Ouch

[napalmbright]

 Yesterday, I got thrown from a horse for the first time.

I was thrown face-first (I was wearing a helmet, of course) into a metal fence. I am bruised and scraped, and my knee is smashed up but not broken. I'm going back today to ride my regular horse, to be sure I'm not afraid or nervous.

Anyone care to share their first fall stories??

Comments

[bemyparaguay]

One of my first falls was at summer camp when I was probably 11 or 12. I honestly don't even remember the details beyond horse was moving a little quicker than I was comfortable with and then just took a sharp turn. I hit my hip on the fence falling, leaving a nasty bruise. This was one of those summer camps where you couldn't make phone calls except for emergencies and such, so in my next letter home, I drew the approximate size and shape of my bruise and said something to the effect of "Mom, Dad, I fell off a few days ago. Look how big my bruise was! Now it's yellow. Having a great time! See you in a few weeks!"

[napalmbright]

Haha That's cute!

[lyonesse]

i'm not sure i remember the *very* first! the first one i remember was i had a summer-camp horse for the winter, and i had started jumping her. iirc i was twelve. i went to show my parents, and i looked at my mom instead of the jump, and fell off. nobody was hurt, but my mom was always afraid of me jumping and i think it freaks her out to this very day :)

[napalmbright]

That's awful! I can imagine she's still nervous about you jumping.

[lyonesse]

she was nervous even before i started, having seen "gone with the wind" too many times. i'll probably die that way, then she'll feel justified :)

(btw this event happened some thirty years ago now... :)

[napalmbright]

That's the thing with mothers, isn't it?

[clevortrevor]

I don't remember my first fall, but my first injury is kind of a funny story. I'd been living overseas, and when I came back to the US, it took a few weeks for me to get my medical insurance reinstated. So I purposely stayed off horses just in case. On the day I got the letter saying that I was insured, I told my mom I was going out to ride my dad's horse, and she said "don't you dare get injured!" I laughed and said, "it's ok, mom, I'm insured!" Well the horse randomly bucked, and I randomly fell off and broke my elbow. At that point I'd been riding for 15 years (doing all kinds of embarrassingly unsafe things as a kid), and that was the first time I actually had to go to the doctor. But at least I had insurance!

[napalmbright]

That is awful that you broke a bone, but it is a funny store, in hindsight!

[napalmbright]

He was probably thinking "Err, what are you doing?!"

[napalmbright]

So have I! My instructor's horse is ridiculously well trained. She will put people on him to be able to tell if their weight is off to one side a little, or if they are doing anything slightly off. Because he responds so ridiculously well. I rode him the first time I tried English and he pretty much had this "Mom, what is she doing?!" look on.

[linasfyre]

I was learning how to ride on my first horse. I was ten and so was he.
We had walk/trot down pat, and my mom rode him all the time also-to keep him...mannered. THe one day I was FINALLY going to canter on him and he reared up, I went flying off, landed on a rock...yep. I kind of have permanent-lower-back-damage. But it definitely didn't stop me from riding!

After that event, every ride I stayed on was a considered a successful one. :P

[napalmbright]

I'm glad to hear you didn't stop riding after that!