First Fall After Coming Back From an Injury

[blonderider]

I don’t know exactly how to word this or what I am looking for… but I feel like I need advice.

I suffered from a life altering injury, that made me take about 8 months off from riding. Now back in the saddle for 9 months, I just fell off for the first time since coming back. And to add to it I fell off twice within a matter of minutes.

What I think is the hardest for me, is that I fell off as a consequence of my horse refusing a jump. (Which is how I was initially injured.)

The months I spent not riding, my horse was put into a new training program and really flourished because the new trainer gave him confidence and fixed the holes in his training. Now I am still with the new trainer and everything has been going smoothly for the past few months, except for today.

I guess what I am getting at… is now that I have an injury to be aware of, I should not be putting myself at risk jumping a horse who has the potential to stop, right??

He really is a fantastic boy on the flat. Everyone that rides him loves him, from pros to ammies. And he is very loving, which is why this is so hard for me. I just don’t think we are a good match.

Has anyone else gone through something similar? Or have any advice? Anything would be appreciated thanks

[Highflyer]

Any horse has the potential to stop if something goes wrong (and should stop in some cases, for safety reasons!). But if you don’t feel like you’re a good match there’s no shame in selling. I think it’s something you have to evaluate for yourself, maybe with your trainer’s help.

[Nuggets]

I did something similar, and kept the horse for another 5 years - but I regret it, as never being able to trust my horse has made me an anxious and conservative rider. My guy is great 75% of the time, but he can be a sneaky peeker, and 3 broken bones later I finally hit the wall and started shopping. My advice would be to think long and hard about the potential impact fear and anxiety could have on your riding. Horses will always do crappy things, and we riders will always screw up, but some horses are more honest than others - finding something more reliable could be what you need now to be better able to ride the less reliable ones in the future.

[paw]

I was in a similar situation. My advice is to accept that you’re (no longer) a good match, move him along to someone for whom this isn’t such a problem, and find a horse that will increase your confidence, not decrease it.

I toughed it out, and wound up messing up the horse and my riding for several years. Two years after getting a better match for me, riding is fun (not scary) again. I wish I hadn’t wasted all those years.

[blonderider]

[QUOTE=Nuggets;8393533]
I did something similar, and kept the horse for another 5 years - but I regret it, as never being able to trust my horse has made me an anxious and conservative rider. My guy is great 75% of the time, but he can be a sneaky peeker, and 3 broken bones later I finally hit the wall and started shopping. My advice would be to think long and hard about the potential impact fear and anxiety could have on your riding. Horses will always do crappy things, and we riders will always screw up, but some horses are more honest than others - finding something more reliable could be what you need now to be better able to ride the less reliable ones in the future.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=paw;8393537]I was in a similar situation. My advice is to accept that you’re (no longer) a good match, move him along to someone for whom this isn’t such a problem, and find a horse that will increase your confidence, not decrease it.

I toughed it out, and wound up messing up the horse and my riding for several years. Two years after getting a better match for me, riding is fun (not scary) again. I wish I hadn’t wasted all those years.[/QUOTE]

Thank you. I think this is exactly what I needed to hear. I love the line about riding being fun again. It makes me see that it is possible with a new situation.

[NancyM]

If you think it will make you feel better to sell this horse, then sell it and try again. However, horses will stop at jumps again with you, and you will fall off again, for this and other reasons. Accepting this, and being able to handle the knowledge is part of riding horses. If you have ongoing issues due to a fall in the past, using a protective vest is a good plan to hope to avoid re injury of healed past injuries. It’s a good plan even without this history LOL.

Rather than putting blame on the horse, and selling a good horse that may be difficult to replace, I would instead work on your riding skills, your own self confidence, and strength in your seat and legs. Understand WHY a horse stops at a jump, and THANK him for doing so, when it is done to save your own life (and his). Learn techniques for fewer stops, for coping with the problems encountered when attempting to jump successfully, and solving those problems before the horse has to refuse to jump.

The largest reason why a horse may refuse a jump is tension or fear in the rider. Sell this horse, buy another, but have the fear/tension remain in you may not solve your problem. You must truly WANT to jump the jump, and instinctively do the right things to make it happen. If fear remains in you, this does not happen. The horse picks up on these things. If the horse stops, and you are relaxed about it, and not fearful and tense, you are more likely to remain mounted through it. If you do not WANT to jump the jump, if the fear remains in you, perhaps taking up a different aspect of riding, without jumps, may be the answer for you. Good luck, I hope you can get your fear issues under control. There isn’t one of us who has not been injured in falls with horses, if we have ridden for a while. With the law of averages, some of these falls result in severe injuries. The ability to put it behind us is key to being riders in our old age. I have friend who was injured racing (a jockey). He had fallen in races, been injured many times, several surgeries etc, and was still doing the job, and no fear. But the last injury was nearly fatal, he had Princess Diana’s injury, bleeding into the pericardial cavity, and death approaching in the ambulance. The ambulance attendant saved his life, cutting into him and pulling the blood off his heart before he ever got to the hospital. He survived, though it took several years to recover. Then he was riding a young horse on MY farm, and got dumped. Horse came back without him. We went out looking for him, with some trepidation. Found him walking home, unhurt. He said, “the last time I fell off, I didn’t get up, ha ha!” So yes, it is possible to put this sort of thing behind you, if you are that sort of person.

[akhunterrider]

I brought home a very green horse last year, that while he would never intentionally hurt a fly, I have fallen off of him twice. I made the decision to not teach this horse to jump for a multitude of reasons, but the big one being I don’t feel brave enough to start from the ground up and I don’t have the resources to enlist a lot of help on this horse.

For many years, I rarely fell off, but in the last 3 or so years, I have fallen off 4 times and two of those time I have gotten concussions. One fall was a wild horse, another was a stop at a fence that was completely my fault, the third fall was a freak accident on my greenie and the fourth was from my spooking greenie.

While my horse has been pretty fantastical all things considered, he is green and he is a horse. He’s generally not spooky and generally good to ride, but I still am scared to get on him. I’m not scared for any reason I can really articulate, but I just half expect him to be explosive when I put my foot in the stirrup. Which for the record, has has never been, I guess I’ve just had too much time to think about the what ifs.

I have fun every time I ride my horse and I love spending time around him. While I don’t ride him much, I’m not ready to give up. I’ve told myself I need to have fun riding my horse again and I need to stop worrying about irrational and uncontrollable issues. If I can not, I need to make some type of decision.

I am over protective of my head. I don’t want any more head injuries. I do wear a helmet every ride, but I still worry. If I were if your shoes, I would strongly consider selling the horse. There’s not shame is coming to the conclusion that you are no longer the best match.

[Pocket_Pony]

Ditto what NancyM said. If the horse is going well with the trainer, then you have to look at yourself and consider how your riding contributed to the stop and subsequent fall. Not saying this to point fingers or put blame on you, but to help you realize that even if you sell this horse and get another one, your own issues of fear and trepidation may cause you to continue to have the same problems with the next horse. Then will you sell that one and try again and maybe have the same problem?

You have lots of options if you want to keep this horse because you like the horse. You could give up the jumping for a while, until you really feel like you have no fear. Go riding outside of the arena, go to come desensitizing clinics, work on ground work for a while. Take some dressage lessons.

Then if you really feel like you want to jump again, start really small, like with ground poles or crossrails until you are bored to death, then move up to a tiny vertical, etc. Do only feel comfortable with until you are begging to do more.

It doesn’t sound like this horse is inherently dangerous, just that you may have been overfaced in your quest to come back to jumping. Do you even want to jump? There is no shame and nothing wrong with you if you don’t. Plenty of people have lots of fun and never jump a fence (personally, I find moving cows to be the funnest thing ever!). Plenty of people have had similar situations as you and have taken up dressage instead and find it immensely enjoyable.

I have been there in the fear department. I’ve had a couple bad falls that left me really shaken. I had to fight my way back because I love riding. I don’t jump much anymore, but that’s okay with me. My horses do jump to various degrees (but one is retired and the other doesn’t seem to like it that much), and maybe I’ll teach my filly to jump someday, but in the meantime I have plenty of fun doing other things.

[CrittersMom]

Regardless what advice and nuggets of wisdom everyone has to offer what it all comes down to is this … if you truly feel the horse is not a good match (for whatever reason) then he is not a good match. No guilt, no drama, no muss and no fuss. You have been through a traumatic event and you need to deal with how you feel here and now.

I came off of my horse going over a jump, broke my pelvis in two places, ended up in the hospital, and my confidence was destroyed. I never came to the conclusion my horse was not a good match. I came to the conclusion that jumping wasn’t my thing, but that was only after spending months getting back in the saddle, and a year and half of listening to everyone else and ignoring the voice inside of me that said that jumping just wasn’t for me.

I suspect you are going through the same thing only instead of the voice in your head saying jumping isn’t for you, its telling you the horse is not a good match and everyone else is drowning it out. Like I said at the beginning, if you truly feel the horse is not a good match (for whatever reason) then he is not a good match.

Good luck.

[BITSA]

[QUOTE=Highflyer;8393438]
Any horse has the potential to stop if something goes wrong (and should stop in some cases, for safety reasons!). But if you don’t feel like you’re a good match there’s no shame in selling. I think it’s something you have to evaluate for yourself, maybe with your trainer’s help.[/QUOTE]

This. There is nothing that says you failed the horse or he failed you because what may have once been a good match no longer is. I have a barn mate who had a pretty steady eddy. He freaked out once and she was hurt badly; then he freaked out at a show about 2 years later (which a few spooks in between but nothing too bad). After that she just could not get back to trusting him; that mental aspect of riding is so hard. The less confidence she had the less it gave him. After agonizing over it (feeling like she failed him and it was her “fault”) she finally sold him and bought a new horse who was more of a school master. She’s so much happier now and can look forward to riding and working on improving without the fear.

It’s okay to move on and leave that “baggage” behind. You did not fail, you are a good enough rider, don’t give up!

[paw]

And of course any horse is capable of stopping, but some are more forgiving than others and can take a joke better. Right now, you want a packer - one that’s going to get to the other side of the fence no matter what you do. You have to get back to the point where you’re not worried that any mistake you make is going to put you on the ground.

BTDT, and it’s no way to enjoy yourself.