Monday, June 29, 2009

Head Banger's Ball!

Horse accidents are the worst, especially when you have such a great summer or show season ahead of you... I'm sure we've all been there, a horse tosses us into a barrel, jump, wall, dirt, (insert more objects here), but what's WORSE is when it really isn't the horse caused so much as horse operator error. Example, A friend of mine was getting into the saddle and her horse acted up so she pushed and jumped off. Well when she landed on her right leg she landed kind of funny, her ankle twisted and then her knee just popped out ICK! Now, she may have torn some muscles. She couldn't eve get back up to reprimand her horse, which is oh so frustrating. I've done it too, that's how I broke my ankle, I jumped off a horse and landed wrong.

It doesn't even make for a good injury, battle wound story LOL! Things I've also done to hurt myself; tripped on a bucket, a pothole, slid in mud and on rocks. I've tripped over my horse's hooves, my tack, I've gotten tangled up in lunge lines, lead ropes, oh boy how the list could go on...

I'm sure you all have a few good stories to share as well!!! Ahhhh Stupid accidents, but us horse people know how to make it look good! LMAO!!!!

13 comments:

SweetColonel said...

I was sitting sideways in my saddle being dumb, and my horse sidestepped and I slid right off and landed on my hip and broke it. He just stood there staring at me...

LivnLaf said...

I thought I was going to ride bareback...and I was wearing shorts which were made out of some sort of slippery material.I slid right on when I mounted and then I slid right off the other side. 8 weeks recovery from a pulled groin muscle (trying to stay mounted). Oh...and right in front of the trainer who was giving a lesson to someone else. Ugh!!!

sandycreek said...

I have the funniest story about my cousin. He lives in Jacksonville Florida, in one of those horse communties where you have 10 acres, a barn and a house, etc.
There had been a rash of breakins in the neighborhood, people's barns being stolen from during the night. Anyway, my cousin heard a noise coming from the barn late one night, so he was going to sneak up on whomever was there, so no flashlight and no barn lights, he creeped down the gangway towards the noise in the pitch black dark, suddenly, somthing hard hit him in the face, he starting swinging out as he fell to the ground backwards, about that time his wife turned the lights on, to see him laying on his back fighting the garden rake he had stepped on to make it hit him in the face!
Dam good story when you hear him tell it!

GoLightly said...

Too many to list:)

Most of them painful, all of them stooopid.

I seem to have a penchant for squishing my fingers...

Raised a hematoma the size of a grape on my thumb once, slammed a stall door on it.
yup, genius..

texasnascarcowgirl said...

I was not a graceful child and my knees took the brunt of it all. When I was a Sr. in HS I was at the feed store getting horse stuff, as I was leaving I was going down the stairs kinda fast and my knee gave out and I crashed right in front of several great looking guys. Yup, story of my life. Have you ever bruised your palm? It is strange and it looks strange but it is a conversation starter that is for sure. haha

Anonymous said...

I have afew. I was also sittign sideways on my horse being dumb, only it was during a parade. My mare is bombproof so i trusted her there, you know what even bombproof horses do? SHAKE, and HARD. About five hours later and 27 stitches in the back of my head later i was to loopy on pain pills to even remember my horses name let alone how to grain her without help walking haha.


I was barrel racing this weekend and my mare slammed my shin off the metal second barrel, I screamed some sort of profanity and she then decided to shut me up by rearing and bolting to the third barrel, not only is my shin bone bruised but my nose is broken as we speak. I can't ride for two weeks until my shin heals.'

i have way too many to list haha

rispah22 said...

Hey - long time lurker, first time commenter...
It's kind of a long story - they were calling for a thunderstorm with tornado warnings in our area, so my coach decided that we'd have a horsemanship lesson instead. We were up in the hayloft learning about different types of hay, how to tell quality, etc. when the storm hit. And boy did it hit - it looked like someone had upturned a gigantic bucket over the farm, you could barely see. Anyway, my coach realises that she hasn't shut the arena windows! She runs off to do that, the other students are supposed to go downstairs to make sure everything is okay with the horses, and I was supposed to shut the one window in the hayloft that was still open.
It's one of those open windows that you just pull a giant wooden shutter over. I was walking, looking around for the shutter, not really watching where I was going...
and the next thing I remember, it was dark and people were screaming at me. I opened my eyes and was completely disoriented - I was sitting on a huge pile of hay with horses looking at me curiously. Yes, I had fallen down the hole that people chuck hay down, and had managed to get a concussion doing it :S
The weirdest thing was, though, that when I looked up to see what I had fallen through, the hole was covered by a grate! I mean completely, 100% covered! The holes in the grate were maybe 1 inch by 3 inches, and while I am naturally very skinny, I'm not quite that skinny. But as I can't remember anything and the other students only looked around when they heard something hit the hay pile, we'll never know how it happened...
I still don't even remember if I managed to get the damn window shut :P

Embodied Spirit said...

Just this winter my cousin and I decided to go for a bareback ride as my sisters loan pony was obese, but too small for the rest of us to ride. The saddle was too small for my cousin as she is the same height as me, just much thinner and lighter, hence the reason we rode bareback.

My mare is notoriously bad at standing while I mount and as I swung my leg over, she turned around and started walking. I slipped sideways but my hands and legs refused to let go. I ended up hanging underneath her neck with my arms and legs wrapped around her neck. Thankfully, Haffie's aren't too far from the ground so I just lowered my legs and landed safely on my feet. Definately the worst mount ever.

sandycreek said...

I came into the house via the mud room because my paddock boots were nasty, I had untied them on the porch, step in and closed the door behind me. I didn't notice my boot laces were stuck under the door until I tried to turn around, my body went forward but both feet stayed in place! I was falling, hit the dryer then the washer then the table, all of the time thinking to myself, if I can just hit the floor I'll be ok! It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I learned a valuble lesson, take your boots off outside!

JohnieRotten said...

When I first went out on my own as a trainer in the mid 80's I was asked to show kids how to vault on a big fat pony named Cobalt.

For some reason, I thoght this would be fun and something out of the norm. So I said yes.

We stood ole' Cobalt in the arena with a surcingal on and I was goignt to show the kids how to vault, so I was going to go first.

What I did not account for was how close Cobalt was to the fence.

I was going to show off a little and get a short running start, well Cobalt was not up for having a full grown man runnint towards him and moved as I started my vault.

I missed Coblat and smacked my head on the top rail of the arena fence. Ended up with a few stiches and a some wounded pride!

SammieRockes said...

Of course after I read this post I had to fall off for no dang reason. My horse was in a pissy mood cuz I gave him a bath. We were just loping bareback, and I slipped to side and landed har don my back, now mmuscles in my upper back is KILLING me. then once I was back on in the woods he pulled off a huge buck combined with a rear so we got major air(man can he get air) but I stayed on then. when he rears or bucks I have no problem stayingo n, but he is just loping along and down I go. haa

Heather said...

Hadn't had my first horse for very long. She was green and hadn't crossed a lot of water... I got off her to lead her through the first time, but what I didn't know was that the creek bottom was boggy. I got stuck so bad that I literally couldn't move, so I latched on to Feather's saddle and she pulled me out. I could feel her rolling her eyes at me. As she lifted me out it popped my ankle, minor enough, but it aggrivated my Achilles, which caused me to start hobbling, which aggrivated the other Achilles, which left me limping in both feet for two years before I finally got surgery in one foot and steroids for the other. Four years later... all better.

V. Lachelle Henderson said...

I have had over 40 falls. In 7 1/2 years. Why? Because I was always the one to ride the horses that bucked/reared/refused fenced/etc. The ONLY rider at my barn to do so.

My best/worst falls?

I fell off my Arab and broke my foot in an attempt to do a lead change the first day of the year 2006. I just went today to get a cortisone shot in my ankle from the same injury.

I was riding "side saddle" (in a hunter saddle), with my legs thrown over one side of the horse. On my third lap of canter, I fell off the side my legs WEREN'T on, and was dangling from the saddle as my trainer laughed hysterically at me.

My most recent fall, I was riding my arab and standing still as my trainer removed the stirrups from my saddle. A bug got him in the butt, and he swiftly jumped to the right. I slid right off. At a stand-still. He kicked my bad ankle on the way down, and I torqued my pelvis as I landed.

There are so many more!