Confidence after a fall at a Show

[Night_Flight]

Same. Tried to take hot jumper mare to a dressage show once and I was able to keep things relaxed in the warmup. As we trotted around the outside of the dressage ring before our test, she heard the bell and went into a canter, and I spent the rest of the test trying to convince her that she was allowed to do other gaits than canter, and that she needed to stop looking for the jumps.

The steward very kindly said during my tack check that she looked like she was ready to go and gallop a cross country test instead of asking me WTH I thought I was doing there. Needless to say, we did not score well.

I took a couple of other horses out dressaging, but was never crazy enough to make another attempt with my mare. She knew her job as a jumper and loved it, and that’s what we did.

[Calvincrowe]

OP-- I am going to suggest you NOT check out Shiteventers if, like me, you have a fear of falling and getting hurt. I found scrolling through it stole even more of my courage and gave me hella bad anxiety. I hate to see riders fall, because I know just how badly we can get hurt from even the most innocuous of falls. But, give it a shot-- maybe you’ll find comfort in the array of ways people part ways with their horses.

[Mercedes2]

Yes, I second that! I don’t find it funny or encouraging whatsoever

[Scribbler]

I like the humor of Shiteventers, but I agree you can feel a bit fragile after watching too much. If you are embarrassed about falling off its likely a good thing to watch. If you are anxious about falling off, not so much!

[oldernewbie]

One of the things I like about that group is that it is well moderated. They don’t post videos in which horses or riders get hurt, so it’s not so worrisome to me when I see people fall. When I first started participating, the best thing about it was that people didn’t take themselves too seriously and didn’t take it personally when their horse was exceptionally bad/dumb/disobedient. I think a dose of that is good every once in a while.

But, YMMV and I certainly wouldn’t want to recommend it if being part of it would make people more nervous.

[AAHunterGal]

This is my one of my favorite It Happens! stories from the Plaid Horse (which you should definitely go read!)

Don Stewart

" It was the mid ’70s and I was riding an outside course in the field at Bramblewood Horse Show in Aiken, South Carolina. The horse stopped and I flopped off. When I was getting up I yelled, ‘Call for the forklift!’ "

If you think showing sounds fun, go show! Or not! Either choice is the right choice and either way you’ll have fun riding!

[TheDBYC]

@oldernewbie

One of the things I like about that group is that it is well moderated. They don’t post videos in which horses or riders get hurt, so it’s not so worrisome to me when I see people

They frequently do, though. I’ve seen numerous pics with captions like “Broke my pelvis in 5 places & my tibia was sticking out of my skin!” Or “This was 6 weeks ago & I still vomit every time I sit up due to the major concussion I sustained!” Sometimes the admin will pull it if enough people complain. Sometimes not. The ones that stick my craw are where the person is clearly too incompetent to ride anything but the mechanical horse outside a Ben Franklin & throws the horse under the bus for it. Gahhh!

Don’t get me wrong – I do enjoy the page in small doses. I’m just tired of seeing British parents posting video of their toddler getting tossed off a Shetland they’re forcing to jump with a grass rein & calling the pony shit.

[StormyDay]

I forgot a funny story that i heard happened IIRC down at WEF. Girl falls off in her round, and is ok but she’s pretty sure she’s broken her foot. She tells her mom to take her boots off! Quick! Before the paramedics come because they will cut them off (or so we are told). So she does, but then the girl realizes that her riding pants are really expensive, so she yells at her mom to help her take her pants off, quick! So she ended up sitting in the middle of Hunter 1 in her underwear as the paramedics show up.

I have no idea if it’s true, but it makes me laugh every time because it’s something I would do.

We all fall off. Most of the time, we end up with a funny story from it.

[Calvincrowe]

Well, I’ve made sure my boots were off the last two times I’ve come off and gotten badly hurt. Most recently, I was in the ED, surrounded by the Trauma Team (man…that’s a LOT of people by the way!), in agony (lacerated kidney), when I realized I had on my Struck breeches ($300!!). I looked at the nurse who was about to cut them off and begged her to simply pull them off. I told her I couldn’t possibly hurt any worse than I was at that moment. Bless her, she just carefully peeled them off me. Funnily enough, I had to wear them home 6 days later as I left the hospital because my DH forgot to bring me clean clothes.

OP-- we hear you, and we have been you. Hugs! Now, get back in the show ring my dear-- we older ladies (read, not kids who bounce!) need to stick together!

[Cabaret_SK]

OP it’s definitely a badge of honour!

I’ve fallen off at shows more than a few times (and once had to be taken away by ambulance). I think the most embarrassing one was falling off a medium pony (as an adult rider), in a the flat class for our small hunter division. Snow fell off the roof, pony did a speedy 180 spook-n-turn and headed back out of the ring, and I, who had been in the “rise” part of the posting trot, suddenly looked down and found no pony under me.

I hit the dirt (surrounded by many small children at their first show), we had to stop the class, and I had to do the “walk of shame” to collect my very apologetic pony from the warm-up ring, where he had fled to. But I did get a very comfy tee shirt out of it that proclaims “Frequent Flyer Club”!

[Montanas_Girl]

My personal record is three falls in a single show day. So…it could be a lot worse. And, trust me, when you’re the girl riding the Arab in the Adult Amateurs, EVERYONE remembers you. Especially when you come off three times in a single day. Lol.