# Other Pets > Horses >  How about your crash stories???

## ZinniaZ

I have a new one....

Was riding my horse this week and he worked really well in the arena so I took him out in the back field to walk and cool down and relax. Silly me. The wind was up and he was up and I ended up singing to him to settle him-- first time I have needed to do that in ages. We got around the bend facing the bigger field and I saw a bird on our path, curvy neck just above the grass-- about an eight of a mile or more away. I kept my eyes on the bird and made sure I was sitting niiiice and deep. Walked and walked up to about where I saw it. No bird. Made noise. Kept looking. Walked and we were just about ten feet from the end of the field and I thought, "Huh, the bird must have gone a different direction." WHAM. Flushed the pheasant right underneath Will's front feet. Landed on the ground so fast I don't even know how I got there. Did we spin? Did he jump sideways? I have no idea. Some friend he is. He took one terrified look at me and spooked huge and gallopped home, spooking about every ten feet at the bushes next to the field, scaring my barnmates who were peacefully getting their horses ready to ride and heard the gallopping and saw him return without me. 

Stupid bird.

But how about you all?  Any crash stories you'd like to share???

----------


## frankykeno

I haven't had the chance to ride in years but way back in high school I was blessed to have a good friend whose parents bred Arabians.  In exchange for the chance to ride anytime I wanted, I'd do barn chores after school with her.  After chores we'd just go out and hop on a couple of the mares and ride them bareback for a bit.

One particular mare was my favorite, a lovely calm girl that was just a joy to ride.  She had an older foal in the field with her and unfortunately as we're sedately going down the fence line a neighbour's dog entered the field at the far end.  Before I could draw a breath, she blasted off hard left straight at the dog and I flew off hard right straight into the fence post!  Never had such a time drawing a breath in my life.  

Of course my friend, being from a horse loving family, insisted I get right back on her once the situation was under control.  To this day I still remember that sensation of....what the hell????.....I'm flying?????.....THUD!!!...then just staring up at that blue sky wondering if I was ever going to get a breath inside me again LOL.

----------


## ADEE

well.. TB's are the scaredy cats of horses I swear! Everything under the sun scares them. SO i have some AWESOME crash stories lol!!!

*let me start by saying my parents never came to see me ride, they would hear various crash stories and success stories but never came to see for themselves, perhaps it was that they were scared. Maybe they were just uninterested who knows.. this one particular day however they came to see me ride. It was a barrel racing competition and i was on my ever trusty yet crazy steed Majik. She had a LONG history for being unpredictable during rodeo, sometimes she would run in like hell and have an awesome run and others she would rear and refuse often resulting in lost money for entrance fees. This particular day she was running great, we had done polls and a couple other runs and clover leaf pattern was last, my parents showed up just in time for my last run. I dont know if it was the crummy weather, it being a long hot day and she was just spent or me being nervous about my parents being there... whatever it was it wasnt good. She started off refusing so i tried to trick her into passing the gate and turn in at the last moment, success it worked! I gave her a nudge and up she went.. rear after rear she went higher every time.. of course i was loosing my patience because for once my mom and dad showed up and here she was making me look bad lol.. she reared a few more times before I finally kicked her good and hard to tell her i was done playing and it was time to work. She reared up and ran backwards on her hind end and we went through the fence, she fell over on her side.. i was between her and the ground and all i could hear was people screaming. I wound up with more of a bruised ego then anything else, the sand and clay packed in my ears, eyes, hair and clothes was noting compared to the bruised ego lol.. i was a bit sore after that but let her off for the rest of the day. She had a couple days of rest and we never took her to another SFBRA show again (south florida barrel racer assoc) Her rodeo career was quickly fading and it had just began about a year prior. She just wasnt made to race and I accepted that. We went on to do western pleasure and equitation with her.

----------


## ADEE

Crash story:

Darren (my SO) was very new to riding horses when we first got together. I thought it was a perfect chance to test his skills and because i was a huge fan of wild hearts cant be broken the movie i thought it would be neat to see if he could vault onto my horse in a round pen. Heres the thing.. majik was bareback, she had a halter on and that was it. So I told him, watch her lope as she comes closer grab her mane and jump on. Seemed easy enough... So she went around a few times, he asked me to slow her a few times and i did happily. She was down to a faster then western pleasure lope and he went for it.. he grabbed a hand full of mane and jumped, she tucked her butt and down he went. She stopped, turned and looked at him as if to say "HAHA" meanwhile i was on the floor LAUGHING so hard I could barely breathe! It was the funniest thing EVER. He still swears to this day his tail bone is broken.

----------


## Bojangles37

My worst crash involves driving a 2.5 year old in a cart, I have far too many riding crashes to talk about, I now ride professionally, so I guess I should have my fair share of falls. My worst was in the first round of a time first jump off class, tight turn to a one stride and my saddle slipped (even though the girth was tight) landed from the first jump (at 3'6") with nothing underneath me, hit the ground shoulder first and compressed the whole right side of my body. Broke some ribs and laid there for a few minutes. I'm not one to stay on the ground and my trainer knew it so he came over immediately and I couldn't really talk, had no air. Fortunately they let me be and I was "fine" continued riding and my pony and I both fell spectacularly in the jump off of my 5th class of the day. Yeah, that wasn't such a good day, but we still qualified for National Pony Finals that summer and went.  :Smile:

----------


## clipclopclip

_The worst:_
I was trail riding a mare bareback and from a standstill she flipped me onto my back onto a  rock....I limped for *two years*. Muscle damage. I kept riding though!

_the most recent_: about a month or two ago the filly I was training ran me straight into another horse and jumped away, breaking my helmet in soft sand.  i landed hard on my head. The reason for the spook: another mare had swished her with her tail while trotting past. My filly was in heat.  She was offended I guess.

_My most embarrassing:_  I was working at a trail riding place and I decided to gallop our ex-racehorse TB down the driveway during feeding hour. He sure galloped at about 40 mph and dumped me on gravel in the parking lot. I got run over while being dragged under him. Fortunately I only had a few scrapes. Not sure how I got out so well. learned not to ride that way during feeding time.

Oh, I have many many more LOL.  I am fortunate that although I fall regularly I do not get hurt too badly  :Smile:  Knock on wood!

----------


## tweets_4611

I really only have one actual 'crash' story. (I have a few 'freaked out and fell off' stories from when I first started riding, but we won't go there)

I broke in my QH gelding Lucky and he was doing really well. My mom suggested that I take him out of the pin into the pasture to see how he did. The pasture was kinda split into two halves, the parts being seperated by a fence with a large gap in it and a pretty thick tree line. To get to the gap in the fence you have to go through the trees. I went to take him to the other half (b/c all of the other horses were in the half we were in) but once we got to the trees he decided he didn't want to go that way. Every time I tried to turn him he would whip around in a full circle to face the way he wanted *lil brat* He ended up whipping around under a branch, and when I laid back to avoid it he went off. Having lost a stirrup and my seat I went flying. I ended up on crutches for a month b/c I tore the ligaments on the outside of my ankle.

The little demon has only bucked one other time and he broke the saddle and busted my uncle's shoulder. He actually had to have surgery to fix it. Lucky doesn't buck often, but when he does he makes it worth it  :Razz:

----------


## BMorrison

I'll top them all...

My mom was testing her horse out for Michigan Mounted Police. Rocky did great.. passed all the tests and the head officer told her they were done and he'd passed well - Mr. Noob (His other little Police buddy) decides to run up and throw another firecracker towards him while both Rocky and my Mom are relaxed.. Here's where it get's ugly... I wasn't there. I was at the local skatepark and I get a call from my sister "Hey Brad mom fell off the horse or... I mean the horse fell back on her, she's fine though. Going to the Hospital" 

I go up to the hospital. The force of Rocky falling back on my mom pushed her hip bone through the socket up into her stomach nearly killing her so at 43 years old my mom had a hip replacement. 1+ yeah a new hip and about 13 surgeries later she's back to riding...

Tough old bird she is!

----------


## clipclopclip

> I'll top them all...
> 
> My mom was testing her horse out for Michigan Mounted Police. Rocky did great.. passed all the tests and the head officer told her they were done and he'd passed well - Mr. Noob (His other little Police buddy) decides to run up and throw another firecracker towards him while both Rocky and my Mom are relaxed.. Here's where it get's ugly... I wasn't there. I was at the local skatepark and I get a call from my sister "Hey Brad mom fell off the horse or... I mean the horse fell back on her, she's fine though. Going to the Hospital" 
> 
> I go up to the hospital. The force of Rocky falling back on my mom pushed her hip bone through the socket up into her stomach nearly killing her so at 43 years old my mom had a hip replacement. 1+ yeah a new hip and about 13 surgeries later she's back to riding...
> 
> Tough old bird she is!


Wow....that's.....bad. :Surprised:

----------


## Schlyne

Here's mine.  (I am not a great rider, and after the injuries I've had, being bitten, etc.. I don't want to deal with horses anymore).

My parents and I were riding around in the field that my mom owns in OK (she's got 40 acres).  This was a hot day in the summer.  The horse I was riding would throw a fit everything he was separated from his gf, even though he was gelded.  My mom is riding Wilma, his gf.  Earlier in the day my hairtie had broken, and I had about waist length hair at the time.  Mom ended up staying at a lower area for some reason, and I went with my stepdad.  The horse I was riding decided to gallop through the trees.  My hair gets snagged in the trees and yanks me back slightly...  The pain of this is bad enough (and trying to stay in the saddle) distracts me enough that I don't react to a low hanging branch in time.  I get knocked off by the branch, and end up with long scrape on my elbow and a concussion.  

I got yelled at by my stepdad for not walking the horse back up to the barn, but I was stumbling around so badly I'm not sure I was walking straight.

----------


## Bojangles37

> I go up to the hospital. The force of Rocky falling back on my mom pushed her hip bone through the socket


I know a girl who was training a pony and it just slipped and fell on her, no one was around, it forced the ball through the socket in her hip and literally shattered the entire joint. She still walks with a HORRIBLE limp to this day, she was only 24 or so at the time, it was about 3 years ago now.

----------


## BMorrison

Yeah, that's about what happened. Missed my mom's femoral artery by less than a 1/4"

----------


## Ginevive

Wow..! I have never fallen off (knock on wood) as of yet. Had a Scary incident where my camp horse and I were trotting patterns. His foot went right into a gopher hole and WOW was that terrifying! It was his rear leg so I almost slid right off but through some miracle of his, he got through it without really falling or tossing me. Then he was spooked and ran off with me sawing the reins to no avail and I was mortified when a counselor had to cut us off at the chase and grab his bridle.. lol.
Then once when I was younger, at my friend's place, I was in the box stall grooming her one mare. Mare sidles me up to the side of the stall and just stands there eating her hay. I am stuck between the side of the mare and the wall! I tried pushing.. no dice. Just had to wait it out! Nowadays this won't happen because I know the pressure points and am bigger, but it is funny to look back on.

----------


## ZinniaZ

Ginevieve, I hope your falls are easy-- just stories to tell with not much bruising.   :Smile:  

Some of the falls on this thread are SCARY.  I am not having any of THOSE kind of falls.

----------


## kc261

First:
I was in kindergarten, and my aunt had just given me a pony.  We lived in the city at the time (although shortly after we moved to the country), so the pony went to live at a stable.  Previously the pony had lived in a field in semi-desert, where the ground was usually very hard and dry.  So I go to ride the pony the first time, and she thinks the nice soft ground in the arena is way too good to pass up, and just lays down for a nice roll, even though I was on her back!  I was able to scramble out of the way and was unhurt.

Scariest:
Never ride on a trail you aren't familiar with, even if you know other horse people ride on it.  I got to a part where the footing as we were crossing a fairly steep slope just seemed too scary to me.  I decided it would be better if I dismounted.  Not quite sure what happened, but somehow the next second I was standing on the trail, and my poor pony was somersaulting down the hillside.  Ponies do NOT look good doing somersaults.  I was sure she was dead.  She actually walked back home and checked out ok with the vet, other than a few minor scratches.  But I'll never get that image out of my head.

Wish I had a video:
Later I got a horse.  She had interesting ways of expressing herself when she didn't want to do as she was told.  One time I was complemented on the beautiful lateral movements we had been doing.  Only problem was I had been asking her for a straight forward trot, and going sideways was her way of rebelling.  This one isn't quite a crash, but another time, she reared up when she didn't want to go forward.  I've been on a rearing horse a few times before & also after, and this one particular time was nothing like the spooked rearing.  I swear she held it for the longest time and it felt like we were just floating there.  It was not a very high rear, and I had no trouble keeping my seat.  I have often wondered if it would have looked like she was doing a levade.

----------

