Looking for similar stories because this has got me pretty freaked and I flip between “this horse will never be ridden again” and “I just need to ride better”.
A few months ago, my lease horse stumbled hard landing a line. At the time it didn’t seem super notable. We’d done the same line vertical to vertical a few times, then my trainer made the out an oxer, I jumped in a bit weak and tried to gallop up to make the number. Whether my override distracted him from noticing the second rail, or he was just too strung out to make it, he jumped right at the second rail, smacked his front feet on it really hard and buckled a bit on landing. He managed to catch himself after a couple awkward steps and we were okay.
More recently, something similar happened again. Forward line, I let him get strung out, smacked out the rail and struggled to catch himself. Then, a week ago, he stumbled similarly, except this time there was no rail, no line, no heavy canter, just a very small warm up fence on a circle. My trainer and I decided we’re done riding him until we can figure out what’s going on.
He is built a bit downhill, we’ve worked really hard to lighten him up. We basically just do flat work all winter so he’s been getting excited when jumping, especially down lines. That said, I feel like it’s gone too far to just be blaming mistakes on my part.
Our first thought was something in the front end. He’s an older gentleman, not without maintenance. We thought the rails we’re causing pain on landing. The vet came out and said she couldn’t see anything obvious, but we’re coordinating with his owner to do a neuro exam and potentially Xrays. The vet said if nothing shows up on those, we’ll look at his neck. For now, horse is doing hand walking only (with his normal turnout etc.).
Has anyone dealt with something similar? Was it career ending? I’ve leased this guy for years after his owner moved away, he’s been an absolute gem. I was really hoping he would be piloting kids around for years after me.
