How do you feel if you hear about a bad fall?

Star the Fell

Star the Fell

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Jun 14, 2015
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The lady who clips my horse for me had a really bad fall yesterday. I don’t yet know what happened, but it sounds as if her horse may have rolled on her. She is in hospital recovering with 22 breaks on the upper right side of her body.

This has really made me think about what a dangerous sport riding is. Especially having a young horse who is known to do the odd bolt.
I didn’t ride tonight, just lunged him, but I have a lesson booked for tomorrow which will help.
Anyone else start over thinking things when you hear of people you know being badly hurst?
 
I think most of us get over complacent at times and it's only natural that something like this makes us take a good look at what we do. Rightly or wrongly I tend to take the view that I can't eliminate all risk from my life though, I mean I could be walking along and get struck by lightning. So I take sensible precautions and carry on.
 
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If I know them possibly.

The route I ride regularly a rider was killed when their horse bolted into the wall. I thought about that more because it's one of our favourite routes.

If you have a runner you could wear a bp. When I backed mine I bought a new hat and bp. I use the bp in a jumping lesson.
I also reach for it if my confidence dips a bit if my health is being a nuisance.

I agree with @carthorse we can become complacent. They are very big powerful animals and 99% of the time it's fine.
I got a decent kick yesterday and that brought me back into the moment with a reality check. The guests were back and forth today and the yard was full of activity, someone said isn't she good. Eh yes you just missed me hopping around the day before!
 
Being honest other than concern for the horse and rider not much. I’ve had some crackers myself, Compound fractures of leg and fingers, knocked out with loss of memory and really bad concussions, stripped the ligaments etc from the sides of my spine at my pelvis, broken noses.

I just accept it as part of the sport. They are big animals with a kind of their own and crap is going to happen unfortunately.

I have enough fear in my life that can not control which has meant my loss of my badminton, my horse hobby I just cannot lose so I can’t let it in x
 
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I feel bad for the horse/rider but it doesn't tend to worry me, unless I was asked to get on that horse to 'sort it out' right after, then I might think twice.
I've done myself as many good injuries on my own 2 feet as I have on horses, there's risk in everything you just have to manage it the best you can.
 
Other peoples accidents I don't tend to dwell on, my own however are the cause of my fragile confidence, I'm terrible for the 'what if's' running through my head.
 
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I try really hard not to even think about it.
Many years back I was pregnant and determined to be one of the “I rode until labour” brigade but I leant my horse who wasn’t the easiest to a lady on my yard so her friend could ride out with her on her quiet horse. They had a nasty accident where the quiet horse bolted and the lady fell off on the road and was in icu for a long time with head injuries. I was assured my horse had nothing to do with the incident and was in fact very well behaved. Apparently standing beautifully waiting for the emergency services etc but that was the one thing that really made me take a step back. I stopped riding til after my baby was born and tbh rarely after then really.
Under normal circumstances (ie- not pregnant!) I block it out
 
I try to just switch off and ignore bad news about serious horse riding accidents. If i didn't do that I probably would never ride again to be honest. . I did have a nasty thing back in January (sorry not sure if I posted on here but some who are friends on Fb will know) when a colt jumped out of a field to try and mount Dolly as we hacked past, long and short of it we were ok but suspect from local rumour and gossip the colt didn't survive long term from injuries sustained trying to jump back in his field over the iron gate :(

I have only hacked out on that same route in the lat week on Miller, despite the herd of colts being moved back two fields from the road a good 6 weeks ago.But to put my very wimpy overreaction in perspective - a friend from my childhood was killed when hacking out on her mare when a stallion escaped and tried to mount her mare, she fell off and was trampled to death by the two horses fighting as she lay on the ground. That one will never, ever leave me and what happened in January was my worst nightmare revisited.

So yes serious and especially fatal accidents could come very close to destroying my nerve to ride, but i do my utmost to just block them out, I love this hobby too much not to :)
 
Hmmm.
I mean the big or serious falls make me think. As in you realise how powerful horses can be. When i fell off sox i was told later i could have died from that very easily. The jump wasnt even 20cm
 
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Toz said:
I try really hard not to even think about it.
Many years back I was pregnant and determined to be one of the “I rode until labour” brigade but I leant my horse who wasn’t the easiest to a lady on my yard so her friend could ride out with her on her quiet horse. They had a nasty accident where the quiet horse bolted and the lady fell off on the road and was in icu for a long time with head injuries. I was assured my horse had nothing to do with the incident and was in fact very well behaved. Apparently standing beautifully waiting for the emergency services etc but that was the one thing that really made me take a step back. I stopped riding til after my baby was born and tbh rarely after then really.
Under normal circumstances (ie- not pregnant!) I block it out
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I tend to shade out other people's accidents, but you mentioning riding while pregnant, made me think. I was pregnant with my daughter, but didn't know yet. Friend and I were having regular jumping lessons, and I came off quite badly. Cracked my coccyx, and could barely move for weeks. Just recovering and realised I was pregnant, and had been when I took the fall. I stopped then and there until after she was born, even though the Dr said she would only have been the size of a kidney bean when it happened. Just not worth the risk in my eyes. A few years ago, the lady in the next door yard came off while out alone, broke her pelvis, and because it was before mobile phones were common, she lay in the forest for hours, until someone noticed her horse nearby. I really just thought "Oh dear, how awful", tacked up and went out a few days later. It's the reason we all keep doing it - we love it so much, that we cross fingers and try to think (or hope) we're immune :eek:
 
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It was the risk associated with riding which prevented me not learning to ride until I retired and our kids had left home.

When my friend was killed hacking, I was apprehensive about the next lesson. All the local deaths riding have been of women hacking.

I realise that hacking is higher risk than riding in a school. But I didnt know that when I started to ride with the sole aim of hacking.
May be because I am a car driver. Knowing many people are killed and injured on the roads.
But historic parklands and stately homes were designed to be viewed and admired from horseback. Not from the front seat of a car.
 
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