I was approaching the barn after an awesome hack and I had loosened the girth the last 200 feet or so. We got to the barn and just before I dismounted, she gave one of those complete body shakes. The saddle slipped sideways, I fell to the ground. People were siting inside the barn and saw it all. Talk about being embarrassed!
Those whole body shakes are killers LOL
Glad to hear I’m not the only one that’s been “had” by the loose girth, full body shake combo! 
[QUOTE=RiderInTheRain;8264006]
My most embarrassing incident happened last week and resulted in a displacement fracture of my fibula (6-8 weeks recovery time 
)
I ride quite a few young/green/hot/“exciting” horses, but for this incident, I was on just about the steadiest pony in the world. He tends to bloat a bit when the girth is first tightened, so my usual routine is to tighten as much as possible, mount, walk him a few laps and then casually reach down and tighten the girth while he’s still walking along as it is the easiest way for all involved to get the girth properly tightened. Well on this particular occasion, as I leaned over a bit to adjust the girth, a very big insect of some variety landed on him and he employed the full body shake maneuver to rid himself of it, then on his first post shake step tripped with one of his front legs. The combination of these events, plus the fact that I was girth tightening, not sitting up very straight, plus the fact that he’s a pony so has really no neck/shoulder for an adult rider to catch themselves on meant that I found myself really sliding to one side.
I decided it was better to essentially emergency dismount and did so but landed with one foot more heavily than the other. And that foot was in a hole/divot in the pasture and I managed to twist my ankle in just the right way to break my fibula. Because I typically really enjoy riding quite hot and athletic horses and as such have taken some pretty spectacular falls , a few of my friends find it pretty amusing that my first ever broken bone is the result of me basically dismounting from a very sweet and safe mount (who was a champ and allowed me to lean over him and very carefully helped me hobble back to the barn).
Super embarrassing and I’m quite angry at myself still. I’d finally made the time/money/training align to take the little Morgan I’ve done all the undersaddle training for to his first recognized event or two this fall and that is obviously postponed until next year.[/QUOTE]
Yep, I basically did the same thing, only mine was after a stumble instead of a shake. Horse stumbled, I slid up his neck then hopped off voluntary. I don’t think I landed in any sort of divot though- I was in a freshly dragged ring. Got my first ambulance ride that day and ended up in the hospital for three weeks (broke tibia and fibula in 2 places each).
It was a freak accident and I still say the horse I came off of is the safest horse I’ve ever ridden!
There’s been a few times I slid off of my mare while trying to ride bareback. One time in front of a group that I was going trail riding with, I hopped on her with the aid of a hill. I had too much propulsion so not only did I go over but under and back to where I started. I stood up, said Tada! Everyone laughed and to their dismay I was able to stay on when I remounted
Was riding a very slippery horse bareback, pointed her at a tiny cavaletti to pop over. As we were jogging (barely faster than a walk) up to the jump a small kid came running into the ring without calling “door”. The horse did a sharp spook left and I just slid to the ground. I think that was my least-spectacular fall. Thankfully only a few people witnessed it.
My best falls have all had witnesses, and I have often wished those witnesses were carrying cameras at the time!
I’ll play! This past winter I bought new half chaps and the first time I wore them they were so tight I felt like I could barely bend at the knee. I was determined to break them in, however, and saddled up my horse. I ended up in the second arena at our barn, where the mounting block is only a two step instead of a three-step. On a good day I had to work at getting on my horse from this block (he’s tall, I’m short) - but on this day, I had on those tight half chaps. I managed to get my left foot in the stirrup, but when I went to lift myself up I couldn’t get my leg bent enough to swing over, and I ended up hanging off my horse’s side for a few seconds before falling backwards onto the ground next to him - he hadn’t moved a muscle the entire time, either, it was all me! Once I hit the ground he took a very polite step away from me and looked down with this expression on his face, like, “I can’t believe you just did that, Mom!” I couldn’t, either! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) no one was there to witness the event!
Oh, yeah, a good one–I was riding my horse bareback into the pond at the barn. The pond dropped off very sharply and within a few steps of the bank he was swimming, water over his back. I had never known him to swim before, so I turned him around. Instead of climbing up the bank, he JUMPED up it, and of course I fell straight off backwards into the water. He ran back to the barn and I was left to squelch and slosh my way in.
Went to a show and it was like 98 degrees and very humid. Mare decided she was having none of it, dropped her shoulder, spun me off, did a victory lap by the other riders, and then ran out of the ring and back to my trailer. I didn’t even bother getting up, just rolled under the fence. Mortifying.
