Do you remember the first time you fell off a horse / pony?

Yes, when I was tiny at a riding school, we were jumping in the field and it was the slowest ever accident I’m told, fat riding school pony reluctantly jumped the tiniest cross pole and stopped front legs over the jump and back legs behind, put her head down to graze and pulled me out of the saddle and I put an arm out to stop myself, had multiple greenstick fractures to my arm that left my arm sagging between my elbow and wrist (my father and the instructor were both chasing after me as I was running around crying looking at my weird arm screaming “get it away from me” ?. Pony still grazing during all the commotion. ?
 
Yes, it was my first time riding outside the arena, pony decided he wanted to eat grass and I slid down his neck. I just remember being mortified.
 
I was about 5 and the pony I was riding went down suddenly and rolled on top of me. I was a sensitive kid and was pretty traumatised. My mum did the right thing and refused to allow me to get back on a horse until I was absolutely begging to. I think if she had pushed me before I was ready I never would have ridden again.
 
First fall - I was 5, had my own pony at home but for some reason, my parents took me to the local riding school. I was supremely confident - as only a five year old can be - and marched over to this little bay pony called Flash that I had been told I would be riding.
He was all tacked up, tied to a rail out on the yard. I don't remember untying him but I do remember wanting to show that I could get on by myself. So I pulled the stirrup down, put my foot in it, went to spring up. .... and promptly sat down very hard on the concrete.
Lesson no 1 - check your girth
 
I dont remember the first fall but I'd put money on it being either Tommy or Peter Pan in the LRS. Tom Thumb was a small, probably Section A, who was horrendous off lead rein and Peter Pan was the love of my life but had a consistent habit of bucking and putting his head down to graze whilst i slid down his neck and sat on his ears!

Ahh the good old days, we used to throw ourselves off ponies all the time. Being told the more you fall off the better rider you become we were obsessed with hitting the deck, lol!

Most recent fall .. Saturday .. bloody mare!!
 
I can't remember how old I was but I probably about 6. I was out on a hack on a grey pony named 'Cornflower'. We were either trotting or cantering and she stopped to put her head down and eat. I went over her head and she stood on the fleshy part of my upper arm leaving me with a horseshoe shaped bruise which I was very proud of.
 
I was about nine or ten on a 15 hand bay called Honey. She was the sweetest thing and her attitude to work was 'laid back' to say the least! One day she refused at a trotting pole and I did the classic thing of sliding off down her neck and onto the floor.
i remember the instructors used to say you had to fall off SEVEN times before you could be considered a proper rider. Lol.
 
I was about 5, on a chestnut pony called Toby, having a lesson in a little paddock with the pony's owner. He was chased by her dog and it was the classic saddle slip situation. I was under his belly for a bit whilst he was galloping around and eventually just came off. I didn't hurt myself, but I remember crying and being told by his owner 'don't cry he'll think it was his fault!'. I was like but it was his fault!!
 
First time - little grey pony named Belinda scraped me off against the indoor school’s wall as I was trying to master the sitting trot (aged 7ish) ? it was genuinely really scary.

Second time - first canter, also probably aged 7 - little grumpy old chestnut pony named Ida really didn’t want to do it, and threw a big buck when asked! I went flying - bizarrely I was much less (if at all) traumatised from this, compared to the previous experience. Got back up and happily cantered on!
 
First fall - learning to canter probably aged 7. Trotted to the corner, actually picked up canter. Promptly fell off.

Second fall - about 5 minutes later at my second attempt at canter. Exactly the same as fall 1. I think I picked it up after that
 
At about age six I came off at canter and insisted my wrist was really hurting me. It wasn't hurting that much, but my best friend Lottie had her arm in a plaster cast at the time, and I was extremely jealous because people were signing it and drawing pictures on it - I wanted one too! I was hoping that the doctor at A&E would just give me one, but he didn't even X-ray the wrist, to my disgust. He got me to squeeze his hand, said, "It's not broken, it's just a mild sprain" and that was that. I don't know if this was my first fall, but it was my most memorable one! I have hazy memories of falling and being winded a few times, and one of coming off while my horse was stationary (the girth was loose and the saddle suddenly slipped). I haven't fallen since I returned to riding as an adult, which is just as well, because I'm much more frightened of it now than I was as a child.
 
I must be a lucky one.. I've never come off a horse! Came very close riding full pelt and losing a stirrup once but someone pulled me straight again and I got my foot back in!
 
I remember pretty much all of my falls in Scotland but I dont remember many from England and I couldn't honestly tell you what my first was.

I have had 3 bad falls. And actually they are minor in the grand scheme of things!

One in England when my pony took exception to an umbrella on the footpath next to the school. Pony tanked, cannoned me into the fence then kicked me for good measure. I chipped a bone in my knee. I would have been 6?7yo? Tops.

I got decked by a pony I was breaking in. Her name was Ira so I nicknamed her Bomber (yes! I know! And yes I did name her that because of that and yes I know it's bad craic but hey!) before I had even started to work with her. My god she could torpedo you! She was a Shetland pony. You could ride her anywhere side saddle, either side, swing your legs over not a bother. But put a leg either side and she was terrfied. I got sent her because she had been scared by a screaming kid in the previous place. I hopped on her one day, no stirrups, wrapped my fist in her neck rodeo cowboy style, quietly wrapped my legs round her with the intention of rodeoing her out til she gave up. And she went! She absolutely went for it all guns blazing and I stuck it out. Then she cantered 3 strides and my nieve brain said - yes! Cracked the btch! Then she torpedoed me! I don't know how she didn't flip herself over! I landed on my head, skidded 10m along the ground and wrapped myself round a fence post. I was out for about 30 seconds and had horrible concussion for a few days after. She ended up going to a home as a companion/side saddle pony and completed many days hunting side saddle. Last I heard at 20yo she still couldn't be ridden astride.

The worst one from work was from a horse that bolted. It bolted down the gallop, out onto the road and headed for home. He swung into the road home and slipped. I came off got my legs tangled in his back legs and brought him down on top of me. We slid along the ground for a bit before he got up and buggered off in the wrong direction. I was totally winded but followed after. Both of us got away with shredded clothes (human and 1/4 sheet) and scrapes. No serious injuries. He was a bad bar steward. He confirmed bolter. He went to be a companion. Lovely horse to deal with but never to be ridden again.
 
I think I do, but there might have been earlier. When I was very young, we lived in London, but every so often when we were visiting friends or family in the country, my mother would borrow a pony and lead me around, and I might have fallen off on one of these rides!

When I was about 7, my best friend at school had a pony, and she would let me ride him every so often when I came over to her house after school. On one occasion, her mum had arranged for me to join a riding lesson where the pony was kept. I'd never been formally taught to ride, just led around before this, so I wasn't hugely in control. The pony went to overtake another, which kicked out at him. He jumped sideways, and I fell off.

I did get back on though, and the next year when we moved to Cornwall, I begged for riding lessons, so I can't have been put off that badly!
 
Yep, was just before I joined the "big lesson" and we were jumping in the paddock, pony went one way, I went the other and tucked and rolled ? Fell off that pony 6 more times, I absolutely adored him even though pretty much every fall was due to a difference of opinion about direction ?
 
I'm not sure if it was my first fall, but my most serious was at 10yo off a lovely little strawberry roan mare who spooked at a total idiot parent (not mine) putting up an umbrella by the side of the school, I hit my head on the wooden wall of the school, exactly where a nail was jutting out and sliced my face open just above my left eye, 1/4cm lower and I would have lost my eye, instead I have a large scar which leaves me with half an eyebrow 26 years later. I was taken to hospital and stitched up, sent home same afternoon and was very cross not to be allowed back to the stables to help with the afternoon yard jobs ??
 
Yes. I was 11 and it was my second lesson at a riding school. No arenas back then, just open paddock schooling. My horse spooked and being unbalanced I came off but my foot caught in the stirrup. I was dragged across 10 acres of grass. It was terrifying but surprisingly, apart from some grazes and bruising I was fine.
The instructor (old, tough type) picked me up and lifted me straight back on the horse and said ''This is why your feet need to be here not here" and continued the lesson. I was very glad my non horsey mother was not there watching as I doubt I would have been allowed on a horse ever again lol.
 
I am so old I can't remember any falls as a child! First one of any note I can think of was from a hired NF pony out on the forest jumping a ditch that was far too wide and ending up in it!
 
Not sure if it was my first fall or just the first one I remember, I was having a riding school hack (back in the days when us kids spent every Saturday and Sunday at the RS helping out and hoping for the odd ride), pony spooked and I exited side right, foot got caught and I got dragged on my back. I was most upset that it took the wax off the back of my new Barbour jacket, I had nagged my parents for ages for a Barbour jacket as all the grooms had one lol
 
Ownedby4horses said:
my father and the instructor were both chasing after me as I was running around crying looking at my weird arm screaming “get it away from me” ?. Pony still grazing during all the commotion. ?
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Sorry I know you were young and hurt but this made me laugh ?

I don't remember when I first fell off but the most memorable one is probably when I was riding in a group lesson, something flew out of the bush next to the school and every horse took off in the opposite direction and everyone was deposited neatly on the centre line :D I think we were laughing too much to be hurt
 
I remember!

Not long been riding, 15.2 bright bay cob belonging to the lady who was teaching me to ride. She was called Minnie. I was being lunged in a field when she got a fright and bolted. I came off the side, remember the slo mo feeling. Smacked into the ground and got winded. Of course I was chucked back on but when we got back to the stables I didn't ride for another 6 months ?
 
Couldn't tell you how or when I had my first fall, but it would have been off my first pony, a shetland type, black mare, 10.2hh called Shambles. I had her from when I was 18 months old until I was 7. I was literally 'riding' before I could walk - it was easier to be led on a pony, than parents push me in a push chair on our daily epic dog walks!
I do suspect it would have either been a ''head down for grass, and therefore out the front door'' sort of fall, or a ''parting of ways, as she went back to her friend and I didn't!'' I can also tell you, that it would have happened a lot! lol
 
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