Falls - another rant!!

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snurse

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This is another rant, sort of following on from blame culture post. (My only excuse is that I haven't been well for a couple of days and it tends to make me bad-tempered - better today, so no excuse, but anyway...). Do you find that people have very different attitudes to falls? We definitely fall (oops - pun - but I can't think of a different word) into 2 camps. The regulars (including me, I hope) try to jump up quickly, and see which bits are still working, even if you fall down later. Personally, I'll do anything to avoid hospital and a fuss. The others lie there moaning and crying, and won't move 'in case'. This often means calling the air ambulance, only to find that the hospital checks them and there's nothing wrong. I'm not saying the first attitude is the most sensible, but it works for me. If I lay there thinking about how much it hurt, I don't think I'd ride again. And yes, before anyone asks, I have broken bones etc. I get really cross with my body then for letting me down. I had one fall where I couldn't get up and most of what I felt was embarrassment. What do you lot think? Stupid, or the only way to be?
 
I know what you mean. I am of the brush yourself off and see what works camp - even when I fractured my neck I wanted to get back on
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Had someone at the yard a while back trying a horse out. She got tanked of with and came out the side door. As I have nursing back ground I rushed over and she was complaining of numbness and said she couldn't move her legs (she was kneeling on all fours as had managed to roll over after the impact) I did what I thought was best and kept her immobile till the ambulance arrived even though I already doubted that it was a serious as it sounded but I couldn't call her a liar!! They checked her over and after about 5 mins she got in the car and went home. Needless to say she didn't buy the horse. To call an ambulance out costs £400 a time ao it really does annoy me when they are called out in situations like this and not needed. Having said that with the information this lady gave I had no choice but she did make it sound a hell of a lot more severe than it probably was!!
 
I used to be 100% in your camp but I have to say, since I actually did hurt myself ambulance serious coming off a horse, I do tend to lie still for about 10secs and do a quick mental body check before I get up. I have a bit of a phobia that I will come off, fracture something, roll over and end up paralysed cos this is what nearly happened to me.

dont moan and groan and lie down for hours tho, once I've established everything is still in the right place, I get straight back up and back on. And I would never let some call an ambulance unless I actually couldnt get up. I had a right row with my boss about calling an ambulance when I fractured my back - I kept saying, "Ill be ok in a minute, I'll get back on him" for ages and trying to sit up even though I kept nearly passing out
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I know what you mean, I'm like that too, i walked up the field and tried to get back on with an ankle broken in 3 places, not the brightest idea!! Broke my back too and walked away, thought I'd just cracked a few ribs!!!!

I always think people are exagerating too (which they arnt most of the time!!) i told my friend she was just being a wimp when she fell off and bumped her leg then took her to hospital and she'd snapped her pelvis!! ouch!!!!!!

i'll have more sympathy in the future till i know for sure!! ;-/
 
i totally agree. i'm definitely in the former camp... "jump to your feet, try to pretend it didn't happen at all" kind of thing. the times when i haven't been able to do that, i've still tried!
someone fell off a horse on a bridleway near where i used to live. the fire service ended up carrying her about a mile and a half, after huge shenanigans (ambulance couldn't reach her etc) and when they got her to hospital, checked her over and said she was fine, she leapt up. i would have DIED OF SHAME if 10 guys who had lots of better things to do had to spend an hour collecting me and carrying me on a stretcher, for nothing. the silly cow.
i was watching at Burghley some years ago when Judy Bradwell had a fall in the BYEH. she was down for a few mins, then got up and (obv very painfully) walked to the ambulance. she had a fractured pelvis iirc.
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not necessarily advisable in a case like that, but i totally agree with you. oh, and if anyone hits the deck and is silent, go to them first. the screamers aren't generally that badly injured.
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I'm just not the sympathetic type, although I accept you can't take chances with people these days. One of the staff at the yard got kicked off - kicked hard on the leg by another horse, his horse spun and he landed in the road - the other day. Someone else on the ride phoned in. Reaction - 'he must have been riding too close... has he got up yet? no? Is he going to? Can he ride back? Oh, the horse has p****d off! That's serious, we'll be up at once. Does he need an ambulance or just a lift back?' OUtcome, he got a lift back, leg like an elephant's. Horse was OK. After remarks about wimpishness etc. from the rest of us, he was taken home. Later turned out to be chipped bone, now he's got a leg infection. Whoops!
 
im in ur camp - at a show, jumped clear SJ, so waiting for jump off popped him over practice fence, he tripped, fell over, luckily i flew off the other way, knocked out for few secs, got back on, came 4th, went dizzy, nearly fell off, went to A&e, fractured cheek bone, kept in overnite, oops
 
I will always try and get straight up again, however if I feel something was nto quite right I wouldn't. I obviously couldn't get straight back up when I was knocked out, but I got up and rode with a broken knee
 
I'm another 'don't be so bloody stupid, get back on' camp I'm afraid!

Reading about the ones that don't actually need ambulances when they've been called out, perhaps it's about time they started charging if it's a wasted callout but not if there is something actually wrong that has to be treated at hospital; there's got to be some middle ground surely?
 
Obviously I lie totally still on the ground and do not get up, convince the medics that despite landing on my head I am fine., get back on and finish the course then hurt like hell for the next week.
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2 weeks ago my horse fell with me on and broke my wrist in 2 places (I didnt know then of course) . I got back on to finish jumping and it was only when i tried to alter my girth and couldnt i realised my 'wrist didnt work'. I wasnt offered any help so I went back to the lorry with my daughter and neddies and told her ' I have broke my wrist I think so lets get the horses and you back so i can pop to A & E'

She was panicing I just went through the motions, even at A & E the nurse couldnt believe how not bothered I was. I told her it was the risk I take when riding no point moaning about it.
Im still riding with the cast on. Also I have tried to make my daughter a bit this way. If she falls (as long as she is ok ) she gets back on and carries on.
I think too many people love the attention. I know one girl who regular says she has broke her wrist but never has, she is an attention seeker!!
 
The funny thing is, I'll first fight tooth and nail NOT to fall off
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But if I do, i'm always up quick to catch the horse if i've let go of the reins
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However, I got bucked off in the school one day and whinded myself so badly that I just couldn't move for a few seconds, I said plenty, all unprintable though
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My horse didn't go far, he stood at my feet, looking down at me as if to say, "what are you doing down there mum?"!!!
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[ QUOTE ]
I do tend to lie still for about 10secs and do a quick mental body check before I get up.

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I do the same, just to make sure everything is in one piece before I get back on again.

I read somewhere a thing from an ambulance person, that when you get to the scene of an accident it's the casualties that are quiet that are more serious than the ones who are screaming and/or moaning. If they have the breath to scream they will probably be OK. Don't know how true this is though...
 
[ QUOTE ]
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I do tend to lie still for about 10secs and do a quick mental body check before I get up.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do the same, just to make sure everything is in one piece before I get back on again.

I read somewhere a thing from an ambulance person, that when you get to the scene of an accident it's the casualties that are quiet that are more serious than the ones who are screaming and/or moaning. If they have the breath to scream they will probably be OK. Don't know how true this is though...

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This is indeed true!
If you attend a scene with multiple casualties, they will always attend to the quiet one first.

I am the get up and dust yourself down group! after doing the mental check and then comes the where the bloody hell is my horse!

p x
 
I have a high pain threshold, but I usually lie there count to ten and see how I feel, then sit up and do the same then stand up. Thats if I have done a body slam, or as I have more recently done, roly polys and land on my head. When I broke my ankle I got an ambulance - i called it myself, mainyl as I was lying face down and about to pass out in nearly 400 acres of field and I couldnt move anything but my right arm. I refused it when ti arrived as I felt fine, recovered horse and walked 2.5 miles home. 4 days later ankle is purple, not really sore just ugly, but turns out I had fractured it and the bones had moved apart
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. But as I was never in pain I never knew.

When I had lessons I had some pretty bad falls, one SJ comp involved falling, at speed, in front of EVERY jump, getting back up and getting on with it. Amazingly nothing broken. another was skidding down a ponies neck, landing on chin and somersaulting over head and winding myself. If either of them had happened in the present day I hate to think of the fuss that would have been caused!
 
Definately a 'get up asap' person.
Last time I was driving and my pont bolted, did a sudden left turn, I flew out to the right and head-butted a tree, knocked myself out, came round and worried about the pony. I got up, located pony, checked he was OK then climbed back onboard. After a minute I collapsed from the pain and needed shoulder surgery. I have, thankfully, a high pain threshold. I just usally feel a bit sore the next day.
 
Well i have got back on and ridden with a fractured skull, and caught the horse and walked home on a fractured hip, so it is fair to say I have a high pain threshold and don't like making a fuss and frankly don't have much time for those that do.
 
ive been dragged and knocked out, and had to climb back on the horse from a wall as my arm wasnt working, fair enough, but if i get a paper cut im a wimp.
 
i get up and get back on and worry about the pain later!!! my horse had me off for the first time since i had him about 6 weeks ago, we turned off from a road on to a lane (nearly home from a wicked hack!!), he spooked at nothing on the right so i was flung to the left so i tapped him and told him to get on and then he spooked at nothing on the left and spun so i somersaulted and landed on my hands and knees in a stoney lane! and he decided to walk back out on to the road so i jumped up and started to try and call him back, he decided to stop in the middle of the road, luckily nothing was coming!!
 
low pain threshold so I'll do the crying and screaming bit - but I'll still get up as I'd be worried about the horse getting loose and onto a road or suchlike

at home I'll probably take longer to get up than if out on a hack for same reason

when I broke wrist and then later ankle it took about 15 mins for things to stop working

so now I get up and carry on but I'll take a note of the time on my watch - if I get past 15 mins and I don't feel any worse - then I reckon I'm OK

I avoid hospitals and doctors as much as possible !!!
 
i had quite an embarressing hospial visit, 18 months ago i was riding my sec A bare back to my mums house to bath him, i was trotting up a lane and he swerved and i came off but landed on my feet, but few hours later my foot was agony, so had to go to hospital, and explain what happened, i went bright red when the nurse asked the height of the 'horse'!!! i told her but then i said ''its not how far you fall, its the way you fall!'' she gave me a funny look!!!!
 
I feel off 14yrs ago, when the horse flipped over and landed on me...i couldnt have got up even if I wanted to, and yes, I did know I had done something...

4months ago, I fell again, and although i didnt get up (this time it wanst horse related, just a simple straight forward fall) i was in complete agony, swearing like nobody's business, and despite all this i didnt actually think I had done anything too bad, yet i couldnt move...let alone smashed the bone (into 3 pieces)... 4months on, I got off the crutches after 3 months, and although i shouldnt be, i am back on a horse.
 
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