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When I was a kid we were taught a “flying dismount.” We were taught to jump off from a trot and then a canter. I wonder if that’s what’s wrong with my back now? At any rate, I noticed it’s no longer done and I think maybe that’s a good thing.
There was a rider that fell recently and prevented the horse from rolling on her by holding its leg up until help came. But I don’t know if you can/should practice falling off!
When I was a kid we were taught a “flying dismount.” We were taught to jump off from a trot and then a canter. I wonder if that’s what’s wrong with my back now? At any rate, I noticed it’s no longer done and I think maybe that’s a good thing.
There was a rider that fell recently and prevented the horse from rolling on her by holding its leg up until help came. But I don’t know if you can/should practice falling off!
I’d find it quite dangerous to practice falling off for both you or the horse. There is no way I would try to re-create some ways I’ve fallen off. :eek:
Talking about it suffice.
Aiming at landing on your shoulder? Why would you want to break your collar bone? Anyway, it’s not like you can have much control over what happen…
My rules regarding falls : Trying to stay as ‘‘soft’’ as possible while being ejected - letting the horse go - staying as close to the ground as possible/rolling off from the horse/protecting my head - staying there/not moving until I’m sure to be fine.
Personally…for 60 some years, I’ve practiced STAYING ON!! I’ve never felt the need to practice falling off…that would have been a “systems failure”!!!
Well, as a teen, I had a very exuberant TB who would buck me off regularly. I got lots of practice. I did wind up landing on my side almost always. Never got hurt. But I don’t think that’s the kind of practice you were talking about. 
In my experience, saying how you haven’t fallen off in a while always rewards me with lots of practice :yes:
Well, you want to try to land on your side but not really your shoulder. You want to land on a large area and roll a bit, not go THUD (like flat on your back, or flat on your butt or tailbone - very bad). Think tuck and roll (pull your head, legs and arms in).
I was taught how to fall as a kid and practiced (both intentionally and not) but I’m not sure purposefully throwing yourself off a horse to learn is a good idea. For sure a bad idea if you’re past your twenties! Maybe if you had one of those mechanical horses and a big soft landing to practice on.
We used to practice flying dismounts as kids as well. It is helpful to train your body to fall a certain way, but I’m not sure landing onto your shoulder is the correct way to do anything other than break your collarbone. 
You do want to roll over your shoulder if possible…
Actually the more you practice, the more you can fall without getting hurt.
This video shows some ways to fall…but never really demonstrates the best way
Honestly, I think it is a terrible concept… :o It has taken me a long time to get the mindset that no matter what happens, come h*ll and high water, I’m going to fight like crazy to stay on. Hurts a whole heck of a lot less, and takes a lot less time to regain my confidence if I can stick it-- even if it isn’t pretty.
Also, there really isn’t a “safe” way to fall… no matter what happens, whether you hit your side or you roll or whatever, you can still get, say, a pneumothorax (or two)… Ask me how I know! :eek: Admittedly, this is much less likely to happen in any sort of practice situation, but there is still no way I’m going to train my body to have an eject button in case of panic, because I have enough bad habits as is :wink grin:
(And I don’t want my mount to think that losing his human is business as usual… I want him to try to keep me on if possible-- I’ve definitely had some horses save my butt because they knew that the human was not supposed to fly off over their head after some poor equitation and a really long spot!)
get a very naughty horse.
you’ll get to practice falling off more than enough!
I know it’s traditionally taught, especially for kids, but I don’t know that it really helps.
IF you have access to a fall/bucking machine with a fully padded area to fall again and again and again and again until it’s muscle memory, I think that could be useful. But I’ve never felt like practicing a handful of well timed fake falls helps when sh*t hits the fan.
Thinking through this, martial arts training might be helpful?
Someone once told me that they made all their kids practice how to fall off of a (very) slow moving gator/golf cart before they could enter an event. I knew a girl who broke her tailbone practicing flying dismounts. I was a gymnast so my coach just said to tuck like a somersault ha!
Personally I think that learning to fall should be something learned verbally, not kinetically.
[QUOTE=cdn_alter;8542777]
Someone once told me that they made all their kids practice how to fall off of a (very) slow moving gator/golf cart before they could enter an event. I knew a girl who broke her tailbone practicing flying dismounts. I was a gymnast so my coach just said to tuck like a somersault ha!
Personally I think that learning to fall should be something learned verbally, not kinetically.[/QUOTE]
I agree. I hear you on the broken tailbone and the flying dismount “training.” At the same camp where we were practicing the flying dismount I fell off when my horse refused a … cavalletti! Oh the indignity of it! I hit the cavelletti with my lower half and that sucker was built to last and it was HARD. I bore the imprint in dark purple and black for some time. Everyone was extremely impressed and I could have charged money for showing off my bruise! Oh to be 10 again!
The moral of the story, no amount of flying dismounts can prepare you for the particular way your vulnerable human body is going to land in a fall. So practicing for it may be a) dangerous b) a waste of time. Be safe and let us know you’re going to practice staying on.
I think someone at one point did a study that showed more people were injured practicing falling off than falling off.
We did flying dismounts on lesson horses inside when I was little. In my 30s and 40s I prefer to practice staying on rather than falling off. Fewer bruises!
I learned a flying dismount from a vaulting group and I think the experience was pretty helpful. Here’s a YouTube video of some random person showing the dismount I learned, note that your legs go way up and you use momentum to get away from the horse (no comments on the rest of the video). Doing it on the vaulting horse was really nice, because he had a nice, steady, slow canter and he would keep going with the same nice, steady, slow canter no matter what you did. No injuries from practicing that day, we all landed on our feet or a very gentle roll onto our behinds. I like knowing that I can jump off and survive, and I like that it moves you pretty well clear.
Have I kept practicing? Only occasionally at a halt. Most non-vaulting horses either stop dead or speed up when you start dismounting, which makes it much harder and less safe to practice.
Have I actually used it? Not really. Usually if I’m coming off, it’s because I’ve gotten completely off balance somehow (OK, too far forward) and you kind of need to start sitting up for that technique.
Do I believe in abandoning horse if necessary? Absolutely. Sometimes your horse is going down or heading toward something dangerous, and it’s much better for you to just bail. I’ve had a horse stop-drop-and-roll in snow with no warning, fortunately the snow was soft for me to roll off in, but I would have been happier further away from the rolling part. I’ve had a horse trip over a mounting block about two seconds after I mounted from it (she’s not the brightest spark) and either I bailed or we both went down, her on top. I didn’t get more than a small bruise in either case, but would have been seriously injured/crushed by horse if I had tried to stay on somehow.
There was an article in Practical Horseman about a year ago about practicing to fall in the safest manner. If I recall they practiced not actually falling of the horse, but techniques to train their bodies to fall in certain ways.
ETA: here’s a link to the article
http://practicalhorsemanmag.com/article/horseback-riding-falls-jim-wofford-27838
When I was a wee thing riding a little Shetland named Pumpkin (chestnut, flaxen mane/tail, ~12hh, demon), I fell off a couple of times when pony did a stop n’ spin. My instructor, a lovely young British lady, wanted to ensure that when I fell, I was rolling safely away. So, she brought me into the centre of the ring, got me to kick me feet out of the stirrups, and proceeded to push me off with the instructive, “when you hit the dirt, roll away from the pony.” She must have done it 10 or 12 times. I thought it was hilarious. Took a lot of the fear out of falling for me.
Though, I’d likely be less enthused 20 odd years later to repeat this exercise off my 16.2 TB :lol:
I don’t think practicing flying dismounts helped me one bit. It was kinda fun as a kid, but planning to get off and actually getting unintentionally separated from your horse are two different things. Tucking and rolling can help if you have time, though a former boss got launched from a young horse once, had so much air time to think “tuck and roll!” and over rotated to land square on his tail bone and break it.
Tumbling lessons might help but unless you’re still young and agile, they might be a waste. The best thing is probably to have a strong seat and to learn good instincts when things go wrong. Sitting back and getting deep in your heels on a bucker, not pulling on a horse who is standing up, staying relaxed and centered on a horse that spooks, getting in the back seat and slipping the reins if a jump goes wrong or a horse trips. All those have saved me from hitting the deck, but I still hit the deck…hell, after almost 5 years of riding out my horse’s shenanigans, he caught me completely unawares a few weeks ago and dumped me on the driveway. I didn’t have a freaking chance :lol:
