Was a teenager and was very sick, in bed over a week and finally could get up and, of course, first was go see the horses.
I had been starting two colts for a doctor, that were far enough the doctor took over their rides when I got sick, so they were ok.
Since I was there I begged to ride, the instructor was not sure, I insisted so he relented and let me use a quiet school horse.
Led horse in the indoor, instructor gave me a leg up, I sat for a second straight up and got very dizzy and toppled right off the other side.
The instructor ran around the horse, that was a saint, just standing there, to see if I was ok.
We decided riding could wait a few more days. 
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When I was younger I thought it’d be a good idea to “run” barrels with my mare, despite the fact that neither of us had any experience doing so. To add to the challenge I for some reason only had a saddle pad. To this day I can’t recall why I didn’t just ride her bareback for this endeavor, but regardless, right at the first barrel (at a trot, though to my 12 year old self, I was flying it) the saddlepad started slipping and so did I. I can still remember the “DONG!” sound my ass made coming in to contact with the lip of the barrel, cracking my tailbone.
I didn’t need any treatment, but I did have to carry a pillow around to sit on in all my middle school classes which made me very popular. 
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A few years ago, riding my steady eddy guy at home. Trying to add some elevation and expression to his trot - posting BIG and pushing. We came through a corner - I was in the “up” phase of the post - he spooked sideways. Suddenly there was no horse beneath me…
More recently, riding my other guy, lovely canter… he stuck the leading leg and went down to his knees. His nose dug a ditch. I flipped over his shoulder, heels over head. Freshly groomed sand. You could see the marks from his knees and nose, and where I landed on my back, even the marks from my boot zippers. We were both embarrassed. (My head just grazed the sand, I was so lucky. He had sand under his noseband and up on his forehead…)
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In front of Pony Club kids:
I was an accompanying adult on XC school at Horse Park….On my saintly Show Ring Hunter (I had never gone XC on her ever). In a brand new and stiff vest.
Me: yeah I’ll try to walk over the little ditch
PC instructor: ( trying to keep eye on kids) OK well they never go over it the first time (something about how to introduce them)
Mare: WHEEE Cross country is fun
Me: in front of saddle, laying on neck, doing semi obscene movements to attempt to wiggle back in to saddle, unsuccessful bc I can’t really move in vest, hung there like an idiot w my mare just standing looking at 6 Pony Clubbers and instructor.
Resigned to defeat, skid down neck, yelling it doesn’t count as a fall….
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As a teenager I fell off AT THE WALK. I was cooling out my horse after a lesson, and had my feet kicked out of the stirrups as we walked around the ring. I decided to stroll through the trot poles on the ground with a loop in my reins and my feet dangling. The horse stubbed a foot on one of the poles and I went off right over his shoulder. I was on the ground before I knew anything had happened.
I’m pretty sure I heard my trainer mutter “I hate teenagers,” as I sat cackling in the sand.
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I think my funniest fall was a half fall, half bail off my old horse. My trainer at the time had several big WBs, all young and gawky. After giving me a lesson on my Morgan she said, “He is so clever! He always knows where his feet are!”
You might guess what happened the next day. As we were trotting a cat suddenly burst from the bushes at the end of the ring. Horse spooked a little left then right, then got his feet tangled up and went down on his knees and nose!. I contemplated whether to try to stay on, but I was forward and the ground was right there, so I rolled off and away. Then sat there laughing as my horse sheepishly got to his feet and shook off.
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At the barn I used to work at I was riding a very green colt one day and he got distracted by something he saw out the window and stopped. I let him look for a moment then asked him to go forward, but he was totally fixated on whatever he was looking at. Then all of a sudden he just disappeared from beneath me. The trainer was watching and said the colt dropped his body then bolted and I was literally “sitting in midair” for a second until I hit the dirt.
More recently I had just gotten new flocking put in a saddle for my latest off-track Standardbred and was walking him around in the indoor arena. He saw something in a shadowy corner and took one step sideways – it wasn’t even enough to call it a spook. Well, between the unsettled flocking in the saddle, the girth being a little loose after walking a lap or two, and my own unpreparedness the saddle slipped sideways. It hesitated for a moment on his side, with me still in the seat while I’m trying to grab at his mane but couldn’t quite reach. Then it slipped further and I hit the dirt on my back. During all this the horse never moved, and as I was laying on the ground he sighed, and I swear if it had been possible he would have rolled his eyes.
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Oh my god, some of these falls are hilarious – and sound painful! Hope all of you guys healed up quickly.
I’ve had many embarrassing falls but my favorite to tell, is the day I showed my (horsey) mother my new horse as an adult. This was the first time she got to see the new guy under saddle. I’d been working with him for months - he was right off the track and the nicest TB I’d had to date in terms of temperament and movement. My mother had seen me through a lot of not great TBs, so this meeting was extra special.
I went to get on him in front of her, talking about how sensible and quiet he’d been, and as I was swinging my leg around I accidentally kneed him in the gut. He bolted and before I knew it he was galloping around the ring with me, having only one foot in the stirrup and holding onto his mane for dear life. I ended up trying to bail which was less graceful than an honest departure. My mother was even less impressed than the horse.
To his credit, he was and is one of the best horses I’ve owned. But it was a bad first impression!
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Oh, I’ve had many. My funniest one was a doozy. I went to visit my fiance (now married 27 years!) in Florida. He had a trainer there and he must have really talked me up. When I visited, I had a lesson with said trainer and a 4-year-old fairly green TB gelding. Well, we were jumping and I was coming up to this fence that had wishing-well-type standards. We got to the fence, horse refused, I didn’t. I came off and somehow landed butt first into the wishing well standard, so that my fiance/husband and trainer said they could only see my legs, hands, and helmet sticking out of the top of the well. Admittedly, it was really funny. I was in that well laughing, but it really did hurt!! I had a good 10" scrape down my back from that one. The guys were laughing so hard that they couldn’t help me out. Too bad that was before the days of video! 
I’m having fun reading all these stories and I’m glad I’m not alone!
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Our riding center was taking some of us to a big jumper show.
We were the kids from the sticks and had assorted horses and only one cork, black velvet covered hunt cap for all.
I was first to go from our group, first to use our hunt cap, riding an old retired military gelding.
He was very safe and with lots of experience, but also a few tricks, the worst one to get to the jump and then not jump, but leave thru the left side.
We did great, I was able to keep him going straight and jumping well.
Then were speeding to the water, got to the base of it at a good clip and at the last moment he decided to stop, front feet sliding practically in there and nose touching the water.
I slid ungracefully right down his neck head first into the water and pulled his bridle off with both thumbs.
Later they told me two ducks flew out of the water just as I was getting there.
I never saw them. Horse evidently did.
Anyway, everyone else had to ride with a wet hunt cap and after that, they kept teasing me about you go last, so we don’t all have to ride with a wet head. 
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I think the one that made me laugh the hardest - was riding my 1/2 Arab gelding around a 26 acre field. Going along at a fairly big posting trot (riding western). Someone had dumped their grass in the field and it had turned brown. Bandit saw that and stopped cold, ducking down in the front. I was in the upswing of my post and just rolled right over his shoulder. Hit the ground laughing so hard, it was such a stupid fall.
My other one - I didn’t come off - was I was getting on my tall Morgan from the mounting block. The second I swung my leg over, he decided he had an itch on his front left that couldn’t wait. Dropped that right shoulder and I dang near went off.
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Had a similar situation happen to me a couple of years back during a clinic with Linda Zang. Pony started walking off while I was halfway through swinging my leg over so I heaved myself and landed behind the saddle. Pony shot forward crow hopping, right into Linda - knocking her on her back - and somehow I landed on my feet … outside of the ring entirely? She apparently thought it was hilarious (so thankfully I didn’t kill an Olympic judge in my first clinic ever). I rode in front of her this summer on a different horse, hoping she forgot about the incident but no- that’s going to follow me for years I think.
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According to the USEA fall rules, you are right, it does not count as a fall so long as you were able to land standing - and stick that landing!
I totally agree with excusing those semi-voluntary slides as ‘not a fall’! 
This is the nightmare for all of us when we are trying to ride sympathetically! The horse abandons us to the predator they spotted and saves themselves only. It happens. Every riding day we have to be prepared to fight an imaginary mountain lion.
Laughing so hard they couldn’t help you? I would have killed them both - while laughing!
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I fell off in front of the Girl Scout troop that had come to the barn to learn about horses. I was doing a riding demonstration, showing examples of the gaits, etc. When it came time to pop my point-and-shoot eventer over a plain old vertical, I got really lazy in the turn and didn’t get him straight, knowing he’d bail my butt out and jump from anywhere (yes, I was bad). Well, we drifted closer to the standard than the actual rail and he very sensibly stopped. I tumbled off over his shoulder in front of about 12 horrified girls. I was fine, turned it into an object lesson about the things I had done wrong, jumped it correctly and we called it a day. Most of the girls were fine when they saw i was ok and understood why it happened but I think one girl was kind of traumatized. That was the end of my scout demonstration career.
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I was schooling my gelding over a little jump (cavaletti really) in a borrowed saddle with zero knee roll. I had never ridden in a saddle that flat before. He decided he should buck over the jump. He unloaded me FIVE TIMES. I finally managed to get over and stay on and by the grace of God was uninjured.
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You might enjoy this thread about my ride with Linda Zang back in 2009. (I did not fall off…) She was so good to me and my misbehaving mare.
Unfortunately, the photo link doesn’t work anymore.
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I was in between horses and desperate to ride. I found a barn to treat myself to some jumping lessons. It was mostly a kids H/J type place but I was hoping I’d be able to get some kind of advanced private lesson at least. Turns out they were short on school horses and all I could ride was a very nice, but lazy, old, sore, overworked WB. The lessons were basically just me WTC on my own and popping over a small fence no more than 3 times. I was bored out of my mind!! The horse was so steady Eddie I decided I needed to do something to get something out of these rides. I thought, what if I close my eyes and see if I can feel each footfall in the different gaits, you know, really focus on it… So we’re cantering, my eyes are closed, its a gorgeous spring day and the sun is warming my back when suddenly I’m on the ground rolling up into a standing position. The trainer said it was the most graceful fall she’d ever seen. Pretty sure he spooked at a ground squirrel next to the arena. The trainer never knew I was riding with my eyes closed. Anyway, that fall was the most fun I had at that barn and the rest of the ride I was praying the horse would spook again. He didn’t. I never went back. Not because I was embarrassed but because if I’m praying for a horse to spook because I’m that bored, it’s not the place for me.
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I’m so glad Linda has a sense of humor! And she really is good about working with purpose-bred horses and “off breeds” (she loves my little paint mare who is pretty typically western pleasure bred on top)
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I had managed to own an insane TB/QH cross when I was 19 who never actually got me out of the saddle. He hated women for some reason. I was very proud of myself that I’d ridden out his shenanigans, and quite puffed up over it. I was also very proud of myself because I hadn’t had a fall in subsequent years (very occasional riding).
Fast forward to when I’m 40, and I had my then six year old daughter in lessons and we did a nose-to-tail trail ride every other week. She was mounted on her usual saintly pony, and I was due to ride one of the nicest horses at that barn. She was sitting watching me when I went to mount the cool mare. I hadn’t checked the cinch (barn worker had saddled all the horses), and the saddle slipped. Even though I was wearing good western boots, my foot got hung up in the stirrup. The mare took off with me hanging off her side, one hand in her mane. I finally pulled myself up enough to release my boot, and dropped to the ground right under her. I saw her back feet flash by right over my face, but she never touched me somehow.
Meanwhile, my six year old is watching all this, terrified. So of course I bounced to my feet, saying “Don’t worry, I’m fine!” even though I’d tweaked my back landing on the cell phone and pager that were in my fanny pack.
We did our ride that day, and I kept a smile on my face to encourage my daughter. But I never, ever got on another horse without checking the cinch myself. When I would occasionally ride my husband’s Paint mare many years later, he got a bit offended when I’d check the cinch after he’d saddled her.
Rebecca
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Not me but my horse. A teen boy with a hot seat was riding my horse at a XC schooling with quite the assortment of parents and other riders watching the group go. They were schooling the ditch and they approached it fine but my horse decided to come to a screeching halt in front of it and boy did an absolutely perfect somersault in a modified pike position over the ditch and landed with a thud. He was fine and we all thought if he could have made one more revolution and stuck the landing he would have olympic potential. He got back on and horse jumped right over no problem.
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