The Confession Board

[Abi90]

Oops haha! Similar thing happened to me actually, got on the first horse, asked for canter, and he was far too strong for me and bolted off around the arena. I managed to hang on, but I swear we did about 8 full laps of flat out gallop before I could get my head in gear and do a one-rein stop

This also happened to me last year. I fell off and winded myself... Embarrassing enough... But I split my jodhpurs as well!!

 

[Limbo1]

As I young teenager I was due to go to pony club camp - 2 days before my pony got a nasty resprotary infection. So my best friend said I could take her mounted games pony - she was sensibly taking the pony that jumped and did dressage. So mounted games pony was fun for all xc etc. I was a bit big for her but that was ok.

Then we had to do a dressage test! As I entered the DC sent my out for having my martingale on inside out ( my pony had no kit so I had o clue about it). So came back in even more flustered with a het up games pony. We bog trotted sideways up the centre line spun round 3 times and started the test. I wanted the ground to swallow me up and there were some interesting comments on my test sheet about lack of control and pony needs to be schooled more!

 

[laura_nash]

I also got totally run away with in my NVQ jumping test. I forgot my gloves, the reins had been recently oiled and it was pouring down, I couldn't get any purchase on the reins at all. Coupled with my nerves and the horse being keen to get it over and done with and get back to his stable out of the rain, we flew round the course like total maniacs. I got a clear round, but didn't pass (I think they were hoping for control, technique etc - none of which they saw!).

I also got run away with on my first "assessment ride" at that college, did about five circuits of the school before I managed to pull up. That was actually on the same horse thinking about it! We did have some lovely rides together in the intervening 2 years though.

 

[Biglets Mummy]

Got horribly drunk the night before an endurance ride. In an incredibly hung over state I took a novice horse out, on what was supposed to be an easy 20 km, misread a sign and ended up very lost. Hadn't taken my water bottle, ended up on my hands and knees with my face in a stream drinking alongside the horse.

They had to send the search party out for us.

Im so sorry but I am laughing so much here everyone in the office is now reading - Priceless !!!

 

[dibbin]

2 weeks ago, taking the horses out for their second ride from their new home (first one having gone completely without incident). It took us 5 minutes to get them the first hundred yards between napping, spooking, spinning and Jazz rearing, which he has NEVER done under saddle before! Normally neither of them has a nappy bone in their bodies but they were ridiculous ... and all of this in full view of my new neighbours.

 

[Woolly Hat n Wellies]

As I young teenager I was due to go to pony club camp - 2 days before my pony got a nasty resprotary infection. So my best friend said I could take her mounted games pony - she was sensibly taking the pony that jumped and did dressage. So mounted games pony was fun for all xc etc. I was a bit big for her but that was ok.

Then we had to do a dressage test! As I entered the DC sent my out for having my martingale on inside out ( my pony had no kit so I had o clue about it). So came back in even more flustered with a het up games pony. We bog trotted sideways up the centre line spun round 3 times and started the test. I wanted the ground to swallow me up and there were some interesting comments on my test sheet about lack of control and pony needs to be schooled more!

My mum and I are wetting ourselves at this.

I was on the mounted games team at PC, and I had to do a dressage test on her too. She used to do flying changes constantly, at any tiny shift of your weight. Great for the bending race, not so great for trying to canter a straight line in a prelim test! The more I tried to correct her the more she did it, the faster she did it, and the bigger the changes got, until we were bounding down the long side like a kangaroo on speed. Our score was not impressive.

Unfortunately that was the same camp where I discovered she hated XC. She would do SJ flat out, never refused anything, would get you out of all sorts of trouble, so I set off towards our first XC fence brimming with confidence. She stopped dead, for the first time ever, and I continued over her head, taking the entire bridle with me, and landed on my a*se in a puddle on the other side. So that was a telling off for not doing my throatlash up tight enough, and I had to spend the rest of the day with a dubious looking brown stain on the bum of my best jodhs.

 

[DappleGreyDaydreamer]

Thank you all for your wonderful responses!!! I have been having a jolly good giggle at all of them, so it seems have many of you V
VERY glad I decided to post this.

Funnily enough I have had yet another embarrassing incident this afternoon... I spent all day yesterday cleaning tack and washing saddle pads and making everything look lovely in time for my dressage lesson today. I had 10 minutes to warm my horse up beforehand so I went out to do that, and when tacking up I had been so excited to ride (the first time in 3 days) that I completely forgot to put my girth through the keepers on my saddle cloth, so about half way into my warm up I looked down to pat my horse and noticed that my pad had almost slipped completely off! I felt so bad for my horse so I dismounted and hurriedly fixed it, and then my instructor turned up when I was getting back on. She thought I fell off, and I was too humiliated to tell her the truth; that I am a complete dummy.

 

[Caol Ila]

I was 13 and my parents had just bought me my first horse, a 15.1hh quarter horse mare. For the first time in my life, I went for a ride on my own, outwith a lesson or any supervision. Such a buzz! I tacked the horse up, led her into the indoor arena, placed my left foot in the stirrup, and then launched myself clear over her back, landing in the dirt on the other side. The mare did not budge and looked down at me in despair. And the other random livery who had been schooling her horse shouted, "Are you all right?" I was mortified.

 

[Kezzabell2]

My mare had a habit of bolting with me when we went out in company!

we were bolting up a hill, I literally had no control, I was trying to turn her head to the left towards the bushes, in hope that she would slow down! but there was no turning her head! As we got to the top of the hill I tried to get her to go right around a massive tree, so I yanked hard! but little did I know, there was a track to the left of the tree, so thats the way she went; I then came flying off the side! In slow motion I hit the floor and could see these hooves coming towards my face, luckily they missed my face but got my ribs and my leg! this happen in 2002 and I still have a hard lump on my leg from it and when I go on a plane it gets really swollen! - oh then she galloped off and almost got run over and finally got stopped about 4 miles away!

Another time, she spooked at a carrier back and I came off the side and she kept going! this time I was not letting go becuase I knew she would go home! so I got dragged across the field, holding on to her reins until she eventually stopped!!

and the last one that I can remember, I was showing off to some non horsey friends and doing some jumps, we went over then instead of canter around and go back the same way, I took a last minute turn and went over it from the opposite direction! she stumbled when she landed and I came off and landed on my head!

i'm sure there's been more but those are the 3 that stand out to me!

I've fallen off my baby 3 times! first time he coughed and tripped over his head and fell to his knees, and I rolled of the side!

The other 2 times he's put his head down in canter and I've come off the side!! luckily he's kinder than my mare and always stops and waits for me, so I don't have to walk home haha!

 

[Ahrena]

I was a Working pupil at an event yard.

I finished schooling probably the easiest horse in the yard - very laid back, very chilled out 17.2hh creature. I opened the gate from the school and went to ride through but it blew back. Horse carried on but I got stuck on the gate post and got catapulted off. God the PAIN!

Farrier and the other groom were in stitches and I had to bribe them with chocolate biscuits not to tell my boss, and disguise my limp and 4 inch gash on my knee which I'm pretty sure should of had stitches (still have the scar 4 years on) because I was terrified he'd never let me ride any of the sharper horses.

 

[TTK]

Three of us got our horses ready on the morning of the show and as the lorry was a fair way from the stables we loaded everything for the day into a wheelbarrow and it pushed round when we took the horses.

It took us a good few minutes of staring at the space previously occupied by the lorry before one of us said... "where's the lorry?" even the horses were looking at each other... "where's the lorry?"

It had been stolen. We couldn't take it in - it was quite bizarre - we even went looking for it like it was hiding.

That made me cry with laughter. and then I remembered the time, like Red-1, that I got the garter strap of my boot caught in a gate latch. and was pulled slowly and inexorably off the back of the horse - who wasn't going to stop. My so-called friends nearly joined me on the floor laughing. Bar-stewards.

Oh, and when I jumped up onto my friend's 13hh pony, overcooked the leap and landed on my knees on the other side. The shame.

 

[PolarSkye]

Second one was the Three Counties show. We had won the middles and had gone back to the lorry park, 4 of us handling one horse, untacked him with the 'you got him' chat to one another. Well as he cleared off into the distance he became apparent that no one had him, in fact all we had was his double bridle. He went straight through the day lorry park, over the road by the stables and into the collecting ring which was full of lead rein ponies with the yummy mummies in their finery.

I hid in the hedge, yes I know I own him but there was no way I was admitting it !, his rider legged it after him still clutching the double bridle and tripped up over the reins. The horse was caught by a random man in the collecting ring, several children had been removed from their ponies and there were a lot of skewiff hats on the yummy mummies.

Kali this - twice! Once at Frensham Manor when I handed him to a friend for a second and he just decided he was OFF and again at Boomerang when he'd finished XC schooling . . . we were there with a friend on her lovely cob mare . . . along with a large chunk of short-listed British Eventing team, Yogi Breisner, Paul Nichols and a bunch of his NH horses (it was right before the start of the eventing season). We'd finished and Kal and Bess were tied up next to the lorry - Pops decided he was bored, snapped the string and headed back out onto the XC course. Had to shout to a four star eventer if she would catch him - which she did by letting him run into the behind of the (very expensive) horse she was sitting on . . . she was NOT impressed and, yes, I made Z go and retrieve him - too embarrassed to admit being his owner!

P

 

[alibali]

Croome Point to Point, I did the fallen horse catching for decades. Came back to the paddock to use the portaloo, reins over head and threaded through the door, done it loads of times with my gallant old lad. Well something spooked the old lad and he pulled back, the door flew open and my breeches were round my ankles. I let go, he broke the reins by standing on them whilst I tried to hook everything back up. Embarrassing or what.

love it!

 

[Crugeran Celt]

My worst experience was galloping along a grassy ridge that sloped down to a very quiet country lane, my saddle slipped, off I came, slid down the bank onto the road where a car had to stop for me. Very embarrassing and dangerous. Learnt my lesson to check my girth before picking up the pace and never galloping on that ridge again. My SIL had a worse experience whilst out hunting and desperate for a wee she hid behind a bush whilst hanging onto the reins when the dogs and the hunstmen changed direction and came back past her which made her pony drag her from behind the bush with her jodhpurs still around her ankles. Extremely funny for everyone except her. Don't think she ever forgave that pony.

 

[Spotsrock]

Took angel pony on a sport ride with some friends. At 5+ months pregnant and very tuned to each other she knew by now when I started jiggling she had to find me a tree stump or gate to get on from so I could get off for a wee.

Clever angel pony sees a big stump and leaves the others to park me by it. I was suitably grateful, hopped off and as the area was deserted but for my friends, both mummies and both practical people. I copped a squat.

Mid way through my much needed nature wee a poor mountain biker turned up. Queue 2 30/40 something's dying laughing on 14hh cobs, angel pony unattended and parked stoicly next to large tree stump with (I swear) her eyes screwed tightly shut, and a hugely pregnant me in a very undignified position.

He just called good morning and kept cycling