Please don’t land on your shoulder! I just recovered from a fall where I “did everything right” and landed on my shoulder like my trainer said but my head whiplashed sideways to the ground so I sprained my neck and got a concussion. If you would really like to practice falling off ask to ride a horse that bucks a lot 
I don’t!
I technically know how the good old Pony Club way so you should understand the concept, but I don’t “practice!” Best to learn that when you are a kid and just, um, review the steps online or something! lol
I think you might be misinterpreting the “aim to land on your shoulder” thing. I think what they mean by this is to roll when you fall. It’s much easier on the body, but trust me, landing on your shoulder does not feel good. I took a TINY tumble three weeks ago, and my shoulder is still out of whack. My best advice on falling, is to be hyper aware of your surroundings. That’s much easier said than done, but be completely aware of where you are in relation to your horse at all times.
I do think it’s good practice to learn what is sometimes called an “emergency” dismount, where you lean forward, put your arms around the horse’s neck, and swing off at the walk and then the trot. If nothing else, it’s good for your confidence and coordination.
But, I think practicing falling off is useless. When you practice, you’re starting from a secure position, in balance, and in control. Personally, by the time I’m coming off a horse, I’m already ass over teakettle, otherwise I wouldn’t be coming off. And at that point, there’s not a whole lot you can do about how you’re falling.
I don’t think there’s really a way to prepare for being jettisoned. Falling off at a controlled trot or canter would have never prepared me for the most violent ejection I’ve endured to date. I was at the Congress showing my two year old. He doesn’t have much knee action and sweeps through the shoulder really well at the canter. We were half a lap in to the canter the first direction in the under saddle, and he caught his non-lead toe in the ground, did a face plant, and nearly rotated over. When it felt like he was going to flip, I decided to unass the area (which really was just letting go, momentum carried me the rest of the way). I didn’t tuck and roll; that’s not realistic. No, I splat and skidded. Luckily he didn’t go over. He got his feet under him and looked around lost for me. Anyways, “falling” off I don’t think prepares anyone for being launched. I spend way too much time trying to stay on, to just throw myself off 
Pony club still teaches the “emergency dismount” and you have to do one at the walk and trot for a few of the first ratings. Personally I think it is stupid to purposely fall off the horse. I would feel much safer on a horse taking off than on the ground there the hoofs laced with metal clubs are. Just my take on it though.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/videos/how-to-videos/video-how-to-fall-off-a-horse-safely
I think this article is close to one I saw awhile ago. The practice is done on a mechanical horse with crash pads and lots of safety gear. If you “practice” falling off your horse, all you’re doing is falling off your horse. Ow.
Become more athletic. I rode with these two sisters a long time ago, and before they started riding, they were gymnasts. Like, really good gymnasts. They had a really natural sense of balance and obviously were already strong and fit. But I’ve never seen anyone else fall more gracefully. It’s like they would feel themselves lose control of their balance and they would end up just somersaulting off. They landed on their feet from some pretty nasty falls.
Also you could practice some of the skills of soccer goalkeepers. They have to dive, and learn how to do it right so that they absorb shock on their lateral muscles.
I wouldn’t practice any of these on a horse though. It just doesn’t seem like a productive or safe practice. I did know a school horse that was trained to halt when his rider fell, but I’m not sure how they taught him that.
I think that the idea of “practicing falling” is more valuable with children, in the sense that letting them flop off a very small, quiet, stationary pony into good footing helps take away some of the fear around what happens when you fall. I have seen kids almost paralyzed with fear of falling when they’re asked to do something a bit intimidating on their pony (i.e. canter for the first time), which makes it much more difficult for them to be comfortable in the saddle due to tension. If they’re allowed to playfully flop off, they have some idea that hitting the ground isn’t such a big deal, and don’t even really worry about it afterwards. It’s more about getting them comfortable on top of their pony, same as letting them play “Around the World” or sit backwards while someone leads their pony.
I agree with other posters who say that practicing falling is asking for an injury…
I trained in martial arts and thus learned how to fall and roll safely. I do find that it does help when I do fall off a horse. The nice thing about learning in the dojo is a) matts b) you can start low and slow and work up to height and speed once you are comfortable.
[QUOTE=blueribbons;8542731]
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!)[/QUOTE]
The first horse I ever rode was a lovely school master who would put his head up if he felt you leaning too far forward to help you get your balance back… Such a lovely old horse.
Too bad the horses I ride now aren’t like that. I tumbled over a guy’s head when he spooked off to the side and then slammed the breaks =_=
I always seem to end up falling on my side, except the one time when I fell on my butt. I’m sure learning to emergency dismount could prove useful though, if your body can handle it.
I learned how to roll on my shoulder from my brothers (both 2nd degree black belts). I didn’t practice it on a horse, but rather on the ground until it becomes second nature for any fall, not just off a horse. It really does wonders for those nasty stops that throw you head first.
[QUOTE=crosscreeksh;8542650]
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”!!![/QUOTE]
THIS!!
[QUOTE=OTTB_;8543010]
Pony club still teaches the “emergency dismount” and you have to do one at the walk and trot for a few of the first ratings. Personally I think it is stupid to purposely fall off the horse. I would feel much safer on a horse taking off than on the ground there the hoofs laced with metal clubs are. Just my take on it though.[/QUOTE]
But the object of that lesson is to get both feet out of the stirrups and make a clean departure, riders don’t actually fall off, they land on their feet off of geriatric, small, slow animals with a handler right there. For kids and with proper supervision, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Certainly not from just a walk.
Not a bad idea for an adult to practice getting the feet out of the stirrups first and swinging off with something besides the head going first. That can be worked into just a regular dismount at the end of the ride. My worst accident was getting hung up when I did not kick my feet out.
Other then that emergency dismount, think trying to practice really falling off is dumb.
Well…I’ve done a lot of goat tying. (Hunter Princess side of me goes and hides in shame in the corner). In goat tying you basically have to jump off the horse while their running, the way you do this is you start moving your feet before you hit the ground. I wouldn’t say this necessarily prepared me for falling off, but the bodily awareness and coordination it built, actually helped me out of some pretty sticky situations.
I had a friend who was big into showing horses at the breed shows. She did the all around classes. She had a “training project” at home who started rearing up and acting silly. The trainer told the girl that the horse rearing was way too dangerous and the girls would have to learn a flying dismount, like they do in goat tying. Next thing you know the girl goes and wins Goat Tying at the world show (trying to be vague here) on her SHOW horse, because she learned a flying dismount.
I agree it is not a good idea to practice falling off! Too many risks and really, when you do fall off, it is not very likely that the situation will be like when you practiced. The important thing is to have an idea of what to do, get your feet out of the stirups, roll away from your horse when you land, and also try not to panick and scream or anything that will cause the situation to potenially escalate.
I see that you have had some questions/posts in the past about falling and getting over accidents. Are you trying to overcome a fear by practicing falling? I’m just curious as to what your end goal is as perhaps we could suggest a better/safer way to help you out? 
I always thought the trick to not getting hurt was to disperse the impact, aka roll. It’s when you land in a heap that you get hurt. We used to jump off a chair onto a mat and learn to roll as we hit the ground. Once it becomes an automatic reaction to hitting the ground, it seems to follow over to falling off anything else whether it be a horse, latter, stairs etc.
[QUOTE=findeight;8545321]
But the object of that lesson is to get both feet out of the stirrups and make a clean departure, [/QUOTE]
both of these are true. You aren’t practicing so that you decide to fall is easier. You practice so that when it does happen, your muscle memory kicks in and you do the things that have the most likelihood of keeping you from getting hurt.
Rolling when you hit the ground disperses the impact so you don’t land with a huge thud and all those forces rattle and possibly break your bones, etc.
there are a number of ways to practice safely and there is some benefits to it.
