How badly riding can go

[maroonostrich]

A real vid to make you cringe and go ow, hopefully not been on here before...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRgNIfZ5IRYI do think that it's sometimes hard to tell in this vid what's happened immediately prior to the incident but I do have these observations

Comments

[ernestinewalker]

I'm not sure these are bad-riding related, or just spectacular falls.

The first one does look like the horse got a bad spot to the fence, which is partially rider error. Also looks like there might have been a trip/catch in the rear as it was taking off.

The second one looks like a bad spook- the stirrup thing totally freaks me out.

The one at 3.31 is just randomly bad riding- it looks like the rider just slid right off onto the fence.

The rest just look like horrible jumping accidents. The video after it has some actually atrocious riding and bad ideas, though! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE0yEEQ_MbI

[colebaltblue]

The third one could've been saved if the rider had reacted and gotten that horse's head up and him moving forward. It would've kept her in her seat, helped him get his balance back, and allowed him to stumble through without actually falling. A lot of people are just taught to sit there and look pretty and when they get into trouble they don't have the tools to fix it.

Although a few of those were certainly inexperienced kids with naughty ponies style bad riding, most of that were just bad accidents. Not spectacular riding by any means, but not all that bad either.

The second video though, that was some bad riding. Except the horse in the sink hole early on, that was pretty good.

[thehomicidehoe]

That video has a lot of people cantering (Badly) and fences they have no business being near. I see a lot of smart horses saving their own asses!

[corellian_ninja]

I call bad_sport on the guy around 2:14 who smashes the bush with his fist like an angry child. Like, I get you're upset you aren't going to continue but your horse just crashed into a wall and fell into a ditch, dude.

[blitzen_]

i noticed that too. jeebus!

[monica1979]

Yikes, those horse face plants made me cringe!

The fall at 4:07 looks pretty close to what my latest crash must have looked like. Except in my case it was a combination of horse being a jackass+slippery footing. Couldn't do a one rein stop because there was a big chance it went wrong on rock pavement, horse slipped anyway *facepalm* Major road rash.

[greyskyridge]

The first one is a perfect example of why you learn to steer from your legs, not your hands.

The horse was trying to leave the line to the inside and rather than pressing him back in with her inside leg she just pulled on the outside rein. His nose followed the rein but his shoulder did not.
If the horse had simply stayed straight in the line from the rider's inside leg, she wouldn't have needed to haul on the outside rein to get him to stay in the line, which hauling

a.) makes the horse very crooked and
b.) completely pulled him off his distance
c.) hence the crash.

The crash happened because she was not able to control the horse's straightness and steering with her inside leg.

Generally it is best to train the horse to respect and respond to the inside leg BEFORE attempting to jump into a line.