Do you think it scares horses when you fall off?

[Pocket_Pony]

Mr. PoPo and I were reminiscing the other day about the days when he used to ride and lessons with our former coach, who was amazing. Before Mr. PoPo had his own horse, he rode one of my horses who was a stinker. He was talking to our coach after a particularly difficult lesson on him and they were talking about falls. Our coach said to him that when the rider falls it scares the horse more than the rider.

Thoughts? Do you think it affects how the horse behaves after a ride, either in-hand or under saddle?

(Mr. PoPo had perhaps been retelling a funny story about when he was cooling this horse out after a ride and went down the trail…at the end of the trail was a house and they had just gotten pigs who were not there the last time one of us rode this horse down the trail. The horse did a spin, left Mr. PoPo hanging in the air, and then the horse went running back for home. No problem, Mr. PoPo could walk back. But then, the horse came running back for him, like "We have to get out of there - there are PIGS!!! :lol: )

[beowulf]

My instructor said the same to me when I was a teen about a horse that frequently lawndarted me. He was always almost unmanageable getting back on (it ended up being pain related…). She said “remember, it upsets him more than you.”

I think it’s true for some horses, especially the young or green ones. It seems to depend on the individual. One of our horses will do everything in his power to prevent you from falling off - he will even stop until you get your stirrups back. We’ve had him since he retired from the track and I do not think anyone taught it to him… I think he just thinks he is supposed to stop if you become unbalanced.

I don’t think our QH gives one whit if you fall off of him, he just stands there and looks at you wondering why you are on the ground… BUT! He is very careful when you are underfoot and I think he picked up that the last rider that fell off of him was hurt (they had a parting of ways because the saddle slipped, rider couldn’t do anything to stay on) because he was very ginger and slow on the walk back to the barn. I think he knew the rider was hurt.

It certainly is an unnerving and scary situation and a lot of horses, especially young ones, I think, get very worried when their rider parts ways with them. Part of it is, just my personal opinion, that young horses tend to be insecure and do look to their rider for security… suddenly not having any “feedback” on if something is okay or not when you’re used to constant feedback – well, I imagine it’s like a child being lost in a grocery store.

I rode my TB bareback last year – we were walking in the snow when he spooked (ok, his version of spook is to just kind of pull up abruptly and stare) but when he did that he slipped - I just tumbled right off . I think he was so unnerved by me suddenly being underneath him. It took him a few minutes to calm down and he jumped at the slightest nudge on his flank/legs the first few minutes.

[furlong47]

I think it can, depending on the horse and the situation.
I rode a Standardbred for a long time who had only been driven before I retrained him. So the first time I fell off of him was the first time anyone had fallen off of him, and he was about 8 years old. He was a good guy but also tended to be pretty spooky. I fell off, he continued for a few strides, stopped, turned around, and spooked at me there on the ground where I hadn’t been a moment ago :lol::lol:

[PintoPony]

I think it depends on the situation.

With my horse, if it was a situation where something happened that was scary to him and caused me to fall off, then he was upset. Example: He stumbled badly approaching a small fence, unseating me completely, then stopped at the fence and I went off. Landed on my feet, he was fine, no harm done but you could tell he was upset.

Now if it happened that I fell off purely due to my own clumsiness, I swear he stood there rolling his eyes and probably wondering how he wound up with such a dumb-dumb, lol!

[Scribbler]

Some of them learn to do it on purpose obviously but they definitely know they are being bad and tend to continue bolting around the arena for 5 minutes.

I think when it is accidental they can be quite perplexed. Once we were fooling around in turnout, my risk taker friend started sitting on my mare at liberty, then slid off on purpose, landed gracefully on her feet, when mare interacted with the other horse and started trotting. Mare halted and looked very puzzled even worried.

[tinah]

My mare seems very, very concerned when I come off. She doesn’t take off, but plants her feet and sniffs me. The one time I fell down leading her, she might have well as said “okay, human. Get on my back where I can protect you or go in the house. Obviously this walking thing is too hard without enough legs.”

[CHT]

I don’t think so, unless they are already in an anxious state, if the rider causes the horse pain as they come off (such as when riders try to use the horse’s mouth to stay on), or if the horse is used to being disciplined when a rider comes off. My mare recently tossed a student (her first time dislodging a rider…she pulled a pony drop neck and spin move), and she looked confused/puzzled, but not afraid. My former lesson horse would just stand and look at his rider on the ground with a look of innocence.

[quietann]

When I had my bad accident in 2008, I fainted and fell off the horse while cantering in an open field. He galloped back to the barn and by all reports was quite upset. Lucky for me that he did, as it gave the barn folks early warning that something had happened. One called my friend who was with me and did not want to leave me, and verified that 911 was on the way.

That poor horse, several weeks later when I visited him wearing an arm sling, he was scared of it!

But I’ve also experienced the “hey, what are you doing down there” kind of response, and the gleeful galloping off response.

[MissAriel]

I think a lot depends on the horse and the circumstances, but I have a hard time imagining the horse ever being more scared of me falling off than I am! Scared of whatever spooked them, sure, and in for the naughty ones, scared of the repercussions, maybe, but I have had more horses stop and stare at me on the ground than go running off in a panic.

[Abbie.S]

Yes, more times than not, but in the sense that having a person on them and (I’m assuming) balanced and then in a split second having that balance shift dramatically and that person come off entirely shakes their confidence. Depends on the horse, but I’ve got one in training with me right now whose green owner fell off completely by accident, and through no fault of the horse, and he’s been significantly more concerned since. No spooky or anything, you can just feel he’s more tense being ridden especially at a gait higher than the walk.

[yaya]

I had a Saddlebred who was great at home, but the first time I took him to a show, started bucking as soon as I got a leg up (I always used a mounting block at home). I managed to stay on, even though I hadn’t picked up the stirrups yet, and hadn’t picked up the reins since someone was holding him, he also had no mane to hold onto (shaved off the whole length), and all I had was the cutback saddle to hold onto. We got through it, and did our class.

So our second show, while getting a leg up, I was a little more prepared. He started jumping around, so I just slid off, but lost my footing and fell, sitting on the ground. He looked down at me, completely horrified, bug-eyed, and I looked up at him and said, “are you happy now?” He stood still for the second leg up.

Where I realized how much my coming off had affected him was at the third show, when It was time for my leg up. He very carefully parked out, stood stock-still while I was lifted up, practically didn’t breathe while I gathered my reins and stirrups, and when I cued him to walk on, he actually turned his neck around to make sure I was really ready to move off!:lol:

[Heinz_57]

IMO, it sort of depends on what kind of fall we’re talking about. One where the rider just sort of oozes off the side onto the ground while dropping the reins? Meh. No big deal. One where the rider becomes unseated, riding the horse’s neck like a giraffe and flying off sideways with reins still in hand? Probably a little scary. I think unless you do a lot of desensitizing to the rider being in weird positions and throwing their weight around awkwardly, the many foibles of falling are scary because they aren’t used to it (or because they’ve learned that riders fall off while holding reins and they get yanked in the mouth!). Another learned response might be if the horse has had riders that disciplined them after coming off (not saying this is acceptable behavior, but as recent events have highlighted, it does happen).

I used to teach my horses the emergency dismount. I’ve gotten away from it lately, but I think it can help produce a horse that is calmer and tends to want to halt if the rider comes off. Who was it, either poster RAyers or Robby Johnson that spent quite a bit of time laying in the grass feeding his horse cookies to teach him not to run away after a fall? I can’t recall exactly. It was humorous, but successful!

[rockonxox]

Most of the time, no I don’t think so. Most that I fell off of in the past would just stop and look at me and wait. One time this year when I flipped over right as horse was jumping and catapulted straight under him (what it felt like at least, saw life flash before me) and screeched/screamed/whatever that noise was… I think the noise/cussing freaked him out. Thankfully freaked him out bad enough that he jumped further out and his hooves grazed me instead of landed on me.

[Mango20]

I think it also depends on how used to people falling off a horse is. I horse that never or very rarely has someone fall off will be more upset by it than a horse who has been trained to think of falling off as somewhat normal. I lent my small pony to a kid once who couldn’t stay on him to save her life (just basic balance issues). His normal rider NEVER fell off, and this very expressionate pony was clearly freaked out by it every time she fell off. After a few rides like this, I told them it just wasn’t working out.

[Somantu]

Not sure about all horses, but mine didn’t like it at all.

I’m a one horse rider. At the beginning of my relationships w my horses, there’s a tendency for involuntary dismounts. With my current gelding the falls were more like ‘slides’ or ‘drops’ after very benign spooks at a walk. Or his 4-year old self stumbling at a trot would pitch me down his neck when he lands on one knee.

After some incidents he would run off, then stop, turn around and stand frozen on the spot. He’d wait until I scrambled to my feet and got him. His heart would be pounding and his eyes wide.

Once I learned to sit his very mild spooks, he transferred that fear to my clumsy dismounts. I have issues with stiffness and can not land on both feet. The one time I tried to dismount like a normal person, I landed on both feet and immediately fell on my bum. This scared my guy so much, he ran forward and away from the lump on the ground.

This became an issue because my slow dismount now made him think he was going to be unsafe with a large mountain lion hanging to his side. He would jig while I tried to dismount, just wanted rid of me.
After a few sessions of feeding treats while I slide off his back has resolved everything.

But yes, I think horses dislike it when their human topples off.

[Gloria]

Well, none of my horses was when I fell off - surprised, yes; scared? no. They all came back to me sprawling on the ground, ears forward, nose to me. You can literally “hear” them asking, “What are you doing there?” None of them has gotten into any trouble when I fell off though. I usually groan, look up at them, then give them a scratch on their noses or a pet on the neck. I want them to come back to me when I fall, instead of running off like a scared y cat.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

Mine have always carefully stepped over me and then turned around and waited for me to get up. The times I’ve fallen off were when something else spooked my horse, so they shied and I took an unscheduled dismount. The horses were always more upset about me hitting the ground than I was.

[eclipse]

When my horse was young and green and I first fell off, he was I think, more spooked and took off… now he just stands there and I can pretty much tell he’s probably thinking “sigh thank you for flying air armature !”

[RedHorses]

My experience suggests that it depends on where the horse is in his training. In the very early days it is scary because they haven’t normalized riding in their minds and when the rider becomes unbalanced it can trigger the instinctive association with a predator attack. How scared the horse is depends on the individual.

I came off my now older horse on the third day I got on him. He jumped partially out from under me and I let go. I feel that clinging on is even more scary for them at that point. He made it across the arena, short way, and turned his head to look at me, clearly a bit frightened. He tried to come to me when I called him, but every time he moved so did the snake following him and he stopped and looked at me again. He was not scared of me, just what had happened.

It was months before I came off my now younger horse the first time. I had the video camera running and it is plain that he is freaked out by the situation. I was knocked out and he wouldn’t t go near me, just paced and looked anxiously down the arena. He recognized me after I had gotten up and walked partway down the arena. He walked over and was obviously relieved to see me again. This experience seems to have imprinted quite strongly as he will take me with him when he spooks. He once did a 180 walk to gallop without so much as making me sway in the saddle (cows :lol: ).

I think there are many factors involved.

[exvet]

I think it can and like others have said, it depends on the circumstances. I’ve certainly known horses that coming off of them has rattled their cage a bit and then others who were trying to rattle the riders cage and didn’t seem to be worse off for having that ride come off…