What Goes Up...

... Occasionally must come down in an unplanned and ungraceful sort of way.

That's right, yesterday I fell off for the first time in, well, a long time.  In honor of falling off and also my "Sunday reminisce" posts I've decided to talk about all the times I've fallen off (before I can no longer count/remember all of them).  Hopefully this post will make up for the slightly boring and completely creative posts I've been recently writing.

First though, I need everyone to knock on some wood for me (no I'm not kidding) because I am hugely superstitious and I always fear that talking about falling off jinxes you (see Fall #4 for an example).  I've been very lucky that none of my falls have resulted in any real injuries and I would prefer to keep my falls to the sort that you have a good laugh about and then get right back on.


Done knocking on wood?  Great.


I've been pretty lucky that I can still count on two hands the number of times I've had a less than graceful dismount.  I spent some of my early riding years riding the world's brattiest ponies who very quickly taught me how to ride out a buck/air above the ground/ spook/etc.  I might not be a pretty rider or even a very knowledgeable one, but at least I'm good at staying on my horse.  I am also the type of rider who typically fights tooth and nail to stay on my horse and I've had SO very many close calls that somehow I pulled out.

My only almost fall that I have photographic/video proof of is this one, which wasn't really THAT impressive of a save:

That would be me up on Prince's neck during my Medal Finals warm up course.  That course was one of the worst ones I ever rode at a Medal Finals and Prince decided he would call me out on it.

Here's the video of that round, please don't judge too harshy, this was not my best riding nor was it Prince's finer moment!  I cringe a little inside every time I watch parts of that video.




Anyways, without further ado, here is the list of all the times I have fallen off as best as I can remember them.

1)  Appaloosa lesson horse at Judgement Farms

                                  (The appaloosa looked something like this only much uglier.)

I count the beginning of me learning to ride when I came to college and joined the equestrian team since that is when my regular lessons started, however I did take 4-5 lessons in high school.  Looking back on the lessons, I think that I grossly over-exaggerated how experienced I was (reading every single Saddle Club book as a kid counts right?) and the lessons were perhaps a tad bit more than I should have been doing at the time.  

My first fall was off of an ugly appaloosa whose name I only remember as being some sort of food like Applesauce or Custard.  We were cantering along and he either turned the corner tight or spooked or tripped and I went flying off his shoulder.   I landed rather hard, but thanks to my Saddle Club training I knew I was supposed to get right back on so I popped up right away and did just that.

2)  Little adorable white lesson pony at Judgement Farms

(Not the same pony, but here is Little Blue, the Commonwealth version who knows the exact same trick).

My second fall was at the same barn only a few weeks later.  I was riding an adorable little chubby white pony and was learning how to jump.  We trotted up to our first cross rail, the adorable pony stopped and threw down his head and I sort of slow motion tipped forward and landed on the other side of the jump.  That was a rather embarrassing fall for a high school student to take.



3)  Dottie during a lesson at Commonwealth Farm

My next fall was my first one at my college barn.  It's very likely that I am forgetting a fall or two from those first couple years of here and there lessons, but the first one I remember was in the winter of my sophomore year.  I was riding Dottie who was notorious for spooking at something and doing a panicked bolt/scoot sort of thing.

I was jumping Dottie and got left behind badly, enough to get thrown up on her neck a bit.  This understandably spooked her and she took off running with me clinging to her neck.  My instructor was yelling at me to let go since Dottie wasn't going to stop running until I did, but all I could think about was how fast she was going.  I clung on like a little monkey long enough for her to run into a corner and when she stopped to turn around I fell in a heap.



4) Harley during a lesson at Commonwealth

(Harley and I at a Collegiate show)

This is the fall that I set myself up for.  It was my junior year and I had just gotten back from a month of not riding over winter break so I asked for an easier lesson horse.  The other girls in the lesson were all expecting their horses to be wild so of course I had to jokingly comment, "I bet I'll be the one that falls off even though I have the calmest horse".

Well, Harley was not being very calm and the first time we went through a grid he turned a two stride into a one stride which majorly unseated me and left me defenseless against the bronco bucks he threw upon landing.  I went flying through the air and ended up with arena dirt filling my ear, mouth, and down the many layers of clothes I had on.  Seeing as that was the first time I really got launched off a horse it shook my confidence more than any of the previous falls but I was determined to not let Harley get away with it again.




5).  Prince- Foxton Farm Horse Show

(September 2007)

I had been riding Prince for about ten months when I had my first fall off him.  I also got a few other "firsts" out of the way at the same time, "first fall away from home" and "first fall during a class at a show".  The fall was nothing spectacular, Prince was getting tired, I was riding poorly, we cantered up to an easy vertical and I tipped my shoulder forward so Prince said "no thanks" and I tumbled off his shoulder. I do remember laying there being shocked that I actually fell off my horse at a show.. that was a bit of a rude awakening!



6.  Penny- Hacking at Commonwealth Farm

 I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but years ago Penny used to be a huge witch of a horse.  One of my friends has a huge scar on her back from where Penny grabbed her, and we wouldn't let kids go anywhere near her.  She was one of the few horses that would get routinely lunged before being ridden and when she bucked people off it was usually pretty spectacular.  Thankfully for all of us, Penny went to Oregon when one of the old trainers moved out there to be a working student and when she came back she had a major attitude adjustment (although she's still a hot head, at least she's no longer mean).

This first time I rode Penny was back in her wild days.  I tried riding her without lunging her first and the mare started getting more and more tensed up as I rode.  When she started to explode I agreed with her choice that I should no longer be sitting on her and sort of half fell/half emergency dismounted.  Then I sat there and watched her rocket/explode around for the next four minutes.

7.  Prince- Robert Murphy Horse Show

(Robert Murphy Horse Show- July 2008)

(The dreaded warm up ring- July 2010 show)

Prince is a very smart horse who done a lot of horse showing.  Because of this, he knows the difference between the warm up ring and the jumper ring.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to put leg on him just to get him to canter around the warm up ring, only to go in the jumper ring and suddenly have about 100x more horse under me.  He knows it doesn't count for anything so he just saves his energy.

This particular show Prince was being especially bad about the warm up ring.  My trainer will usually have the jumps a little higher than what we are showing at, and Prince thought that was unnecessary.  It didn't help that I started to expect him to stop and it impacted my riding in a bad way.

This fall wins the award for my most talented fall.  Prince stopped a little on the dirty side at a parallel oxer, and since I was back in my shoulder tipping stage I went flying off.  I did manage to do some midair twisting and ended up landing between the two bars without touching either of them.  And then I got back on Prince, got him over the jump, went in the ring and won the class.  =-)



8.  Reggie- Hacking at Commonwealth Farms

 (This is at Sunflower Farm, but you get the general idea)

Reggie is the formerly (?) crazy OTTB that my friend Sarah rides and I visit from time to time (side note- she's done SUCH a great job with him, I was very impressed my last visit).  When he first came to Commonwealth he was a little, er, mentally unstable, and back then I did not have clearance to ride whatever horse I wanted (with good reason) so I probably wasn't supposed to be riding Reggie that day.

However, my friend and I were just going to switch horses so she could try mine and all I was going to do with Reggie was walk around.  Because I was just going to walk around I didn't even bother adjusting her stirrups (mistake).  I tried to very calmly and slowly get on Reggie, but I must have not been quiet enough because he took off at a dead gallop as I was getting on him.  I managed to stick with him for a half a lap despite only having one stirrup, but when he started bucking it was all over.

That was by far my worst fall, I landed on my head and back and got the wind knocked out of me a little on the hard ground.  I had a headache for a while and ended up having to replace my helmet.  Still, if this is my worst fall I will gladly take it!



9.  Ramona- Hacking bareback at Commonwealth Farm

This brings us to my most recent fall.  Since it's been about 4? years since my last fall I've been thinking that I was due again.

I decided to ride Ramona bareback since I was technically on call and might have to leave the barn in a hurry.  It was pretty apparent as soon as I got on Ramona that she has never been ridden bareback before, but I got her settled down soon enough.

Ramona makes me appreciate riding a horse with a little bit of withers to them, she is round as a barrel and it is very easy to lose your balance with her.  I'll have to start riding her bareback more often to work on improving my balance.

Anyways, we were going along nicely when Ramona spooked at something and did a quick spin and I just sort of slid right off her back.  I almost landed on my feet but wasn't quite able to pull it out.  Either way, I was fine, and much to my surprise Ramona did not take off running but stood there waiting for me.  I got back on and had a good rest of the ride.



So there you have it... all the falls that can remember.  The award for the horse who has ALMOST thrown me off the most goes to: Prince, Prince, Prince, Barbie, and Splash.

Of course falling off can be very serious, but sometimes it makes for a good laugh after the fact.. feel free to share your favorite/worst falling off stories with me!