Your Frightening Schooling Incidents

Katikins

Katikins

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Following on from the hacking thread (and a request for a schooling one to balance things out), what scary things have happened to you while schooling?

Mine was when I was in a lesson years ago with my saint of a horse. We were waiting our turn to jump and we were only doing a tiny cross pole as a warm up, I think it was only about 2' high. While we were waiting my friend was going 'Kate, why do you always wear a BP?' I was like, well you never know etc etc. Our turn came, rode into the x-pole at a good trot, then for some reason Jeremy just didn't pick up his legs properly and somehow one pole ended up between both front legs and we somersaulted. Next thing I know I was on the floor between his front and back legs. Sat up and was shaking, but just turned to my friend and went "That's why!!". Best timing ever!!
 
I compressed the vertebrae in my neck and fractured my skull schooling :( months off riding and lots of physio, as although I thought I was okay I was told sudden movements (e.g. riding) could lead to breaking it properly :eek:

I was riding an inexperienced mare, asked for canter (something that she was become very happy and comfortable to do) and she turned into a bronco. I rode it out for a few minutes then she went left and I went head first to the right, into the floor. According to doctors, my helmet stopped me from become paralyzed, or worse, dying.
 
Hmmm... lets see...
I wouldn't describe it as scary, more just a bit of a shock, but I was riding a green(ish) horse over a little tiny teeny x pole and he decided he wasn't going to jump like a normal horse, ended up with pole between his legs and him flipping over himself. I hit the dirt and got fired along the arena.
I got up, a bit sore and shaky, but no worse off (well, apart from some impressive purple bruises :rolleyes:) and horse was fine too (saddle wasn't though :o). The little kids who'd been watching however, was in hysterics crying their heads off... apparently when I was catapulted along the arena I looked dead :o

Another time I was riding a cranky old schoolie (who would bite/kick) with some others in the school on a very dark evening. We were just mounting when the lights went off - power cut! Wasn't too bad until we heard lots of panicking, the girl who was just about to get up on the stallion (yes, she brought a stallion to school with out telling anyone he was a stallion:rolleyes:) anyways, she had let go of the reins and the stallion was loose in the arena, with 5 other horses and it was absolutely pitched black!
 
I suffered whiplash when my horse for no other reason than he wanted to leapt and spun at the same time, dumping me out of the side. To add insult to injury, I got my foot caught in the stirrup and hurt my hip :(.

I saw my physio but ended up being referred on the NHS and 4 years later, I still suffer with my neck. It somewhat annoys me when people claim to have whiplash after a minor shunt for insurance purposes. Honestly, if you've ever had whiplash, you know about it. No exaggeration, my neck was so weak, I couldn't lift it off the pillow in the morning, I had to roll over and hold my head as I stood up. I wouldn't wish it on anybody :(.

* I now have the bent strirrup irons as being dragged, albeit only a short distance, was more scary than actually falling off. *
 
1. being p8d off with round the indoor school when i was a working pupil

2. riding 2 x race horses when they suddenly took off flat out through the woods and 17 hands when under small tree , i didnt


3. the most recent 2007 at mounting block just just put leg over and sat down horse went into a bronc ( like wild west) i stayed on till 5th then came off landed on fence post and fell backwards onto show jump poles.

Osteo said i should not have survived that accident .
 
Glad to have some balance after the hacking thread!

My scariest schooling moment was when the ex racer bolted across the school, I thought she was going to jump the fence into the field at a gallop, but instead she stopped dead, and I came off.

Okay, so not as scary as hacking scare stories, but hacking is just so much more interesting :)
 
My scariest moment - my most stoic reliable horse ever - just exiting the school on horseback, wind blew gate into me he jumped forward and my foot became wedged in the wooden gate

Being reliable he backed up and waited whilst I called my parents (always have your mobile on you!). Dad had to get me out of the gate

It scary as if I had been on a youngster it would have shot forward and probably mangled my leg quite badly - when no one is around I now dismount before exiting the arena!!
 
Jump lesson in a bark surfaced arena on young mare who was getting a little tired, so were going to do 1 last jump then call it a day.............. Not sure what happened, but she took a stride out, poles came with us flipping her over. I ended up cushioning her fall! She was fine, I broke my hip and pelvis (4 months out the saddle).:rolleyes:


Schooling another youngster on a Tuesday after after a day off as had had his 1st show on the Sunday (where he had been angelic). Just trotting round warming him up in a sand arena. For no apparent reason he bucked like stink till he buried me in the surface. Broken collar bone (displaced by 1" that took 6 months to heal).:eek:
 
Newly broken pony, i had lunged him and he was as good as gold. Put my foot in the stirrup, stood up and off he went broncing til he got to the fence and went right, i went into the fence. I hadnt even had a chance to swing my leg over.

My worst schooling one was in a lesson on a 17.2 ID x. He was only 5 at the time and decided that when the horse in front was going off into canter, he wanted to follow. He bucked and i lost my stirrup, cut across the school and when he reached c, spun around so quickly i went head first into the fence. The fence skimmed my hat and hit my head just underneath...one big lump and a few hours in a&e was the result!
 
Have fallen off quite a lot - once so fast that I don't actually know what happened - but the scariest was my own fault. I rode my spooky cob in the school wearing wellies. He had a hissy fit at something imaginary and p%^&ed off at a rate of knots and my foot went right through the stirrup. I did eventually manage to pull up and pulled the stirrup off the saddle and got off (thank God for old, supple saddle) but it was the scariest thing ever. Needless to say, I've never ridden in wellies since...
 
Jumping lesson with the aim of rebuilding my nerve. Indoor school, summer, door into school barred by single pole. Two fences along school 's long sides. Told to wrap my reins round horse's neck and cross my arms. Instructor in middle of school with lunge whip. (I kid you not! France in the 1970s, and he knew I was a fairly experienced rider). All goes well for the first few circuits, mare jumps fast but smoothly and I begin to relax. Come round the long side again, over the jumps and mare accelerates on landing and instead of taking the corner, goes straight on and hurdles the pole to the great outdoors! It was funny afterwards, but not at the time. As to my nerve, well, least said about it, the better!
 
My friend thought itwouldbefunny to ride up behind me and slap my pony on the backside...
Cue pony bolting round school me unable to stop. Would have been less frightening had I not just got on and not tightened girth yet. Saddle slipped sideways and then I hit my head, then arm, on the top of the fence posts as I flew round apparently, I don't remember much after the rocket speed gallop until I woke up laid underneath another riders horse staring up at it's belly!

Shuffled out seemingly unscathed and tried to get back on but arm wouldn't support me trying to mount-turns out I'd shatteredmy elbow but the blow to my head obviously knocked out the old pain sensors!

Two boutsof surgery and a year later I was back in the saddle!
 
I now regret asking for this thread , was going to ride tonight but think I'll give it a miss :eek: :p

My worst schooling incident would be either in a group lesson a while back where pony I was riding locked its jaw and went round the school and bit each of the other ponys bums in turn , causing quite a few scuffles!

Not a schooling incident as such but my old 16.3hh horse and I where in a gymkhana 'ride and lead' race where we led ponys up to top of school , jumped on and then rode back. That was the plan anyway :rolleyes: Instead before I'd even had a chance to put my foot in the stirrup after mounting ( got a leg up , I'm not that springy:D) horsey bolted , bucked and reared his way to the finishing line , all I can remember is holding on for dear life , with my instructor screaming at me to sit up.
 
Let someone else tack up for me (she knew what she was doing, or YO said) Horse was a 15hh 4 year old cob, I never checked my girth (do now everytime, sometimes twice.) as we went around a corner in trot, I thought that fencing a little close. Then I'm going to hit that, I fell of straight into the brand new fencing pole I conetred in the day before. Set there on the school floor, thinking whats that sound...... looked over my shoulder to find said cob galloping around the school with the saddle on it's stomach!!!! Heading at me.... que comando roll under the fencing.
When I did manage to ccatch him, I took his saddle off put it back on right and trotted round once on both reins then went in. To someone saying what happed to your arm.... I'd managed to take a good wack of skin off my arm, I was worried so much about the horse that I didn't notice!!
 
I was doing some gridwork with my girlie during a lesson; we were coming down to a line of three fences, two tiny cross poles and a straight bar, all on a bounce stride. She went in too fast, took two elements on at the same time like a spread, and turned a complete somersault on top of me. I was knocked out for a few seconds - nothing more - and got back on with a completely useless wrist, as I knew that if I didnt jump another fence, I'd struggle to ever jump again! We later found out that I had broken my hand; I spent the next ten weeks with it in plaster and then a sling - although I did still ride out one handed :D Sadly my nerve was shot to pieces and although we did get back to jumping briefly when my hand was better, I became increasingly nervous and just stopped enjoying competing. That was seven years ago; last year we finally got back into jumping, and are back having a great time again, albeit not quite at the same level! :D

Ellie has, incidentally, a bit of a reputation for hurting people when schooling :eek: The year before my fall, my instructor - who has competed at HOYS, been on Nations Cup teams, and is, IMO, an amazing rider ( :D ) - hired out a nice big arena and took me and Ellie as well as one of his young horses to do some schooling. We swapped, and he was doing some gridwork with Elz to sharpen her up. The final fence in the line ended up at about 4ft, and she cleared it easily the first time. He took her down the line again, and this time she skewed slightly over the final fence, and landed slightly off balance. He came straight out the side door and landed on his feet - a perfectly 'normal' fall - but then collapsed in a heap clutching his leg. Turns out he'd broken it in 2 places, needed numerous ops to put it all back together, was out of the saddle for 9 months and missed his HOYS ride that autumn :eek::( I'm not sure he's ever quite forgiven poor Ellie....! :D
 
I've been quite lucky when schooling (touch wood, and touch wood again!) but one memorable moment was jumping a RS pony when I was about 17, came down the long side and turned to jump that was at A when pony stopped and span. I kept going, but ended up slap bang into the wooden wing that had the old fashioned metal cups and pins? I ended up in the middle of the fence with a wing on me, and sitting on a pile of poles. I had a bruise the size of a melon on my hip - but my friend made me get back on asap to jump it! I did, not without "ow ow ow ow" from me :)

A few weeks ago I has a jumping lesson and we were jumping fences on angles. Came to the first on a dodgy line and so C run out at the second, I span round off her but my leg was somehow caught in the stirrup (saddle has large knee blocks!) so I sort of span with one leg in the stirrup before falling. My knee was so painful for about 2 weeks after that!

I've had horses bucking but no injuries, thank god! (They were big bucks from Frankie - I did fall off but managed to get back on!)
 
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