Came off - now what?

[bailey]

So this is humbling to write, I've owned my 18 y o gelding almost 6 years and I just had my first 'bad' fall. We were cantering in the outdoor, and on the short end/scary corner he spooked, unfortunately it caught me off guard and I 'gripped' him w my spurs -bad went to worse and he bucked. i saw we were headed toward the rail road tie arena boarder so i turned him and ended up out of the tack as we jumped out of the arena. I woke up in the grass, we had missed the ties thank heavens. I took an ambulance ride to the local ED, and again thank heavens CT scan head and all other assessments were normal, Except concussion. I'm off riding at least a week & until cleared by my primary MD.

I'm sure I'll be fine physically, but want suggestions of what to do next re riding? I have a trainer and she can help, And I'd love to hear your suggestions and experiences on how you 'got back in the saddle'. I don't feel fear now, but not sure what will happen when I get back on.....

Also anything special I should do for horse or with horse? I've been grooming him each day while I'm off riding.

Thanks in advance,
bailey

[Flight]

That sounds so scary!!! I can actually imagine that feeling when you are out of control and losing your balance and you're headed towards something ... it makes my heart rate go up.
I'm the 'just get back on' type so I think once you feel fine physically (no left over symptoms from your concussion) you ride, but don't put too big an expectation on yourself, see how you feel as you go. For me, the longer I leave it, the more I might find excuses not to do it.

The last stack I had, I only landed on my knees, so while they were very sore, I was able to get back on and I made myself trot back up the hill, even though I was just about sh!tting my pants, I was ridiculously frightened.

Perhaps wait the week before doing too much with your horse, a week isn't that long, and if your horse is normally ok to ride after that break, then get on. Do you have a round yard or something more secure to ride in, if you feel nervous?

[StraightForward]

Hi, I'm sorry you had a fall, but glad you're OK!

I came off my basically unstarted three year old a few weeks ago as well. I didn't get knocked out, and did get back on and have someone lead us around a bit right after. Since then, I've started on some additional desensitization that is above and beyond what I've done for other horses, but I've mounted her again since then and she doesn't seem to be upset or traumatized by the accident. My guess is that if your guy didn't get hurt in the accident, he probably is not too upset by it, either. I think I'd just do some low pressure rides for a few weeks (with the spurs off) and see how it goes. If you start experiencing fear, it might be helpful to ride a different horse and/or have your trainer ride your horse for a bit, but it sounds at this point like that might not be necessary.

[kande50]

unfortunately it caught me off guard and I 'gripped' him w my spurs -bad went to worse and he bucked.

One of the many reasons I don't wear spurs: because my horse is spooky and I have no confidence that I could keep the spurs out of him during a spook.

My strategy for remounting after a bad fall is to start at the safe end of the ring at a walk, and then stay in walk until I'm too bored to walk any more. Then I just keep adding more as I get too bored to keep doing what we were doing.

I always have plenty of things I can work on in walk, so sometimes I'll get interested in what I'm working on and never even get to trot and canter.

[Chisamba]

Get back on and ride is also my strategy. I try to act as though it never happened. Ride the horse i have on the day. If your horse is spooky, ride him calmly.

[Tuddy]

I am sorry to hear that you came off your horse, but glad you are not badly hurt. I've been there.

We were cantering in the outdoor, and on the short end/scary corner he spooked, unfortunately it caught me off guard and I 'gripped' him w my spurs -bad went to worse and he bucked.

Does he do this regularly at that end?

[westisbest]

I've come off a couple of times in the last six years. Older horse, big and strong, jumper eventer.. Can be full of P&V on a fresh day even now at 23 ! I got back on as soon as I was medically cleared, only ever had mini-concussions.. so usually 10 days.. after one fall I was very emotionally fragile so my coach put a LL on my guy led me around like a little kid.. just for a few minutes then my nerves settled and I could walk on my own. I went thru a couple of months where if I felt unsafe I just got off. Sometimes just to have a stretch and then get back on.. My horse is basically bomb proof for a good rider he's not at all spooky but can be "exuberant" ie a bit of leaping around head shaking if he's fresh. So lungeing him pre-ride to check him out if the weather is cool or he hasn't been worked in more than 2 days is a necessity for me.

I did an on-line course after that last bad fall with a local sports psych,, for dealing with fear issues.. it was very helpful. I think everyone handles things differently. I'm an internalizer by nature so I have to be careful not to overthing everything in life. Horses will unload even seasoned pros..had a couple around here come off lately both with bad injuries. It's a dangerous sport, Focusing on rebuildiing my riding goals, doing fitness work and yoga to keep my ageing (68 yr) body as healthy as possible now acknowledge fear or anxiety if it arises but keep riding. Breathing is the number one calmer for me.. Feeling my horses breath, feeling connected to him. He is not the kind of horse to get bothered by a rider's emotions so that helps a lot.

[kande50]

He is not the kind of horse to get bothered by a rider's emotions so that helps a lot.

Mine don't seem to care about how calm or nervous I am, either.

I just recently went through a big debate with myself about whether it was prudent to get on my mule, who was very worked up about a long standing fear he has.

I kind of thought he'd probably be okay, but was asking myself if I really wanted to be kicking myself for ignoring the voice in my head that was telling me to ride someone else?

I decided to saddle him up and get on and see how he was, and he was up but didn't seem overly worked up, so off we went. He was on edge for about 2 miles, which was tense for me too, and then he started to calm down and by the time we were headed home he was back to normal.

So that one worked out in spite of my doubts, which is likely why I sometimes ignore the voice that's telling me that it would be prudent to wimp out.

[bailey]

Thanks everybody, great suggestions. MD appointment tomorrow and hopefully clear to ride soon. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

[Koolkat]

I just wanted to comment that one thing I noticed about coming off my very sensitive, very spooky mare was that she seemed to react to losing me also. I was always in a position to get right back on, but I did notice it seemed to affect her confidence, just something to keep in mind.

[LeoApp]

If he always spooks in the same area, you can take the time out of the saddle to lead him around the arena and over to the scary part. Maybe it will help desensitize him to it. Wear your helmet while you are doing it.

[kande50]

If he always spooks in the same area, you can take the time out of the saddle to lead him around the arena and over to the scary part. Maybe it will help desensitize him to it. Wear your helmet while you are doing it.

I usually lead mine around once anyway, just to see if he's got any issues with anything. He always has at least a minor issue with something, but if he's relatively calm about it on the ground then he's usually okay under saddle.

I usually set up a couple of video cameras before I ride, so have to go around and turn them on anyway, so I've gotten into the habit of taking him with me. I used to leave him tied up because it was easier without his help, but then I had a few close calls when he noticed something really scary so decided it would be better to find what he might spook at before I got on.