America v UK

[milliepops]

I can only remember one time I was properly dumped by a horse. it well and truly binned me.

Toppled off through circumstances a few times.

I used to hunt groom for an angelic mare who visibly aimed to catch her fairly inept but very enthusiastic rider after jumping a fence, she was a superstar.

 

[Orangehorse]

You are all missing the point. In over 60 years of riding I have never, ever heard a rider say the words "the horse threw me."

But apparently in the USA it is quite commonly said.

 

[criso]

I think I read or hear about the 'I got thrown off' comments more from younger persons and definitely more so from those at riding schools.

.

They also use bolted for tanked off a bit.

The other place I have seen it on here a few times recently is where a not necessarily knowledgeable Mum has come on here to ask for advice afer they've got a new pony which isn't working out. They nearly always say that the pony threw their child rather than their child fell off.

 

[Renvers]

Maybe it is regional variation that means you haven't heard it in the UK. Here in the Midlands my horse has thrown me off, usually sideways when they spook.

 

[conniegirl]

You are all missing the point. In over 60 years of riding I have never, ever heard a rider say the words "the horse threw me."

But apparently in the USA it is quite commonly said.

I hear it quite regularly so maybe its just round you.

I tend to say fell off but i did go through a phase of being thrown by one youngster.

I’ve also heard it called REAGC’d (random equine assisted gravity check) which i find amusing.

 

[Red-1]

You are all missing the point. In over 60 years of riding I have never, ever heard a rider say the words "the horse threw me."

But apparently in the USA it is quite commonly said.

I think you missed the point that you are a sample of 1, so not statistically safe as data. Many more people in the UK on this thread have said that they have heard the term being thrown off. I have been thrown off, to me that means that the horse deliberately did actions to remove me from the saddle. I am pretty sticky in the saddle, so when I have been thrown off, there is no question, as the horse would have to be pretty violent and sustained.

I have fallen off far more often!

I have heard the term many times in the UK and England specifically, where it is used incorrectly as interchangeable for falling off. A bit like I have heard many people say that the horse bolted where what they mean is that they couldn't stop. It doesn't annoy me, language is fluid. If someone says their horse bolted, I ask more questions to ascertain what really happened. Of all the reported bolting horses, I have only ever worked with one who truly did. We made progress, as the bolting was due to panic, turning to absolute blind panic, but I wouldn't chose to ever work with one again, as I never truly trusted that horse. But I wouldn't avoid every horse who had reportedly bolted, as many people use language in a different way to me.

Conversely, I have been out both as a riding student and also teaching in America, and don't recollect hearing riders going on about being thrown. Of course, the bucking bronc horses threw their riders, but I am talking everyday riders with their horses. Then again, none of them fell off whilst I was teaching them, so maybe it simply didn't come up!

 

[laura_nash]

You are all missing the point. In over 60 years of riding I have never, ever heard a rider say the words "the horse threw me."

But apparently in the USA it is quite commonly said.

You are missing the point too though, in 30 years of riding in the UK I have heard it said, and have said it. I have been thrown off 6 times that I remember (3 in 1 week!).

I have also heard it used, IMO, incorrectly when the rider fell off after a spook or stop, particularly with younger people at RS's I would say.

Maybe its the part of the UK you live in, or maybe its the people you associate with and the types of horses they have, but I don't think its a UK/US difference.

As someone else mentioned if you look in New Riders forum on here I believe there are a few "daughters new pony threw her off" threads.

 

[Orangehorse]

Yes, of course, horses throw their riders, deliberately doing something that they have learned will unseat the rider like buck so hard and long with the aim of getting the rider off.

Anything else is not the horse's fault - a shy, refusal or run out at a fence, a high spirited buck, even a dropped shoulder, whipping round at something it is frightened of.

But I have never actually heard the words, said one to another, "the horse threw me." So I must have led a sheltered life.

 

[FireCracker238]

I agree with the others, threw me would be the description of how I came off, not apportioning blame to the horse

On a side note I thought "threw me" was just a turn of phrase. I say "s/he threw me" when somebody comes out with something unexpected during a conservation, as in throws me off my trail of thought ?

 

[SibeliusMB]

You are all missing the point. In over 60 years of riding I have never, ever heard a rider say the words "the horse threw me."

But apparently in the USA it is quite commonly said.

No, it isn't.

Sorry for dredging this thread up, bored on my lunch break. No educated horseman or rider I've ever known in the US says "thrown off." Usually I hear it from the general, non-horsey public who took a trail ride on vacation once and probably fell off after the horse came to a gentle stop because they don't know how to ride. Occasionally I've heard it from backyard riders, who by the looks and sounds of them never had any formal training and education in horses. But no one I've known in 37 years in the US with any background in horses says "I got thrown off."

Even if I got tossed, I would still say I fell off, LOL.

 

[Leandy]

I don't think it is an across the pond thing particularly but I also dislike the phrase for exactly the reason you said. Agree that the less knowledgeable rider seems more likely to say it than the experienced rider, usually after having come off for a complete failure to anticipate what the horse is going to do next even when it is patently obvious to anyone who knows "horse language" that it was going to happen!

 

[DabDab]

I've definitely heard it in the UK. But I have also heard it in relation to inanimate objects, e.g. someone can be thrown from a bike, but more normally they would simply fall off the bike.

I'm not sure where I picked the phrases up from but I tend to say either 'i hit the deck' or 'i got toppled/tipped out the plate', which is more a description of the way in which I fell than what might of happened to cause the fall.

 

[honetpot]

I was never taught properly to ride as a child, so I fell off a lot, sometimes about four times on a hack, I can not say I became a better rider, I just got better at watching for the signals, its not like riding a bike, the pony usually tells you beforehand what is going to happen, and you learn to block it, or avoid it. I have had ponies try to wipe me off on hedges, fences, the awful pain when they bash your knee on a gate, the open door of the dip where you are just a bit too far forward, and next thing you are going just a bit faster than you would like, nobody really teaches you these things when you have lessons.
The only time I have been dropped by a pony, three times, was a sour showjumping pony, so slick, and I still didn't get it, and that was just trotting up field.

 

[Horse2018]

Unfortunately you also see some Americans attack / hate on uk riders because they don’t fit the USA hunter position. It all over tictok this esme was attacked to the point she had to delete a video on her YouTube.

 

[SibeliusMB]

...and UK riders bashing the US riders. Ignorance and bullying know no nationality or discipline, unfortunately.