Scary accidents or falls!!

togster

:eek:Thread over in AH on most painful accidents. Got me thinking... Anyone have any bad falls/injuries related to horses.

Me i've had loads but the one that got too me most was a hunting accident when i attempted to jump a stone wall with high tensile electric fence on the take off side. The hounds had just gone live and the huntsman was screaming at the whips to go. So i went in to the middle of the field and started peddling towards this wall. i remember looking at a friend of mine as i was nearing the wall and i will never forget the look of horror on his face. Anyway the horse met the wall perfect but hadn't seen the wire, caught it with his knees, flipped completelt 180 and landed on top of me on the other side. i immediately couldn't breath and heard cracks along my rib cage. The horse panicked got up and kicked me and stood on my head. Got knocked out.
The fall made me loose confidence out hunting and it was never the same again. You loose that certain edge. :mad:

So boardsies any injuries??

TheB

:eek: @ Togster.. what a fall! Thats a real confidence knocker!!


The fall described below was my worst fall but least scary for some reason.. I wasn't frightened at all (at the time!) but the aftermath scared me rigid!:D

TheG came to me with a few bad habits.. his worst and most annoying was rearing. Any pressure to do anything difficult / stressy / he didn't like and up he'd go.

This particular day I was schooling on the flat. Calm summers day, horse going well. He napped at the gate of the school and we had a little discussion about going forwards. As usual he stood up and started walking backwards.

Didn't go as he had planned, he went backwards too quick, lost his balance and fell over onto me. Squished I was! he winded himself and couldn't get off me so just thrashed about on top of me. Because my legs were still as if I was sat on him (i.e either side of him) he kind of ground me into the surface. Luckily a friend had been sitting on the fence watching me so she came and pulled him to get him off me (getting her wrist broken by a flailing hoof in the process )

He broke my jaw in 2 places, fractured my pelvis badly, broke 3 fingers and my orbital bone (by your eye) and for good measure fractured and crushed 5 of my vertebrae.

I am now made of many many bits of titanium, have shocking arthritis in my back and hips and a small but discernable limp (from spinal damage - can't feel most of my right leg and the action is "lazy"). I spent 9 months getting better.. Mostly strapped to a spinal board.

I am a bit of a wimp now as stacking it badly again could be the end of my riding/walking days..

Bx

Bendihorse

I took a toss but it wasn't anywhere as near as bad as that Togster!!! Scary Stuff!!

Had just started working in stables riding out horses (after a year long break from riding) and was getting on fine. All the horses were fairly quiet, one or two had a few quirks but nothing major.

Anyway, by the end of the week i was completely shattered from riding so much after being so long off, my legs and thighs, upper arms and shoulders were so stiff they were like boards and were really painful!

As it was Friday, the YO was going away to town for a few hours and told us to turn out the difficult horses and just to ride two ponies that couldn't be turned out - Happy Days i though

So i tacked up Spike, a friend of mine was there who had no horse so i said she could take my Ben for a spin and there was another work rider on another pony. It was a lovely day so we decided to ride in the outdoor rather than go inside where it was a bit dusty.

Before mounting, Leanne said to me 'you can ride Ben and ill ride Spike if you like', I said no its ok and mounted. As soon as i got up i could feel the hump in his back but passed no heed as he didn't have any history of having a mean streak. I rode him on and thought he would relax out of it in a minute...

As i got to the track i put my leg on him to get him to walk on active walk and halfway down the long side asked him to trot - at which point he EXPLODED. Grabbed the bit and took off around the arena at a flat out gallop!! No heed on anything in front of him or me on his back, it took everything i had left in my poor arms to keep him steered around the corner as it was a blind bolt i was afraid he would go straight through the fence!!

Anyway after what seemed like an eternity (6 Laps of the arena and no sign of him to slow at all) it dawned on me that he wasn't going to stop until he got me off so i can remember making a split second decision 'i cant hold on any longer' and gave up...

The people watching said i started to fall off on the corner of the arena and i ended up at the other end of the arena in a heap in the corner. They said i flew through the air for 10-15feet twisting and landing akwardly (the horse bucked me just as i was coming off) I landed really heavily.

I couldn't move. I knew there was something wrong with me as id fallen off a good few times that week and hopped back on no problem. I had a dull aching pain in my lower back and i was groaning with fright, disoriantation and fear. I wasn't in immense pain, it was the dullness of the pain that frightened me. I thought i was paralised.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, i had fractured T12 Vertebrate, spent a week on my back in hospital not allowed to move (longest week of my life), got out and had to wear a contraption of a back brace for 3 months.

That was about 7 years ago and its only now that im getting any shred of confidence back, i had a mental block to trying anything new or jumping anything over 2ft for ages afterwards but thankfully Ben got me through it by never putting a foot wrong and never being bolder than giving a kick out or small buck (thats why it would go so hard on me to sell him, id never have gotten back only for him)

Now im able to jump with confidence again, not jumping more than a meter but im getting there! Im Still not completely fearless but i can get around
I didn't fall off for about 6 years after the accident because i never pushed myself that bit further and had a huge fear of it, but in the last while iv been giving myself a few challenges that i would have never attempted before, have started falling off again and its not so bad really :P

Its amazing how long it takes you to get over or forget something like that and i dont think your ever quite as confident as you were before, after the accident...

My event was nothing as bad as above, thanks god!

I was hacking back through some fields after taking the horse out for a bit. Our neighbours were finishing an extension when somehow a hammer was put through a big glass window. The horse bolted and I was caught out - however my foot got trapped in the stirrup, and I ended up being dragged underneath and kicked the **** out for 10 - 15 feet. I was out for a few minutes and woke up with the horse licking me! Nothing broken (but pride!) and was just quite bruised.. I used safety irons after that!

fits

:eek: At all the scary falls!

I havent had a fall nearly as bad as any above *touches wood furiously*.

The worst one was when I was schooling on my own in a field. I decided to put a jump up to over a metre. Unfortunately I met it on the wrong stride, but Duchess jumped it anyway and I was unseated, and landed badly on my leg. I ripped the cruciate and medial ligaments in my left knee which hasnt been the same since. I also was badly winded, but I still got back on and jumped the fence again.

Duchess is a very careful and clever little mare and I'm not sure I'd trust any other horse as much as I trust her (especially out hunting).

togster

@B i got a shiver in my back reading that....:eek:

@Zarabra there is nothing worse than getting stuck in stirrups and getting dragged.

Bendihorse

Lol They make my accident seem like a walk in the park!

My biggest fear as a result of what happened to me is that i hate riding in open spaces which is a drag. I presume its to do with the bolt aspect of it. Hence why i had to stop hunting, id literally be sitting on the horse having heart palpatations and difficulty breathing.

I tried to overcome it by going a few times to see if it got any easier but id didn't. I would be sitting in the pub when the day was over talking about it and only at that stage when i was relaxed again would i realise that i had actually enjoyed it!

I decided it wasn't worth putting myself through that and gave up.

Have you been back hunting since Togster?

AckwelFoley

nothing too serious.

Every horse rider takes a fall off and into things, particularly whrn hunting.

I used to always get the mad horses because i was a strong rider.

Worst i ever had was when i was about 20, i gad a horse abour 16 hands, fall back on me and roll over..

Ive been lucky, anything else was off a horse into a stone wall etc.. but i was never hurt.

togster

Bendihorse wrote: »

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Have you been back hunting since Togster?

Yes many times. And i had fallen may times prior to this accident out hunting. But i could never "just chance it" again which is what i loved. I never fully enjoyed hunting again after that because it was the mad stuff you jump as whip that gave me such a buzz. Instead of jumping a gate i would open it and at that stage the hounds could be gone and you missed the run.:mad:

My sister has a metal shoulder from a smash out eventing.. seeing that, ironically, made me a tamer hunter - however I never had an issue with eventing.. weird!

AckwelFoley

Yes, good hunting requires a horse and rider that are as equally wreckless.

I never had any fear, i would happily get up on the madest S.O.B that there was, just for the challenge..

Mind you, if i went through the accidents that ive read here so far im sure i wouldnt be as brave

togster

Hey Snyper who do you hunt with?

h2s

Lot of falls over many years.

The funniest was years ago when horse refused at jump I flip right over her head and landed on by feet still holding reins on the other side of the jump. Everyone LOL at the time.

The worst and most painful accident was when horse sliped and fell on top of me, broke vertebra in spine, crack three ribs and bruised a kidney, was in a brace for six months, that knocked my confidence a lot and haven't been up much since then, that was three years ago.

Borderfox

Never been in one (touch wood) but I have seen a good few, I must post up a few pictures.

wombles

My worst was out hunting as well. We were jumping off the road over what seemed a fairly simple sort of hedge. I am not absolutely sure what happened but onlookers said that my cob sort of hesitated and caught his leg in wire. Anyway I can remember him going up and up , and i knew that he was going to topple backwards but I could not get off - it was too fast. After that I remember nothing till I woke up in hospital! I had 4 broken ribs caused by him struggling to get back up onto his feet.

Fortunately because I remember very little it didn't really shatter my confidence - but broken ribs do hurt!