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stormox

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The recent incident regarding the young girl who was unfortunately paralysed by a fall, (and the subsequent damages award) got me thinking. I must have had hundreds of falls over my lifetime, quite a few of them being horse falls, most of them bucks, sudden stops at fences or rears, and never been hurt apart from a few grazes and bruises- and a couple of broken ribs where the horse kicked me getting up.
But we have all heard of horses who 'have put 3 people in hospital' or 'my horse has broken my arm once and given me concussion twice shes dangerous'.
Why is it that sometimes a fall injures people badly and other falls not? Is it down to pure luck, or how you fall, or whatever it is that makes you fall off? Are some horses likely to inflict more serious injury than others? I dont like falling, I dont think anyone does, but should we think worse of a horse who's 'put me in hospital 3 times' than one about which we say 'Ive fallen off him 3 times, never been hurt' ?
 
I can't answer, but I have one of those stories! I fell off my 15.1 at a gallop (well, he was stopping!), onto short grass, with hard ground and I was completely uninjured, I wasn't even stiff the next day. I know a girl who fell off a small pony, in a soft school, at a stand still (the pony shook) and shattered her arm in 3 places.
Who knows why or what meant that she was so badly hurt and I was fine.
 
I've often wondered about this as well. I think it just down to luck although I did read somewhere years ago that if you relax when you fall all you will hurt is your pride.
It's not always easy to relax as the ground is rushing up to meet you!
 
I do think there is an element of luck. I've come off loads of times and only been slightly hurt. My last one was real luck because I landed on a car and then slid off the bonnet. Had I landed fully on the ground it might have been a different story. Although I think I was aiming to land on the car but I can't be sure. I do think you can be unlucky and fall awkwardly and really hurt yourself.
 
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It's just fate .
I have had several really nasty injuries but never one doing anything exciting like eventing .
I had the most spectacular rotational fall and walked away with a couple of bruises I fell off walking in the school on a long rein and broke my hip .
It really is pretty random .
 
Depends on how hard the impact is usually. But it's often bad luck really. I have had lots of falls but only broken one bone and I think that was due to how I landed.
 
I do believe it is to do with how you fall - some people don't have any idea of how to 'fall' and will just go splat or throw their arms or legs out. Sometimes you can't help it and have really awkward falls, sometimes people just don't seem to realise to be able to not land arm or leg first.

My worst injury was a broken wrist, from a fall after a fence where horse stopped and dropped his shoulder. I fell, put my arm out in front of me and landed on it. Similarly, a girl I know broke her collarbone around the same time as she had a fall and landed on a pole at an awkward angle.

I have had worse falls, and been fine. I went through the wing of a jump after B refused at the last second, and got stood on by him somehow as well. Now I think back, I have no idea what happened other than my elbow went through the big colourful plywood wing, then I was on the floor and tangled around B's feet, in front of the jump, then I was under the wing behind the jump on the ground. I think I tried to roll away and he caught me on the inside of my knee with his foot. Came away with a bad bruise on my knee, and a sore elbow and a broken hat but I was otherwise fine.

There was a little girl recently jumping her pony who had a lovely round, at the last fence I don't know if she came in a bit too fast or if the pony just misjudged it but she had a rotational fall and pony clipped her I think. The girl was back on her feet and although she was obviously shaken, her and pony were fine and once she had calmed down, she got back on board and was able to jump fence 1 again before she left. I've seen another rider have a similar fall (not at the same fence or in the same place!), and need an ambulance (rider had broken and dislocated her shoulders I think?).

I did jujitsu as a child, and we were taught how to 'fall' by using rolling on impact and landing shoulder first and tucking ourselves up. I do think I roll if I have a fall where I don't land on my feet or nearly land on my feet as a result.
 
When I was about 15 I rode hunters out with an ex jump jockey who gave me some advice in falling which I remember to this day. He said that when you're coming off you have that split second 'oh ****' moment when you realise gravity has won. He told me to breathe out on that moment because it forces your body to relax. A relaxed body is less likely to be damaged than a tense one.

My worst falls have been when I haven't had that oh **** moment - when the horse has fallen without warning & once when the girth snapped at a gallop. I still have the lasting effects of both of those falls through ongoing problems with torn muscles.

When I hurt my back coming off a couple of months ago it was just unlucky. I came off on a slope, didn't land hard but I think I twisted on the slope when I landed and that twisted my back. I don't bounce back that quickly these days!
 
Fortunate not to have known any horses like that, but if a horse was inclined to be sharp, nasty or aggressive in getting people off, then chances are it would be more likely to involve people hurting themselves.

The only two involving broken bones that I've known, of friends, were random and not likely to involve a bad fall, one was in a soft school and what looked like a sedate fall, the other smashed her wrist hitting the horse's neck on the way off (not intentionally!).

I only really remember the falls where I've been hurt, and it does affect me much more, takes longer to get over it mentally and shakes my confidence. Falls where I've not hurt myself I've been able to forget pretty easily.

I've wondered about those classes where you learn how to fall off, and jockeys do learn, so there is likely to be an element of 'skill' in it, but a large dose of luck and circumstance too.
 
Age is also a factor. I have ridden since I was 9 years old, now 55, and have fallen off numerous times in all sorts of ways and at different speeds. Never had anything worse than bruises and a mild concussion. Last year my newest horse bucked me off and I landed on my back on hard ground. Thought I had broken my back as initially couldn't move, although did hang on to the reins. Turned out I had broken a couple of ribs. We don't bounce so well as we get older.
 
In a riding career spanning 40+years I can only remember 2 falls where I didn't sustain broken bones.
My last catastrophic fall resulted in 4 broken vertebrae & a shattered wrist. Following a MRI scan I was diagnosed with Osteopenia.
I wonder if a lot of people have it & it goes undiagnosed?
 
I think its a mix. Part of it is about how you fall, being relaxed or not, what sort of surface etc. Part of it is luck. Part of it is down to genetics - some people break more easily than others, with or without a diagnosed reason. And part of it is age. Younger folk tend to bounce and us oldies tend to splat a bit more.

There are things you can do make a fall less severe - learn to fall correctly, wear up to date safety gear etc. But at the end of the day this is a risk sport.
 
I think fate / bad luck plays a big part. My lovely friend, a very experienced rider had fallen numerous times bruising only her pride.... till her last fall where she broke her neck and sadly passed away. Yet I have seen people fall, and it looks awful but they have walked away with just bruises. The wrong angle, the wrong speed, hitting a pole can either amazingly result in no injury (me when I somersaulted through a fence, landing amid the poles unhurt), or have the tragic results above.
 
I do think a large part is in how you fall. I remember having lessons and being shown how to roll.
I've never done more damage than bruises in 20 years riding until the last few years. - Getting older and less flexible. A couple months ago I had no preparation time - one second I was cantering and the next, her head disappeared and I did a superman pose over her and my chin met the ground (didn't knock myself out but had concussion and all I could see was white). My friend behind me was pi$$ing herself laughing as all she saw was me flying through the air, hands stretched out in front of me.
 
SEL said:
When I was about 15 I rode hunters out with an ex jump jockey who gave me some advice in falling which I remember to this day. He said that when you're coming off you have that split second 'oh ****' moment when you realise gravity has won. He told me to breathe out on that moment because it forces your body to relax. A relaxed body is less likely to be damaged than a tense one.
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In an attempt to emulate my daughter, I borrowed an ageing, apparently sensible horse for a lesson only to discover this was Very Exciting. Despite his owner never cantering him he decided to canter as trotting was SO exciting, but launched off disunited which propelled me into midair, I thought 'uh oh RELAX' and fortunately bounced. The only side effect was that landing on my bum in relaxed mode completely cured my sciatica. Brilliant.

Have barely got on a horse since, I leave it to daughter
 
Can you imagine the tests they'd need to do to simulate all the possible ways of falling off all shapes and sizes of horse – and what each individual horse did in each circumstance? You can stick a crash test dummy in a car and bosh into the car from various angles or even roll it over. You can do the same with a bike. But a horse? Nah!
There are so many factors involved. I can't ride much any more but I've been lucky in all the falls I've had, rolling and hitting the ground back first. Barely even bruised (although I might have gotten whiplash one time). I have a condition that makes my joints pop in and out fairly easily, so I guess I "give" at the joint rather than breaking bone. But chiefly it's luck, luck, luck.
 
Over a lifetime of riding I've fallen off countless times, and it's true that the older you get the less likely you are to land on your feet holding the reins (my default when younger). I THINK this is the result of general slowing down of reactions, lack of suppleness and being a hell of a lot heavier than when I was 20 (the heavier you are the harder you land). But I have only seriously hurt myself twice, and on both occassions the horse fell - not much you can do in those circumstances.
 
I don't fall off often and I'm not good at landing. Worst injury was off my very safe cob onto a rubber surface. Was just bad luck. So I tell myself. Plus bought an air jacket!

A horse that is trying to get you off is not one I would keep personally.
 
There are horses who put people in hospital, as you say, and people should be wary of them. Horses, like people, have individual personalities or temperaments and some are more suited to working safely with people than others.

I had a beautiful young mare, an absolute cracker, sweetest horse in the place to deal with in the stable, but very, very dominant in the field. She had a terrible temper and could explode if asked to do something she didn't like. Put me in hospital with one of her explosions and then I gave her to a very good professional for an opinion. She told me that she would kill someone. Basically the mare had a terrible temper and I later found out that her dam sire, Triggerero, also had a bad temper and I can only conclude that that's where she got it from.

I was recently in a field of 40 youngsters owned by a very good producer. All beautiful competition bred horses, there were some out of Cruising dams, lots of Harlequins, a few Cornet Obolenskys. A real field of dreams! Out of all the horses the owner said there was only one that he wasn't looking forward to breaking. He picked out a gelding and said he was the only horse there who had no interest in having contact with humans and was always dominating the others. Thinking of working with the horse he said "one of us will be leaving the yard in a box and it won't be me". Now that's not a horse I would be going out of my way to buy.
 
Is it a bird?! Is it a plane?! No! It's a jockey!


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Ps. None of the horses or jockeys were hurt in this pile up, Nico broke his arm some number of fences earlier when he came off the horse who swung sideways and caused the carnage!
 
I also think there is an element of how the horse spooks/stops which dictates the way in which you land. My previous horse I would fall off all the time - sometimes multiple times in one hack - and would always land on my side, I never had any injuries when I rode him.

My current horse I have only fallen off a handful of times - I used to always land on my feet until I broke my leg in 2012. I am now able to consciously decide (in the oh s*** moment) to land on my bum!
 
My now retired mare was good as gold 99.9% of the time - in that .1% she was dangerous and cared not one bit for me and on one ocassion not even for herself. Falls off her hurt, a lot, because they'd come out of nowhere and you'd be flung out of the saddle whilst she literally tore about the place trying to get you off. My instructor saw it once and said she'd never seen anything like it. I have lots of scars as a result!

Falls and injuries are multi factorial I.e you're lucky if you walk away!
 
Ceriann said:
Falls and injuries are multi factorial I.e you're lucky if you walk away!
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I must say I think the opposite -most falls you just think 'oh sod it' try and hang onto the reins and get up unhurt, or with a few bruises and hurt pride. I think its very rare to get seriously injured, and you're very unlucky if you do.
 
Think it is mostly luck and circumstance, but also think a lot of injuries go undiagnosed as us horsey folk are a hardy bunch and just get on with it. I came off on a rock hard summer field, walked away from it and blamed a stiff hip on bruising, wasn't till a few years later when it went from a bit stiff to leaving me with a locked up lower back and having to crawl round in agony on a weekly basis that I finally sought help and found my pelvis had been shifted five inches out of whack and started treatment on it. But a fall a few weeks ago in a sand school put me in a&e after it left me knocked out for 20mins, concussion, damage to soft tissue round the other hip and a broken rib (which I think was my bra's underwire digging in on impact) but on the plus side the damage to my other hip has now evened them up, silver linings and all that :)
 
stormox said:
I must say I think the opposite -most falls you just think 'oh sod it' try and hang onto the reins and get up unhurt, or with a few bruises and hurt pride. I think its very rare to get seriously injured, and you're very unlucky if you do.
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I used to think like this and even more so after a couple of less serious injuries (ankle fracture etc) - my hip fracture has changed all of that!
 
I am not easily unseated, so when I do come off its usually something big that has got me off. The horse I lost this year was an absolute beast at doing a rodeo act- he would get higher and more violent the longer you held on. I broke bones coming off him and always ended up battered and bruised. In the end I sold his tack and gave it up as a bad job. He gave me a fear of bronchoers for life!
 
I do think there's an element of luck. Touching every bit of wood I can find now but of the 4 horses I've had over my life, I've never fallen off M (fell over with him once but it was quite innocuous) and fallen off A plenty but never hurt myself (although dislocated my finger by catching it in his mane when jumping). Blue, my first pony would buck me off soon as look at me and I spent more time on the floor than in the saddle but again never hurt myself. With Eb, I only ever came off him in freak accident circumstances, maybe 4 or 5 times in 14 years but managed to hurt myself quite badly every time from a broken toe (hit it on a breeze block), biting through my lip, almost detaching the tendon from the muscle on my arm when we both fell over and he stood on it as he got up and a concussion when he tripped at full on gallop, saved himself but I went flying over his head and landed on mine.
 
I've ridden for over 30 years and have hit the deck numerous times and have sustained some bumps, bruises and a few minor fractures but I have always managed to get back on either straight away or the day after (even after I cracked my pelvis!).

Then three months ago I attended a jumping clinic. I did the first session on my young, rather unpredictable horse and survived OK with a couple of "interesting" moments. The second session was on my very straightforward older horse. We jumped down a grid of fences and he did it beautifully. All I can think is that I relaxed as soon as we jumped the last and when he stumbled coming round the corner I just slipped off the side onto the soft rubber surface. I landed unhurt with a thud but the momentum send me rolling and somehow my arm got stuck underneath my body causing it to twist and very nearly come off!! My humerus broke into quite a few pieces some sticking out the back and the muscles were torn through.

I definitely think that this was just "one of those things" and that is something that I will be focusing on when the time finally comes to get back on.
 
scats said:
I am not easily unseated, so when I do come off its usually something big that has got me off. The horse I lost this year was an absolute beast at doing a rodeo act- he would get higher and more violent the longer you held on. I broke bones coming off him and always ended up battered and bruised. In the end I sold his tack and gave it up as a bad job. He gave me a fear of bronchoers for life!
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Its very difficult to sit a proper bronker.

The late chesnut git used to bronk me off once a year. I got better at sitting them, but he would just keep going til he did get me off, and the falls were worse than if I'd just given in and fallen off on the first buck :(. Luckily, I never suffered more than broken ribs and concussion.

At age 58 I definitely don't fall (well, land) as well as I used to. I used to roll away rather neatly. I've given in and now wear my Hit Air jacket every time I ride. I used to keep it for best, but I pop it on every ride now.
 
Funnily enough it's often the better rider who gets the worst falls, because they are able to stay on longer and only finally come off when things have got serious. Back in the day when I used to ride the "remedial" types I would usually make the decision to bail before things got really out of control - I think this is why I've only ever been hurt when the horses fell themselves.

Novice-y falls, the kind kids have and seem to bounce out of, are usually fairly innocuous - not that I'd wish a tumble on anyone.
 
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