Falling off

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AlwaysFallingOff

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Yes this is something I do a lot while jumping! Only jumping, I'm otherwise competent. I'm really starting to wonder if I should stop. I have the skills and a lovely horse, but if I don't commit to an oxer it can result in me jumping it without him. He's naturally cautious, and I guess the truth is so am I. In the show ring we're ok as I ride more positively and we're rarely out of the ribbons. We jump 70cm to 90cm. I can fire myself up to ride at 100% like I do in the ring but it takes so much mental determination. I'm not sure if it's fun. It's a strange place to be in as if I announce I'm giving up people will wonder why on earth I'd say that when outwardly we're successful. But four falls from silly stops in three months is giving me pause for thought. I'm 52. I know that falls come in clusters as one leads to the next through lack of confidence and commitment, but will it ever end and have I got the strength to get to the other side? Can anyone offer any reassurance. I do ride in a racesafe body protector and jockey skull and have had hypnotherapy and NLP.
 
Well, there are plenty of other things you can do with horses than jump over obstacles!
And there are plenty of other ways to get injured with horses, than jumping.
If you aren’t enjoying it, do something else, at least for a time to see whether you actually miss it. If you genuinely believe that you require hypnotherapy and NLP in order to continue your jumping, that seems excessive, and personally I’d reconsider.
 
AnitaStreet said:
if I announce I'm giving up people will wonder why on earth I'd say that when outwardly we're successful.
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Who cares what people wonder. Quit if you want. There's nobody holding a gun to your head!

if reading that made you a bit defensive, then you probably don't want to and should look into a sports psychologist!!!
 
The day I quit jumping was also the day I won a. 1 day event. Came over xc finish line just thinking I’m glad that’s done rather woo-hoo. We’d had a good round I just didn’t get the enjoyment from it. It had been brewing for a while but when a cracking clear xc didn’t give me any form of buzz I knew I was done. Switched to dressage and loved it and then switched to western when I stopped loving dressage. There’s a lot of options out there.

ETA the mare I had at time was super capable but would stop if you didn’t place her right, or ditch you for it. So I can relate 😂
 
Quit jumping if you want to, plenty other things to do BUT a BP will give you some protection but not as much as an air vest so if you’re worried about falling off maybe see if you can borrowed one?
 
if you only enjoy it & feel confident competing, don’t bother jumping at home! stick to a level you’re happy with competing, or just take the pressure off and play over little jumps at home.

or, if it’s what you want to do, sod what anyone thinks and quit!

you don’t have to go all in on your decision, you’re allowed to simply take a break from it!
 
I love @Alibear 's answer, as similar happened to me. I wish I'd had the same sense to stop wanting to do it, as I now kind of want to, yet no longer have the drive to make it happen. So, I'm left with a little itch to want to scratch, yet when I had the horse and was actually doing it, I had started to feel deflated even when placed with a DC at BE.

If you think you do still want to, I would have a long hard look at your position. When things are going well, you can get away with having a position that is incorrectly aligned. When there are difficulties, the slight misalignment leads to falls.

As a test, when I was teaching, I would have riders set a canter and then either stand bolt upright, or crouch forward (arse out but shoulders low, legs firm underneath you), or sit, and be able to move between those positions, in any order, without losing balance and sitting involuntarily. Surprisingly few riders can do that, even when the horse is running smoothly and consistently. Stands to reason that if, under those conditions, you can't decide whether to sit, stand or crouch, if the horse slams on, you will tumble.

I would request, say, 5 strides in each, so 5 strides upright, 5 strides crouched, 5 strides upright again, 5 strides sitting, 5 strides upright etc etc. The most difficult is crouched to upright with no sitting.

The other one is over fences. So many people are told to fold at the hips and then they give away their security just as they need it. Jumping position is not going forward in your balance, it is compressing the joints to take the shocks. It is more arse back than shoulders forward. Again, so many people do that incorrectly. Your lower leg and feet stay forward, not back.
 
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I never liked jumping, i have not the right brain for it, despite having horses that are capable, one in particular, who won comps but jumped big but i was always glad it was over.

I have always trained on the flat, i love the slow relaxed process of going from unbroken to advanced movements, the time to feel and connect with the horse the neverending discoverery of new ways to understand what the horse is feeling and what it will respond to, the building up of the horse and the realizing how far you have come

So look at yourself honestly, deeply and dont worry about others opinion, you mqy discover something else that suits you better

Agree with red about the arxh sticking out thing , top showjumpers often do this, have a look at some stills
 
I came to terms a while ago that the more you do with your horse the more you will fall off! I know that sounds quite obvious but it actually took a while for the penny to drop with me 🤣 I looked at my trainers who were brilliant, talented riders and falling off their horses often and realised it's kind of inevitable when you're riding young, sharp horses and jumping regularly that the odds of you getting decked are quite high regardless of how good a rider you are. I think we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking when you get 'good enough' you stop falling off, but you don't!

My trainer even said to me in a lesson once "if you're scared of falling off, you need to get over it because if you want to jump your horse - news flash - you're going to fall off".... he's quite blunt but I understood the sentiment, you do kind of have to accept that you'll take the odd tumble and you have to decide if your self-preservation of stopping that happening is greater than your will to be doing what you're doing.

I think for me it was a psychological shift from 'falling off' being the worst thing that could happen and meaning I'd failed or was doing something wrong, to just being something that happened sometimes as part of the process.

Of course none of us want to get hurt and if each fall is knocking you physically or mentally then maybe step it down a level to more within your comfort zone so you're actually enjoying it. But if deep down you want to carry on and are just beating yourself up for falling off too often, it might just need a mental shift and some support from a good trainer for a confidence boost.
 
I just don't enjoy jumping, I persevered in my teens and early 20s as that's what you did and that's also where i got jobs but i dont think I ever enjoyed it. Now I just do the things I enjoy hacking and flat work/ dressage on my little hairy pony.

It is weird how certain instructors don't seem to take you seriously, the last time I got talked into it I ended up falling on my face 😅
 
I love jumping and I also ride much better in competition than at home. And I ride worst of all in warm ups! I then had an accident and after that got scared. For a while I gave up and told myself that this was a genuine preference when it was a fear based avoidance. I'd feel relief at ending a lesson instead of but happiness to be doing it. But only because I was scared. Once I worked through the confidence issues and could jump without fear then the love came back.

That is very different to what @Alibear and @Red-1 are describing when they jumped a fab round or track and still think 'meh'. I always finished SJ or XC tracks on top of the world and excited for the next one. If you simply don't feel the jumping bug then there's 1000 other ways of enjoying with your horse. And what others might think is totally irrelevant. Who cares! It's your horse, your efforts, your money, your time, your enjoyment and your safety that is on the line, not theirs. 'Success' to me means getting off my horse with a huge smile on my fave. Ribbons are - at best - a nice bonus. They are not the reason to do anything.

So you need to figure out what your genuine intrinsic motivation is, what lights you up.
 
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