Let’s hear your tales of getting hurt NOT falling off!

[Mulligan314]

I broke my hand yesterday walking over a ground pole on my young, just getting started toddler horse. He stepped over with the front feet and then I guess forgot what he had done and clipped it with a back toe and acted like an alligator had just emerged from the sand depths of arena hell and grabbed his foot. He leapt into the air, doing his best Lipizzaner Stallion moves - three courbettes later, my hand had met his crest in an unfortunate way. I knew when it happened that it was not going to feel good later. I did not come off…surprisingly…and we successfully WALKED over that horse killing pole and finished the ride. This is my future jumper, people. Watch out.

Some perspective: I had walked him over flower boxes and other poles prior to this. It was not a new thing. He faceplates over poles all the time and doesn’t care…again, my future jumper? … so, to say both me and my observer were a little caught off guard would be a massive understatement…lol

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

I tore my ACL/MCL/meniscus lightly landing on my feet dismounting. I just got clearance to start riding again, 5 months after surgery, 6 months after my graceful dismount. My surgeon told me to be careful getting on and off. Duh.

[pony_baloney]

Horse zigged, and I zagged. I ended up slipping off to one side and strained every adductor muscle hauling myself upright again.

I had a strange walk for about a week.

[giddybiddy]

Back when pull-on boots were a thing, I lived in Georgia. After a long day horse showing in the crazy heat and humidity, it took a parade of people to get all of our boots off.

One day, my boot was exceptionally stuck. I was sitting on a tack trunk, doing the “one leg between the puller’s legs and the other on her butt” method of removal. After what seemed like an eternity, my foot finally slid out with such force that it smacked back into the tack trunk and sprained my ankle. Definitely one of my more embarrassing equine injuries.

[foggythistle]

A few examples in chronological order.

Example #1: Way back when I was first learning to ride (4th grade, eons ago), I was standing next to the horse’s shoulder while the instructor showed my how to tack up. She pulled up the girth and the horse reached around and bit my ear lobe. A bit of blood and a freaked out mother, a doctor visit, a tetanus shot and an apologetic instructor later, I learned where/how not to stand, and to pay attention to the face when girthing. I don’t remember how the horse was able to reach me. I don’t remember if I was holding him or whether he was tied much too long. That was back in my pixie cut days so my lobes were quite exposed.

Example #2: When I was in high school I had gone with some friends to a stable where you could rent horses. Friends and I were riding in a large field and my (rented) horse stopped behind my friend’s (rented) horse. Friend’s horse kicked at my horse and nailed me right on my right knee. Knee cap in the center of the horseshoe. We were both mounted, so that was a pretty lofty kick. I was limping for the better part of a week and had one heck of a lovely bruise for it.

Many years later, turned my senior horse out in the round pen to get some of his ya-yas out of his system. He was recovering from one of his many injuries. He wheeled around and in all his excitement let fly with both (shod) hinds. On nailed me on my thigh right above the knee. I heard a loud sound (cross between a crack/snap/slap) and was on my butt wondering if he had just broken my leg. Luckily not. Just one hell of a lump, a serious limp and an absolutely stunning bruise. Probably good that I was wearing jeans. My right leg again.

Example #4: Climbing off the current horse who is all of 17 hh, I dropped to the ground and felt something happen in my left knee. Not sure what it was because I never went to the Dr. Just limped for months and didn’t ride for a while because I couldn’t bend the knee. It’s pretty much better now but it has some bad days. It’s been 5 years. I still can’t run on it. Putting my horse and tack away was a real treat that day. Tack room was up a flight of 11 stairs. It took a while to do. Horse did absolutely nothing.

[RantyvilleHorror]

My old horse decked me in the school. Landed on my bum, completely unscathed. However… I forgot to let go of the reins. Horse reared up while I was sat on the floor, taking my middle finger up with the reins. I ended up with a spiral fracture in my finger and it now points outwards instead of being straight!

[ChestnutArabianMare]

I have four screws in my ring finger after the dumbest accident ever. I was holding my mare while I was getting something out of my car on the driver’s side. I had a really long lead rope, so I put the extra lead rope on the seat (NOT wrapped around my hand). I accidentally elbowed the car horn, which made a loud noise as car horns do. This scared my mare and she leaped back, and in the process the rope somehow wrapped itself around one finger and pulled taut. I heard a loud pop and my finger was at a weird angle and swelling instantly. My poor mare stopped as soon as I cursed and behaved perfectly while I put her back in her pasture one-handed… I think she felt bad LOL. I had surgery to fix the finger a week later and had three months off work since I work in healthcare. It was actually a nice vacation!

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

When I was about 13, I was on a trail ride. This particular one wound around a rocky ledge, and there was only one good trail down to the bottom and back up. Going down, no problems; the branches were a little low, but I ducked under them and it was all good. Coming back, though, there was no way to get UP the trail. The branches were too low; they wouldn’t move; and there was literally no other way to go but on the trail. I absolutely shredded both my shirt and my back. And thank God I was wearing a helmet - even though it was the old-fashioned velvet-covered kind - because it was dented and half the velvet was gone by the time I got up to the top of that ledge. And this is why I absolutely hate trail riding to this day.

I also had two horses fall with me on the same leg - well, three, really, if you count the time Alex and I had to go sideways into a board fence. The other two were simple slips in the mud and snow; the mares turned too quickly and boom! We’re on the ground. That’s also the same leg that another mare kicked me in, fracturing the knee and tearing up all the ligaments and tendons. No wonder that leg has issues now. Hmm.

[sparkygrace]

Two weeks ago, my older gelding spooked, bolted and ran into me. His knee hit mine and fractured my femur. It’s repaired with a plate and screws. It was a freak accident.

I broke my pinky a number of years ago on the same gelding when he got exuberant during a flying change. My finger jammed into his neck.

After fifty years of riding, something was bound to happen.

[SinMiedo]

When I was about 20, I was getting ready to ride a goofy mare for my old employer and forgot my helmet in the tack room. I was there alone and already had her bridle on, so I figured I could reach the hook while still holding the reins. I was stretching to grab it and it hit the floor with a thud. Maresy couldn’t see what caused the noise, but she didn’t wait around to find out and launched herself backward, which whacked my rein-holding hand against the door frame and knocked a chip out of my 5th metacarpal. There’s still a nice little knot on the side of my right hand.