anyways. We put a western saddle on her moms strictly dressage gelding because we couldn't find her saddle and I was riding him. I've ridden my first horse, my qh, and my moms horse with nothing and bareback.
Plus many more!!
 
#8 ·
I think my most scary moments are watching others fall off. Then you really have 0 control!

My most scary... I was jumping my mare when we were both very new to jumping. She was doing cross rails just fine. My trainer put down sideways barrels. The first time she refused. Second time I don't remember what happened. Third time she stopped threw her hips to the left (so she was standing at a 45 degree angle to the barrels), then with out me asking she left about 5 feet and went over. I did the, what I like to call, falling cat move, land on the saddle mid air and fell off.

... I believe that is the last I'm we've jumped... On purpose.
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#9 ·
I've had a few incidents with my sweet little mare:wink:...

The first incident occurred about a week after I had bought her. At my barn we have a track that goes around all of the pastures and next to our barn on either sides are big farming fields. I had ridden my mare many times on this track before I owned her, and she was an absolute non spooky angel. So, it was a nice winter day when my brother and I decided to take my mare and another horse out onto the track for a little exercise. We had gone a few laps around and everything was great....until someone decided to go illegally "muddin" in a diesel truck in the field next to us. As soon as my mare heard/spotted the truck she took off at a dead gallop. I had no opportunity to circle her or anything. She wasn't listening to any cues.. she was just running for her life. While i'm trying to control my horse at a gallop I then realize that all of the horses in the pasture are running with me and my mare at a gallop. I looked back to see where my brother was and his horse is standing still like nothing is happening. I yell for him to come try to stop my mare but by then we had already reached the end on the track. I could see that we were headed for the metal fence at a gallop. I decided I should probably jump off:lol: I emergency dismounted and landed on my back but all I cared about was that my horse was safe so I yelled at my brother to go get her...and about 10 minutes of chasing her around he finally caught her. In the end both of us thankfully were okay! I cracked my tailbone and messed up my neck but that's minor considering what could of happened.

Then couple months ago my friend and I decided to go on a trail ride across the street from our barn. We tacked up and walked our horses to the rode...mind you this is with my sweet little mare:wink:... The rode you have to cross in order to get to the trail is unfortunately a very busy rode. My friend and I walked our horses across the rode and got to the trail without a hitch....this is where the fun begins. My mare had done this trail many many times and was completely fine with it, however this time was not one of those times! I got on her and my friend mounted her horse. We walked about 30 feet and then my mare decided that she was too scared...so she reared up and dumped me (which she's never done before). My friend tried to catch her but it was too late. Snickers(my mare) turned around and headed back for the barn at a gallop. We ran after her but there was nothing we could do! She ran across that very busy rode and by some miracle , didn't get hit. After she got across the rode she ran into a pasture and started grazing...Seeing her run across the extremely busy rode and not being about to do anything about it was the hardest thing I've had to witness. Thank god she was okay.
 
#12 ·
The scariest thing that has happened to me was when I was on my 16.1 hand qh. I took her to my friends house to go on a trail ride and hadn't ridden her in about a week. My friend had an airstrip for crop-dusters by her house that was like running on a racetrack - exept straight. Our horses were FAST. It wasn't your average run for joy. she asked me to race and I said yes. The horse I was riding had never had any problems with listening and was acting perfectly normal. We started the race and mine was in front and gaining. I started to pull back, but it was like pulling on a tree with reins around it. I screamed at my friend to stop her horse and she did, but mine wouldnt. I wanted to bail, but I knew it would hurt BAD. I tried EVERYTHING to get her to stop. She just kept going. When we got to the end of the airstrip, she jumped a ditch at least 4 ft wide lining the side of the strip and fell to her knees. I bailed then and yanked her before she got to running again.

Luckily, she was ok. I was a little shook up, but no injuries. When my friend got there she was crying and saying she thought I was going to die over and over again. I just can't explain how scared I was. I still get chills 10 yrs later typing this.
 
#13 ·
The scariest was riding a well trained but very dominant horse who decided one ride I was no more important than a gnat on his back and he no longer had to listen. I had his nose to my knee at one point and he was still blindly charging forward within regard to his own safety. This was the same horse who stepped off a ledge with his back leg because he didn't want to go the way I wanted.

The second scariest was when a green horse I was riding years ago bolted and my saddle slipped and I came off. The fall wasn't the worst part but the other riders horse going over me. Thankfully he only clipped me in the helmet and didn't step on me.
 
#14 ·
I haven't had an issue yet but I was just at a barrel race. This girl ran a perfect pattern and when she was running home her horse tripped and rolled on top of her 4 times!!! Thankfully they were both alright but it looked really bad. About an hr later another girl was running to the 3rd barrel. Her saddle broke and her foot got stuck in the stirrup. She got dragged quite a ways!!!
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#15 ·
My oldest sister had recently gotten her mare and she was standing on one end of the field and another sister was standing in the middle of the field. I was on the horse and running back and forth between them and they'd catch her when I got to them. Sister standing in the middle of the field didn't catch the mare and away we went to the end of the field out onto the road (thankfully rural roads) down it a little ways and turned onto a gravel road. I was screaming WHOA! at the top of my lungs, sister that missed me was chasing after us on foot, oldest sis ran and hopped in the car and was chasing us in that. When the mare finally stops oldest sis get out of the car and gets on with me. I wanted off in a bad way but she wouldn't let me. Made the mare run all the way back home. That was pretty scary for a 7 year old. LOL

Same mare some time later, not sure how old I was by then but still pre-teen, and we were running back to the house and came around the barn face to face with a guide wire coming off an electric pole. Thankfully she saw it and came to dead stop, thankfully I stayed on even though I was riding bareback. My legs were shaking though when I got off.

The absolutely most terrifying thing though was when I rode JC into a mud bog and he sunk halfway up his torso. He went limp and would not struggle to get out. Didn't normally ride with a halter on but I had that day because we were on a treasure hunt and figured I'd have to be tying him up some so that was a blessing in disguise. I'm pulling on the lead rope begging him to try to get out and the whole time pictures of him sinking until his head went under was going through my mind. My friend finally found a limb and as I was pulling and yelling she was beating him on the butt and he finally struggled enough to pull himself out. I wasn't in the least bit of danger but my horse was and that scared the holy crap out of me.
 
#16 ·
When I was a teenager, a friend and I were riding down an old, overgrown road of some type that dipped down then up again. All of a sudden both our horses sank up to their bellies in swamp. The horses panicked and so did we. They both kind of reared up then lunged forward until they got to solid ground. It was all over in about 15 or 20 seconds but 30+ years later I still remember that sickening feeling that we were all going to be sucked into the muck and die.
 
#17 ·
Wow, loving everyone's stories! Surprised this was so popular, hehe, but then again horse riding is pretty dangerous... (which is why I love it)

I just remembered another terrifying mishap on my gelding. About a week after I brought him, I was riding him bareback. He'd picked up this habit of bolting (because he was bored) but I'm very silly, so I was also riding him on the buckle. All of a sudden he just galloped off straight for the electric fence, leaped it, with me still on his back, continued on towards trees, which unfortunately hit me in the face (I got clotheslined). Which was, of course, when I fell off. Naughty horses! (;
 
#18 ·
I can remember one scary ride, we had just moved our horses out to summer pasture, a 50 acre farm. There were a few other horses that were moved out there at the same time. I must point out that I was young and I would never do something like this now. The next day my sister and I went out to see the horses, they were all at the back of the farm so we got a rope and halter and a pail with grain in it to go out and get our 4 horses. When we got back there our mare came up to us and we gave her a treat and put the halter on, I got on and my sister got up behind me and we started back to the barn. Well all the other horses and our other 3 started crowding around, our walk became a trot, then a canter and there we were galloping along this field in a bunch of running horses. It finally dawned on me that the attraction was the pail of grain that my sister was holding and I told her to throw the pail and the other horses swung off to check out the pail and I was able to slow our mare down to a nice jog and we continued on to the barn with our other 3. We would often ride with just a rope and halter so I wasn't expecting the ride we had but the problem was the other horses wanted the grain.
Live and learn:)
 
#19 ·
I think the most scared I can ever remember being on a horse was when I was about 10 and my uncle took my sister and I on a horse trek - the only riding I had ever done was trekking at a walk and trot, and perhaps the odd lazy canter. On the way back for some reason my horse bolted and I did the worst thing you can probably do which was scream. No idea how long we went for until he finally stopped but I screamed the entire time - poor horse. To his credit he stopped at the top of a rather steep hill, I definitely would have come off if he hadn't.
 
#20 ·
One time when I was a young teen I went on a trail ride with a lady which was nothing unusual, I trail rode a lot. I lead down a trail that looked fine but was actually very deep, mucky mud. My horse flailed about and I fell off, his hoof landed less than a foot by my head. I was wearing a helmet but still. Another time we were running almost full out (he was a very fast horse) and the trail suddenly veered at a 90 degree angle and there was a low lying branch. First I was amazed how agile he was to navigate that turn with such dexterity, and I literally had to hang off the side to avoid the branch as stopping was not an option. Thankfully neither turned out bad.
 
#21 ·
Too numerous to mention, but none for years & years. Horses rearing up and going over really scares me, because when I was a kid I saw a girl killed by a horse that did that. I feel a horse go up too high and I bail off the side at mach speed. I don't get back on either, that's when I trained for the public, I quit those horses, and took them home.
 
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#22 ·
Warning: Novel ahead

Heaps of scary things have happened to me while riding Luca and other horses, so I'm just going to choose the ones I can remember haha

1. I went to a friend's house a few years ago and she suggested that we ride her horses up to the barn bareback and bridleless. So that's what we did. It went well at first, the mare I was riding was walking in the back and I felt pretty safe. Well, until my friend's horse spooked and bolted and the horse I was riding started to follow her. I just decided to hang on for dear life as the two horses leaped over small ditches, ran up the hill and finally slowed down when we reached the barn. Surprisingly, none of us fell off.

2. This is a very silly one and it was my fault. My sister and I were making up "quests" for each other where we stupidly dared each other to do different things with our horses (for example: Trot "sidesaddle" without a saddle) and my sister dared me to ride her horse bare back and the other way around (with me facing his rump). So there I was, riding the other way around, when Syd (the horse) decided that he didn't like what I was doing and just started pacing (he's a Standardbred and ex-pacer) full-speed back to the gate. Those few moments on his back were pure terror. I had nothing to hold on to and Syd was going faster and faster. All I saw was his hindquarters bobbing up and down. I did fall off, but I didn't get hurt. I learned my lesson, though.

3. I was riding Luca bareback on a huge paddock, riding down the hill slowly, going around the back of the paddock and galopping back up. It was great fun. I was starting to ride down the hill, when I felt Luca accelerate. When I tried to slow him down, it was already too late. He was galopping down the hill. It was a long way down, and I was starting to slip towards his withers, having no saddle. Faster and faster he went, and I could feel him trying to slow down, but he couldn't, with the hill being too steep. Even worse, Luca had (and still has) a roached mane so I had absolutely nothing to hold on to except the neck strap. So there we were, hurtling down this hill at a gallop, unable to stop. After a while and to my relief, the gound evened out and Luca managed to control his strides, slowing down to a walk. I let out a huge breath and rode some circles after that.

4. Another one! (you were warned)
I was riding Luca along the road through my neighbourhood and we passed a paddock full of pigs. Luca is absolutely terrified of pigs, so he started freaking out and backing up. I urged him on, thinking that once we passed them Luca would be fine. How wrong I was. When I finally managed to get Luca past the pigs, I praised him and rode on, only to be greeted by something standing right next to the road, behind a flimsy fence. Another pig. But that one was bigger than the average miniature horse. Well, that was the last straw for poor Luca, who backed up into a ditch, leaped out, spun around and bolted down the grassy strip on the side of the road. "Luckily" the road was also going downhill so double yay for me. I sunk my heels right down and contemplated how I could possibly emergency dismount, when I had a better idea (or should I call it "common sense"?). I managed to get Luca onto the gravel road, which slowed him to a trot and then finally a walk.
He's still scared of pigs to this day.

5. Last one, I promise!
I was riding in my trainer's arena and Luca and I were just peacefully trotting around it, when my trainer suggests some serpentines. So that's what we did. Now, this arena has several jumps set up, of varying heights (80cm to 1.10m) and while Luca and I were doing a serpentine through the arena, Luca suddenly veered off to the side, going towards a 90cm jump. Under saddle, Luca was only jumping 70cm, so I did all I could to steer him away from the jump. 90cm might not seem very high (especially with a 16hh horse) but Luca has an odd style of jumping and is still learning, so I was absolutely terrified. In the last second I managed to pull him to the side and trot him away from the jump.

There's still heaps of scary things stored in the back of my mind but I think I've typed a bit too much, haven't I? I do that a lot.
(Ah, I've just remembered two other ones that are pretty terrifying, but I don't know if I should type them all out. I've written too much! Long story short, my sister was riding her horse bareback and Luca was free in the same paddock. My sister started cantering along the fence when Luca suddenly charged after them with a terrifying expression on his face. My sister panicked because Luca looked so aggressive, but suddenly Luca slipped and slid on his hindquarters into my sister's horse, who just leaped forwards a bit and slowed down. The other story involves a trek along the road and a very buddy-sour Luca who, with no prior warning, bolted after my sister's horse who was walking along further in front. Luca did some big bucks, but I hung on and brought him back under control before he could run all the way to his best buddy.)

Phew, I've made Luca sound like such a horrible horse, but he's learnt so much and is so much easier to control nowadays. These stories are all from last year or the year before that.
Whoa. I wrote a novel. I'm so sorry!!!:shock::oops:
 
#23 ·
These stories are both awesome and terrifying. Now I'm afraid to ride outside my little riding ring. lol
 
#24 ·
I was visiting some family friends in England when I was about 12. They had a giant 18 hand horse who was supposed to be a gentle giant. They offered to let me sit on him. I normally wouldn't have without a helmet, but younger me couldn't pass up an opportunity to sit on any horse. She was holding onto his lead rope and I was just sitting bareback on him holding onto his mane. Suddenly he spun around and ripped the lead rope out of her hands and took off across the field (judging by his reaction I think he might have been stung by a bee). I almost immediately lost my glasses (I see very poorly without them). I keep telling myself to bail off in an emergency dismount as I had absolutely no way to stop him (the dangling lead rope was way out of reach, not that 100 pound me could have stopped a horse that big anyways bareback with just a lead rope), but I couldn't bring myself to bail off a horse that big, going that fast on hard ground. He lapped the field at a full gallop and headed towards one of the fences. I don't think he saw it well as it had a bunch of bushes behind it. At the last he did see and slammed on the breaks. The ground was muddy though and his hind quarters slipped under him. He must have managed to avoid falling on me because I wasn't hurt, but that part is a bit fuzzy.
It all happened so fast I wasn't that scared at the time, but looking back it was pretty terrifying. I never say I'm "just" doing this or that on or with a horse anymore, because the situation can change pretty fast!
 
#25 ·
I was on a trail ride with a couple of girls and a boy my age last year. The trails did not belong to the BO, but the neighbors who owned them allowed us to use them. We were not told that there was major construction going on in what used to be thickly wooded trails. Apparently there was construction to build a road so people could later mine for limestone there. We were riding down a lane and stopped when we saw all kinds of diggers and big trucks. The machines didn't scare the horses much. They threw the scary metal monsters a few odd looks but didn't bolt or get too nervous. There was a trail around the construction site off to the side, but they had one of their big dump trucks parked in the middle of it. We decided to just turn back and call it a day so we wouldn't take the risk of the horses stepping on construction materials and getting hurt and we wouldn't get in the way. None of the trucks or machines were being used and were all turned off. We assumed the workers were just taking a break. We saw them sitting around on the ground and in chairs. As we started to turn, we saw a man (obviously heavily intoxicated) walking towards us. He started yelling things that we couldn't exactly decipher because his speech was very slurred. The boy in our group calmly told him that we would be going back and not to worry. The man pulled out a gun. Well, that was it for us. We hauled butt out of there at full gallop. It wasn't some crazy spooking horse like most of these stories, but it was certainly terrifying to have a drunk man point a gun at a trail group. Needless to say, the man was arrested a few days later. Whether he was still working there or not, we weren't going back there again!
 
#26 ·
I can't read any more of these, or I won't be able to ride at all for a while...

My scariest time was when Sonny was still pretty new to me,and I wasn't nearly as good a rider as I mistakenly thought I was at the time. Also, I had not a clue that a horse could have an opinion of what the rider asked them to do and Sonny as it turned out , strongly disagreed with my bright idea for us to go on the trails alone. About 20 feet down the trail, I was *smart* enough to realize I was in trouble. He was high headed, whites of eyes showing, snorting, and we had argued back and forth over the same 8 ft of trail for about 5 minutes. I wanted to go away from the barn, he kept turning back toward the barn. I was getting tired, and emotionally frazzeled, and he was actually trembling underneath me. As green as I was, I realized that I was at risk to have a horse buck, bolt or rear,,,or all three. I was terrified. Thank my guardian angels for giving me enough sense to dismount. It was like sitting on a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit...just a matter of time till it was going to blow, and I wasnt any where near a confident enough rider to work thru it and get him confident in my leadership.
Another time, he was refusing to go forwards by backing,,,and was headed right toward a smoldering campfire..his back feet were about 3 feet from the edge of the campfire when I finally got him stopped and then going forward again. pretty scary also.
Thank goodness , he is a much calmer horse and I am a much more confident rider these days...no scary stuff in a very long time.
Fay
 
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