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Whats your scariest riding moment?

10K views 50 replies 31 participants last post by  pheobe111 
#1 ·
hi!

so im mostly just interested to hear what people have considered is their most “scariest” riding moment, whether out on a trail or in a ring. Mine would have to be i was trail riding and since we had a recent hurricane, a lot of trees were knocked down. Well we came across a fallen tree that wed have to go around and we had a lot of beavers in the area so a lot of the trees were gnawed off with a jagged point. in order to get around the tree we had to climb up this relatively sleep slope around the jagged trees. On the way down, i think my horse accidentally stepped on a flat rock and slipped and we both ended up sliding down the hill on our sides with my foot still caught in the stirrup. we managed to dodge every tree stump or sharp object which i consider a miracle. We were both okay except i had a bit of scrapes and bruises.

Whats yours?
 
#2 ·
Riding on a snowy trail; fresh snow, but under the few fresh inches was sheer ice. My horse fell on the ice while I was in the saddle. I rolled off and was fine. She was stuck on the ice for what seemed like an eternity, scrambling to get up, before I managed to pull her front half off the trail onto more solid ground and she was able to get her feet under her and stand again. Fortunately we were close to the barn, so walked home unhurt if shaken.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Three moments have stuck with me.

The first one was hitting the top log on the second fence of a double going downhill. We didn't get high enough and she somersaulted over the solid fence. I knew i was going to hit the ground by her shoulder, and there was a good chance that she'd land on top of me. I did everything i could to get out of the way, which probably wasn't very much. I still don't know how we missed each other but, luckily, she landed further away and scrambled up. Although I wasn't on my feet as quickly, we weren't injured.

The second was when i was leading a trail ride full of beginners. When one got into trouble i dismounted to help her and her leader but my young horse decided that this would be a great time to spook and he turned and lashed out with both feet. I was hit over my heart and ribs. I can remember being lifted off the ground and then lying on my back trying to get air into my lungs, thinking 'this can't be good!'. I can still see the faces of the other riders as they tried to help me.

The third was when i was leading a trail ride home. Close to the yard, there was a dark and narrow stretch of road, that looked like a tunnel because of thick bushes and trees. As we rode along, a huge double-decker bus suddenly appeared over the hill and hurtled towards us in the middle of the road. The bushes and trees were blowing about and the air swirling with its speed, which terrified the young horse i was riding (same one as above). He jumped in the air, froze, then started panicking. I decided that i needed both hands to control him rather than trying to signal the bus to slow down. I thought he was going to take us in front of the bus but, as it flew past, he went sideways into a ditch in the grass verge. He remained terrified of large traffic for the rest of his life and was killed when he spooked at a bus passing his field.
 
#4 ·
I was showing in versatility and doing the trail course. Part of the obstacles included roping a dummy cow, so I had my rope on my saddle. Another obstacle was getting the mail out of a mailbox. The mailbox was on a wooden stand that was not anchored to anything. My Arab mare was a rock star on a trail course and got right up next to the mail box. I opened it, got the letter out, waved it around, put it back and closed the door and went to move off and the mail box came with us ... my rope had gotten around the door.

My mare went ballistic with this thing following her and I thought, "this is going to be an epic wreck!" My mare knew "whoa" really good, so after I got my wits about me, I told her whoa and she stop and stood stock still, her eye never leaving the mailbox. I was reaching down to undo the rope, when I saw out of the corner of my eye one of the judges RUNNING towards us - NOT a good thing to do. My mare caught sight of her and took off again, and the mail box stand whipped around and knocked the judge off her feet. Which I think helped knock the mail box off my rope & it fell to the ground. I took a breath and we continued on with the course, finishing it. I think we came in 2nd or 3rd on the trail course, LOL.

Yea, that could have been really bad.
 
#5 ·
I have a few that stand out to me. One was when I was about 14 or 15 and we were out on a trail. I was leading my mare through an opening in a wire fence and did not see barbed wire that was hidden in the sand. Her hind foot caught it and she, of course, ran being scared. The wire ended up wrapped around her back legs and my legs with about 2-3 feet between us, every time she kicked up to free herself I'd fly into the air and come back to hit the ground. Fortunately, when the wire tightened my mare laid down and someone came out and cut us out. I remember yelling at them to cut her out first. Other than being sore we were both fine after some rest.

Another one is when I was riding a green horse on a trail, and I woke up in the middle of the road to a bus full of kids yelling "there is a dead body!" and "that horse killed her!" I have NO clue what happened to this day. My horse (one of the greatest I've owned) stood next to me eating grass on the side of the road until the fire truck arrived then he bolted.

Not me but my sister was riding her horse up a fairly steep hill along side a small paved road that led to the trails by our house, and her horse spooked over something and when she hit the asphalt she slipped and slid on it. They both had road rash but were otherwise okay. That could have been a real disaster.
 
#6 ·
Another one is when I was riding a green horse on a trail, and I woke up in the middle of the road to a bus full of kids yelling "there is a dead body!" and "that horse killed her!" I have NO clue what happened to this day. My horse (one of the greatest I've owned) stood next to me eating grass on the side of the road until the fire truck arrived then he bolted.
Nothing like having an audience!

Other than a pretty thrilling bolt while out on a trail ride with friends (thankfully there was a meadow in which to make a turn, and after which we learned the one-rein stop) my lifetime with horses has generously been marked by the garden variety bumps and bruises, and assorted ground connections.
 
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#7 ·
When I look at my biggest horse accidents, it is because of something I can do better! I took a lot of unnecessary risks as a youngster. I'm trying to instill in my stepdaughter who is 8 and just starting out that the most important thing is for you and the horse to be safe. Once we know better we have to do better.
 
#8 ·
I have had many scary moments but one comes to mind first.
I was cantering on my horse when he just suddenly went down, he fell on his side with my left leg pinned under him, I was riding in the western saddle that day and as I lay there I could see his feet coming up, the saddle horse was jammed into my stomach and I thought he was going to roll right over me but somehow he struggled and went back down the way he came up.

My leg was pretty crushed and I did go to Emerg but no broken bones, the leg was black and blue from hip to toes and that knee never fully recovered and have suffered pain with it since then.

Not one of my pleasantest riding memories.
 
#10 ·
There are a few scary moments that have stuck with me.......

Me and my little brother were riding double on my big pony and we had ridden around for about an hour. My pony was the type that NEVER wanted to canter and had never bolted in the 5 years I rode him. We were coming up a slight hill on the trail and my pony bolted faster than I had thought he could. My little brother held on to the cantle of the saddle for about 10 seconds before flying off the back of the pony. Luckily his head barley missed a sharp rock and he was ok other than a couple of bruises.

Another time that was pretty......scary ......I guess......was when me and the same pony from before were at a gymchana and we were doing a jumping course. He was doing absoloutley amazing until he got to the last jump. We were approaching it and I was already in 2 point when he hit the breaks. I flew up onto his neck and both of my sturrup leathers were wraped around my legs. He started walking away as I hugged his neck and with one hand I pushed myself off the jump onto the top of his neck. I got untangled and recovered my courage and then cantered around and actually cleared the jump. My pony sadly passed away about a moth ago from eating red maple leaves
 
#11 ·
I was cantering on a circle, in a lesson, and not paying attention to the fact that the circle was drifting closer and closer to the fence. Next thing I know, I'm cantering toward a certain 'encounter' with the fence of the arena, and I can feel my horse gathering herself up to jump this fence (probably a 4 foot fence). On the other side are trees, stumps, bushes rocks and I know jumping it would be a disaster. At the last second, I haul her around so that we slam into the fence somewhat sideways; my leg between her shoulder and the fence. Horse rebounds one way, I the other, landing ON the fence. I am scared to stand on my feet, thinking my right leg must be broken.


But, it isn't. It did, however, create such a bad bruising that the skin died and sloughed off of an area about 5 inches round. The surface skin nerves never grew back. To this day, if I touch that spot, I cannot feel the touch at all.
 
#12 ·
I survived many stupidities I tried on various ponies can't say I was ever really scared, I just thought naughty words as I went through the air.

I do remember, when I was 14, a gypsey cob falling with me, I was against a tree trunk and watched her backside coming down towards me thinking, "This is going to hurt!"

I did some damage but I survived.

My most scariest moment were brought about by other people falling. On one occasion out with a rode of children a girl popped over a log, something done many times before. The pony slipped and went down on her side and then leapt up and took off. The girl's footmwas caught in the stirrup dragging her.
The pony went along a track and luckily a tractor driver saw a loose pony and blocked the track. The girl was unhurt. I can assure you my heart was racing as at happened.
 
#13 ·
A big gelding and I were chasing a renegade steer across a pasture at a dead gallop, and the gelding picked up a drainage ditch hidden in the grass with both front legs. Over we went; I know I saw the ground go by twice, and the gelding upside down above me at least once. We both landed in a heap and skidded along the ground, then took a minute or two to come to the realization that we were alive. I was sure that the horse had broken his leg(s) and/or neck, as he wasn't moving, but he lay there for a minute or so, and as I crawled over to him, he got up, shook himself off, and started cropping grass. Aside from a broken collarbone and sore ribs on myself, a missing front tooth and bloody mouth on the gelding, and a broken bridle rein and big scrape on the saddle, we were both bruised and sore, but ok. We were a good four miles from home, and after realizing walking with a collarbone scraping itself with every step wasn't much fun, I did manage to haul myself back on the horse (not easy with one arm) and ride back - he was every so slightly lame, but in good spirits and moseying right along and you'd never have suspected anything happened to him. The gelding got a chiropractic adjustment for his back (I suspect injured when he landed on the saddle) and a week off. I got a trip to the ER, a sling, and orders not to ride for a few weeks. I had that horse for 20 years and it was the only time he ever fell with me. I'm thankful the only lasting effect from that incident was the need to file the gelding's incisors twice a year or the lower tooth would grow into the spot of the missing upper one. The big scrape in the horn of my saddle is a reminder for me of it every time I ride, though!
 
#14 ·
Reading all these replies makes me realize how lucky I've gotten off as far as riding accidents go, despite riding at least three days a week every week for the past 10 years, and at least 90% of those rides were on green horses. Twice I have had a cantering horse trip and roll onto me - both times they were Arabian-type mares, so naturally, they did everything in their power to avoid putting their weight on me and jumped right up with absolutely no injuries to myself or them.

I have had only a few falls that did a little damage, but nothing involving broken bones, concussions, or injury that prevented me from riding for more than a week. Again, I'm so amazed looking back at this considering all the green horses I've ridden and all the stupid things I've done.

The only injury I ever received from a horse that required a trip to the ER was when a 17hh warmblood kicked me in the face. It was just an average day, I was doing turn-in, leading him inside, and half way to the stable he just decided to bolt and kick in the very same moment. Three people saw it happen and none of them have any idea why he did it. He was just a grumpy old Hanoverian. I lost three front teeth and needed 14 stitches to piece together a couple gaping holes in my lower lip, but amazingly had no concussion. This is why I love Arabian-type mares, and own one now... They really watch out for you. I've decided I'm not a fan of big hot warmbloods because they are bred for athleticism and not at all for their ability to mesh with people.
 
#15 ·
I've had more than one but I think the worst was a few years back - Ben and I were gathering on steep terrain just outside of Red Bluff and as we were headed to a water crossing he tripped over a log and fell on me. Both of us were sliding down this steep mountainside and I just knew he was gonna roll over and crush me, or send both of us plummeting to the bottom. To this day I don't know how he missed me, but he did. We stopped got up and just kind of stood together shaking. I got back on after a bit and we finished the gather, but man was I sore by the end. There were some pretty spectacular bruises and a swollen spot where the saddle pinned my leg a little, but both of us made it out with minor injuries.
 
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#16 ·
Probably the time I got one of my boots caught in a wire fence at a (Very small and local) horse show. Didn't help that the mare I was riding was really reactive (She was reported to have had an abusive past) and I had only ridden her once previously.

I avoided what probably would've been a very bad wreck by the skin of my teeth, still took the second place ribbon though!
 
#18 ·
I think the scariest was when I was re-schooling a bull dogging horse. The owner wanted to see if the horse would work for his high school daughter in gymkhanas.

After a couple weeks, and the horse doing nicely, I chose him to gathering the remuda of about 80-90 horses. He lost his mind. To be fair, not all horses can gather others without becoming overly excited.

I tried to haul him around and instead broke a rein. After that I just tried to anticipate his next move, the pasture was hilly and heavily wooded, and stay on.

We beat the herd in and had started in the back.

My co-workers teased me about not trying to turn him with the remaining rein. No way. It felt like a security blanket to at least have one. :)

Horse did go on to do games. But no more wrangling!
 
#19 ·
I think the scariest was when I was re-schooling a bull dogging horse. The owner wanted to see if the horse would work for his high school daughter in gymkhanas.

After a couple weeks, and the horse doing nicely, I chose him to gathering the remuda of about 80-90 horses. He lost his mind. To be fair, not all horses can gather others without becoming overly excited.

I tried to haul him around and instead broke a rein. After that I just tried to anticipate his next move, the pasture was hilly and heavily wooded, and stay on.

We beat the herd in and had started in the back.

My co-workers teased me about not trying to turn him with the remaining rein. No way. It felt like a security blanket to at least have one. :)

Horse did go on to do games. But no more wrangling!

I came in one morning at a guest ranch I used to work for to find that no one else had kept a horse in, and my 4 y.o. paint filly with about 10 rides on her was the only horse to jingle on.... Gathering 100 horses off a mountain in the pre-dawn dark on a green filly who had never been ridden outside the arena wasn't exactly how I would have chosen to do it and I was fully prepared to be a sad statistic on the evening news, but she did great. She got a little 'woo hoo!" galloping with all those horses, but came back just fine and I rode her to jingle nearly every morning I worked there after that.
 
#20 ·
My scariest riding moment was when I was riding with my best friend in our arena. I was riding bareback as I wanted to show our skill of jumping bareback. After a few rounds I went and stood by my friend and her horse and we chatted for awhile. Then out of nowhere my horse lunges forward and attacks my friends mare. My horse is a small 14hh gelding and my friends horse is a huge 18hh Ottb... I fall off and land directly underneath my horse. I was so scared as all I could hear were the sound of hooves. I thought I was going to die! But my horse jumped over me and ran to the other side of the arena. I was so lucky...

My dad told me later that my horse was trying to step around me through the whole thing. I thought it was sweet that he didn't want to hurt me lol.
 
#21 ·
The bottom of our pasture was a local train track. The trains only came through twice a day, going really slow, carrying coal. It was easy to go faster than the trains by just trotting. They came through around 2 a.m. and 4 p.m.

My jousting partner had lost his horse, and we were practicing our joust show using our neighbor's horse. Our neighbor wanted us to ride her a little because she always bucked with the kids the first time she was ridden in the spring.

So, we were having a really good practice--everything was going great--and we didn't realize how dark it was getting until it was quite dusk. In order for me to ride home on the road, I would have to ride about 3 miles on a curvy road with no shoulder--extremely dangerous in the dark.

So I decided no reason why I couldn't ride home on the train track. No train was due--it was a much shorter ride than the curvy road--and even if a train should come, I could trot and outpace the train.

So, I headed down the train track. It was built up on the hills so it was about 20 feet high up on hills of egg-sized rocks, but I wasn't worried. We'd ridden the train tracks hundreds of times for various reasons.

It got quite dark as I was riding home, in fact pitch black. I kept my horse on the cross ties because it was too dark to see where the built-up places were. There was one place where there was water, and I knew I didn't want to take my horse down there. I just wasn't sure where the water was.

I kept glancing behind me, suddenly nervous that a train might actually come. But, I reminded myself, I can easily trot, even on the cross ties and stay ahead of the train. Suddenly, a train headlight appeared around the curve! Right where I thought there was water below us. I started trotting, assuring myself there was really no danger.

I glanced again behind me, and the train was coming up really REALLY fast! Much faster than the trains ever came. I booted my good horse into a canter, looked again, and saw the train was still coming up on me. By now we were galloping for all we were worth, and the train was still gaining on me. I was terrified to be galloping on the train tracks. My mare's steel shoes were shooting sparks with every stride. I was going much too fast to try to turn my horse to jump the rail in the dark and slide through the rocks down to the bottom. I just had to outrun the train. I asked my mare for more speed, and more speed. The train light was just about on me, when we got to the road where the tracks were flush with the ground and I could turn and get off the track. The train flashed on by. It wasn't a train. It was one of the track-trucks that can run on rails or roads, and doing about 40 mph.

I dismounted and my legs were water. I had to hold on to the saddle to walk back to our gate.
 
#23 ·
My scariest moment wasn't nearly as dangerous as most of these, but I'll share. It was late winter and I was riding in a lesson with 4 other girls in an indoor. All of a sudden, the melting snow on the tin(?) roof fell off all at once and made a sound so deafeningly loud that the roof sounded like it was collapsing. Add this to the fact that this was an old indoor and I legitimately thought the roof was falling and waited to be buried.

All four horses spooked and in my own terror, I forgot to even try to stay on. My pony bolted forward and I was dropped onto a ground pole and slipped a disc in my back. No broken bones, but it took about two weeks before the sharp, lightning bolt pain subsided, and to this day I still have some radiculopathy/sciatica in my lower back/upper leg from that fall. (Only one person in the lesson stayed on, but I was the only one who was injured - stupid ground pole.)
 
#24 ·
My newly-purchased first horse bolting off with me when I was 11. I have very little memory of the actual event. I only know that we were supposed to canter in our lesson, and he was just suddenly GONE. It didn't help that I completely panicked and screamed my head off, of course, but I don't think anything was going to bring him back from that bolt anyhow. He zig-zagged all over the tiny arena, completely out of control, until I fell off and hit a trotting pole with my tailbone -- and smashed the trotting pole. My tailbone got better, but I never got over the fear of a horse getting too fast on me. I still get anxious about speed on horseback, to this day.
 
#27 ·
It's true that if you have had a really bad experience but recovered from it and continue riding as tho' it didn't happen you never completely get over it and are always aware of how it happened and have some anxiety even if you are not aware of it.

I had a horse fall on me, slipped on the wet grass going over a jump and fell on it with me underneath him. It was a solid jump and I heard the bones breaking. I am now a sniveling coward with solid jumps. Never got over that one. But others, if a similar situation comes up memory reminds me of what happened before, I can ride them out but the thought is there.
 
#28 ·
I had a horse fall on me, slipped on the wet grass going over a jump and fell on it with me underneath him. It was a solid jump and I heard the bones breaking. I am now a sniveling coward with solid jumps.
To me that doesn't sound like sniveling cowardice; it sounds like good sense and self-preservation. I also refuse to jump solid jumps -- the extra potential for harm has always scared the bejeezus out of me, even though I've never personally had a bad experience -- and I think that's a perfectly good boundary to set.
 
#30 ·
OMG boots you are so right! I get that all of the time. I recently just had to have a physical for a job I was trying to go for and when I had to recount the times I'd lost consciousness and they were horse accidents! She asked "do you still ride?" and I was like "of course I do!" She just shook her head and made a comment about crazy horse folks.
 
#32 ·
I have two, they both tie for #1 Most Scary.

First one, Trigger was new to me, and he had no whoa, nothing but go. He was and sometimes still can be a puddle of equine nerves and adrenaline. I was still in my I Need a Golf Cart Horse but Got a Mazarati Horse stage. He was fighting me to run off with me, I wasn't even able to ride a trot yet, had a too big saddle on him, the stirrups were way too short for my height, I mean horse jockey short. My daughter's half-grown blue heeler darted out of the weeds, nipped his heels, and that was it. I lost control of him. He launched forward at a hard run. I heard my son, on his horse yell: HOLLLDDD ONNNN MOMMMM!

We made it 100 yards... I was losing my seat, he was headed for the fence. Between he and I were two steel feed troughs, a stretch of dirt between them and the fence, and against the fence my husband had 5 bass boats backed up to the wires... all the outboards had props on them.

Trigger showed no sign of slowing, I didn't know how to slow him, he was running through the bit, and so I chose my place of falling. I let go, fell off, got wadded up, got road rash, grass in my bra, dirt in my drawers, hit neck first, and got my bell rung. That was my first concussion. I laid face down in the dirt and couldn't move my arms or legs, not even my fingers or toes. It was like the hit on the ground knocked me into a system reboot. I don't remember it, but Son and the kid that was living with us said Trigger came back to me and waited nervously, as if worried I wasn't going to be okay. They helped me to the couch, unsaddled him... and the rest of that weekend is a blur. Despite that, some very good things came out of it.

He's my bestest most trusted trail horse now and I am under no illusions. He's not consciously taking care of ME. He's looking out for himself first and I LIKE his heightened sense of self-preservation. That's why I trust him - I know he won't stupidly put himself in danger (Unlike Leroy, in my next story)

The other time... we rode the McGee Creek wildlife area in Atoka County. I knew it would be rocky. I didn't realize the horses would be contending with basket ball sized boulders lining the steep downhill trails. I had Leroy by then, a tank-built Homer Simpson of a horse - and he was even yellow. Leroy thought he was a bulldozer. He was and still is, a straight-line thinker, and you're screwed if you think he should go around a locust tree, not rake you through it. He thought since he could go under, it didn't matter there was a 5'8" person on his back and he would fight you so hard to go at his pace, through everything, that he would end up throwing himself down.

That ride was above my skill level and he was an idiot and not sure footed at all. It scared me so bad, the kid that lived with us gave me his horse, Gina (who is now our horse) and rode Leroy on down the mountain to the lake. Gina... God love her... will lower her head and literally sniff her way through treacherous footing. Leroy scared me that day because he was going to get us both killed. He listened a little better to L (the kid) than he did to me but even L admitted it was hairy business, riding him the rest of the way down.

Glad I sold him and kept Trigger. Trigger and I have ridden that same trail system and I rarely have a tense moment. When I do, it's because he's slipped on the rocks due to no fault of his own.
 
#34 ·
Probably the scariest time was when I was about 14, riding my appy gelding across an old filled-in gravel quarry we'd cut across many a time before. But this time it had rained and rained, and all that water had turned the fill into gravel soup that looked solid until you were in it. Arod went in and sank up to his shoulders. I threw myself off and floundered to solid ground hoping he could do the same. I think there must have been firmer ground about four feet down, because in a couple minutes he managed to heave himself free. We walked home a couple miles, both of us shaking, covered with gravelly mud to the ears.

It could have been much worse, we were both unhurt and just needed a big rinse off (the saddle was really a mess, I remember). Really scared us both though.
 
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