Coreene, that is an unbelievable story!!
i often shudder when i think what would have happened to me that day 20 years ago if i hadn’t had the caliente on… i also shudder when i see top professionals schooling horses without any helmet on at all!!
it sounds like you had a great support group through your recovery. are you back riding?
Re kissing Pinkerdo’s ass, there was a time about six months afterwards when I did get on my knees on the patio in front of Steinberg’s Tack & Feed in Huntington Beach and did kiss Pinkerdo’s ass.
Bumping this and printing it out for someone who needs to read it…
What’re you doin’ on the ground? I thought you said you could ride?!
Well, I was ridin’ when I fell off!!!
but at my age vanity is not an issue.
to those so vain, picture your self with drool, then wear the darn thing.
What a coincidence this came up just now! I’m another one who’s thinking maybe I should wear a helmet while off the horse. My 4 year old is on stall rest and handwalking, and is in the sixth week. She’s getting quite frisky, and doesn’t like to stand still in the cross ties. I hand walk her in surcingle and side reins, which helps to keep her focused and on the ground! I was bridling her yesterday, and she was being spooky about the reins going over her head. I was just placing the bit in her mouth, when she spooked and hit me with her head - hard! I now have a good sized lump on the side of my face, and a sore jaw. Thank goodness I didn’t get a concussion - I’ve got a pretty hard head! I’m thinking maybe I should be wearing a helmet when I walk her now! I never get on her without my helmet.
OH, I have known so many people who have been kicked in the head. And not even by OTTB types, but reliable pony types. Just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yes, too bad we did not know then what we know now. And were it not for Fred’s post today, I would not have been able to pinpoint why I transpose so many numbers.
The potential for other problems to show up later in life because of this accident seven years ago is there in a big way. At first it bothered me, but now I just suck up and realize that there is nothing I can do about it so I will worry about it when it’s time to worry, if that does come, and not before.
But it’s like Risk-Averse says, APPROVED HELMET: every ride every time.
I had a mild concussion (not enough to show damage in a CAT scan, but I was addled) when I broke both of my arms.
I took a header, was wearing an approved helmet, and managed to break my fall…using the arms. I shudder to think what my head/neck would have been like if I hadn’t gotten my arms up, and if I hadn’t been wearing a helmet.
I have no recollection of the fall itself, sort of wear it happened, and what I was doing, but not the actual impact. The pain from the broken arms was pretty intense and that is pretty much all I remember, and being splinted w/ saddle pads and sticks for the drive to the hospital.
I kept the paper napkin that my husband wrote the answers to my questions for years. I kept repeating the questions and had NO short term memory. I finally did throw that away (or lost it).
Now, I’ve NEVER been able to keep L/R straight, and as a yoga teacher and riding lesson taker, this is tough. But, I don’t really contribute this to my known header…of course, who knows, perhaps I had a concussion earlier in life. I don’t remember any head injuries though. I’ve simply found ways to work around that minor dyslexia. Pointing when indicating and using physical reference points. I can 100% keep inside/outside straight and an exercise I was recently given in a lesson required me to say L/R/L/R with the front hoof fall. So, last night, I’m practicing, and I realized, that L was ALWAYS outside when I was doing this mentally. Even when the outside was the right side…it was LEFT 
. Instead of stressing over it, I focused on my timing and was exceptionally pleased at how well the exercise worked!
Mel
I vote that this thread and Mr. Bumpkin’s Helmet Theory go into a new forum called “Wearing Approved Helmets: Keeping Your Sorry Butt Alive!” 
~<>~ Remember, the Ark was built by a rank amateur; the Titanic was built by a team of experts~<>~
Thanks for asking. Yes, I would have crawled back onto my horse right after it happened. Could not ride for six months afterwards. Then I began having issues, but now I have learned to work with them and enjoy riding just as much as always. I do it a bit less often, but that is because I do not put myself into a situation where I may feel uncomfortable, and with my horse it’s riding in the arena in the dark but under lights. But that is getting better, too.
This winter we will begin riding around the stables at night again. Otherwise in the winter I usually just ride on the weekend, but Willem is schooled every other Friday as well.
Riding Pinkerdo’s horse Barney is also a great help. since you could stick a dead baby on him and he’d give them a nice, quiet ride.
Mostly I just stopped beating myself up about those times when I didn’t want to ride, and when I stopped doing it then I started riding a lot more.
and did someone get a picture?
Wow I had no clue Coreene! You are the definition of strength 
Thank you Robby, Kachoo and Coreene for the very inportant info
~ Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once ~
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kachoo:
I shall now shamelessly exploit this rare opportunity to display what I have learned in my neuropsych course. Robby’s right, the brain doesn’t heal. In the peripheral nervous system (i.e. outside your brain and spinal cord), when you receive an injury that severs connections between your axons (the neuron fiber that carries messages to other neurons), cells called microglia and Schwann cells can create new axons and restore normal function. However, in the central nervous system, glial cells can’t help damaged neurons regrow. Even if the distance that damaged fibers must bridge is short, function does not return. No one is sure why, but it’s believed to have something to do with some glial cells forming scar tissue that seals off damaged areas and creates a barrier to axon regrowth or the production of an antigrowth agent called NOGO that is normally helpful in preventing the random regrowth of axons. So, with a good whack to the head, you lose established neuronal connections that must be bypassed (as Robby mentioned, that’s the relearning process).
Cheers,
Susie
http://www.kachoom.com
“That’s it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I’m going to clown college!” ~Homer Simpson<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
ditto all that…I was going to type somthing similar, but i only know the terms in french…
In the future, if your wondering, ‘Crime, boy…’ is when I decided to kick your ass. - President Bartlett, The West Wing
Thank you Robby, Coreene & Kachoo.
I am one of those “pretty much 100%” helmet wearers and this is a reminder to make it a true 100%.
BUT, you know what this one does do? It reinforces that I MUST get a skiing helmet for this season. We bought one for my son last year, this year, I’ll be getting one too. No “cheaping” out on it. The cost of a $100 ski helmet is WAY less than the results of a head injury.
Mel
Just in case someone you love needs help, there is a one of a kind program for brain injury rehab at NYU. I have seen how it works first hand - my mom was in it - and it is unique and complex as far as brain injury therapy goes today, leagues ahead of most conventional therapies available elsewhere.
of TBI, rent the movie “Memento” with Guy Pearce.
Robby
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rockstar:
I know what that’s like… and it IS very scary for all parties involved! For two of my concussions I turned into a RAVING lunatic. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I acted totally wacky right after my head injury. In the ambulance, apparently (I don’t remember this) the paramedics asked me if my husband was a paramedic, to which I replied “NO. He is a firefighter specialist”, with a really snotty tone. Then, in the ER, when my trainer was explaining to me what happened and that my horse was fine, I rather nastily asked her “are you LYING to me???” Then in ICU I went on to constantly demand my underwear and more pillows. The nurses asked my trainer and friend, “is she always like this???” Luckily this did not last long, and I think by the second day I was sort of back to normal, personality-wise. But those head injuries can really make you wacky!
visit www.victorianfarms.com
She cantered on ahead of the rest of her family, since she had been riding and showing for years, and the rest of them were happy to walk.
They came around the corner…
No one knows exactly what happened, if the horse tripped, bucked, spooked, whatever. But there she was.
I still wonder about it, and it was eight years ago (oh my gosh, it was EIGHT years ago)
Her death proved to me that anything can happen around horses. Who would have thought an accomplished rider would suffer such a fate on a peaceful family trail ride on summer vacation.
She was 17. She’d be 25 now.
take care out there,
Alixe
We had an incident this weekend with one of my daughter’s friends. She was wearing her helmet and fell off a runaway, landing on her head. We did not see the fall but it upset my daughter so much we skipped her lesson and went to the hospital with a beanie baby horse from her collection. There she heard her friend yelling and angry etc all the signs of a concussion. It made a strong impression on her. Her friend will be okay with an overnight stay and rest for a few days. But it could have been so much worse.
I had no idea! You are a wonderful success story, but the painful parts you must still deal with are what people must hear.
The company for which I work has a marketing hook we use “brain injury is as different as each glance through a kaleidoscope … that’s why our only focus is neurorehabilitation.” We use all sorts of neat oil-filled kaleidoscopes as conference giveaways, etc. This supports what you say - no two are alike. And it’s still so “not understood.” The brain is a very mystical organ, and if you think about it … for good reason! (Why do we dream? Why does a smell remind us of something? Why do we have anxiety disorders and suffer from depression?)
What breaks my heart is when I visit a facility and see the shell of what used to be a cheerleader or the football captain, just struggling to relearn how to tie their shoes. I often leave choking back tears.
Or the rage of a former DEA agent from Miami, who almost died in a motor vehicle accident (MVA) in pursuit of a criminal, simply because the public relations department took a photograph that flashed too brightly near him. (Rage/loss of control is a common effect of brain injury, as is sexual inappropriateness.)
It’s so scary, really, when you see it up close and personal. I weep for those individuals, and their families who are so happy to still have them here, regardless of their state.
Robby
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
Sweetie darling, it has nothing to do with strength. Strength is what those around me had, which I borrowed again and again. What I did was so exceptionally and incredibly stupid, I owed it to these darling people to get well.
Robby J, you get a medal for starting this thread.
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