Most Humiliating Fall Ever

[sassyottb]

Hey guys, ive wandered around the chronicle forums for a while now, enjoying stories and posts but never really bothering to create an account until now- so hello!

Anyways, about 4-5 days ago i had one of the most gloriously humiliating falls ever in a clinic i was riding my somewhat green, sassy (obviously) OTTB mare in a 2’6" - 3’, incredibly hard course with swedish oxers, jokers, and the horrifying liverpool. In front of my trainer, who is already big and bad, but also in front of HER trainer, who was teaching- AND the whole barn, who all decided to group up and watch my fabulous course which turned into an epic fail.

So, i warm up with the two other riders, and everything goes fine. Mare isnt rushing like usual, and is totally chill. So when its time to go do the course, i opt to go last, thinking im gonna show everybody up on my super talented semi-green ottb. Wrong. The first two go perfectly, and i start out just fine. Then we get to the swedish oxer. She jumps from atleast one stride out, and im caught off guard. Keep in mind this mare HATES being caught in the mouth, she will create the worlds biggest rodeo. So over the fence, I chuck my hands forward to not catch her in the mouth, which loosens my legs. We land in a semicontrolled heap, which is already embarassing, but on the way down i somehow clipped her with my heel. She bolts into the following one-stride, makes it easily, and we actually get out of it fairly flawlessy. But- whats coming up is our worst nightmare. A 90 degree angle to a liverpool vertical. As i come up, i give a reassuring kiss. Mare lifts off. Mare slams her feet down, then regrets it and jumps it like its on fire, all with me still on her back. The actual motion of her deciding to jump bewildered me, and i catapulted into the dirt. At the feet of the clinican, all of my friends, the barn helpers, and the manager.
I was internally screaming. I got back on though, and finished the course, regretting my existence the entire time.
Then the next day we made it up to 3’3 so atleast it has a happy ending

[beowulf]

Good on you for taking a joke! It’s all how we learn. Glad to hear you are okay.

Don’t worry, everyone has an embarrassing fall story… and if they don’t, they haven’t been riding long enough. :winkgrin:

[bambam]

Good on you for taking it well.
In an attempt to make you feel better, here is my most embarrassing fall:
I had bought a new horse. Horse had gone prelim with her prior owner. I am warming up for stadium at our first (possibly 2nd) horse trial and head for the small warm up x rail. I get a little ahead of the mare, she slams on the brakes, and I pitch over her head, landing draped across the x rail and with her bridle in my hand because I had pulled it off on my way down . . . all while the woman who sold her to me was watching (along with a large number of other people I know and who also knew that this horse had successfully gone prelim while I had her stopping at x rails). On the upside, I remembered not to get ahead of her at all while on course later :lol:
Make you feel better?

[sassyottb]

It did very much bambam, :lol: Ive had my fair share of mess-ups with demon crossrails as well

[Foxtrot_s]

As horse people, we know there is absolutely no humiliation in taking a fall…not that WE think that when it is US biting the dust.

We just get up, dust ourselves off, say “I’m fine”, even when we are not - and continue on.

It happens to e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. - no matter your abilities, celebrity or not.

Anyways, you’re ok and can take a joke.

[Larbear]

[QUOTE=bambam;8731425]
Good on you for taking it well.
In an attempt to make you feel better, here is my most embarrassing fall:
I had bought a new horse. Horse had gone prelim with her prior owner. I am warming up for stadium at our first (possibly 2nd) horse trial and head for the small warm up x rail. I get a little ahead of the mare, she slams on the brakes, and I pitch over her head, landing draped across the x rail and with her bridle in my hand because I had pulled it off on my way down . . . all while the woman who sold her to me was watching (along with a large number of other people I know and who also knew that this horse had successfully gone prelim while I had her stopping at x rails). On the upside, I remembered not to get ahead of her at all while on course later :lol:
Make you feel better?[/QUOTE]

Lol, my horse and I have gone prelim but I swear, I’ve had more hair-raising-near misses etc. over dinky little x-rails than anything else!

[c0608524]

Let me guess, was it a CHESTNUT mare??

Good on you OP! Always nice when you can chuckle about it afterwards.

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

Don’t feel bad. I luckily had always fallen on my rear off of my horses over the years, mostly as a child, except once when I was bucked off in riding school over a ditch jump and dragged, no injuries but the instructor was scared, and once when the dogs ran out of the garage and my horse shied and I had an unschedules dismount right in front of my father. My horse looked down at me, stepped over me and went back to his stall. Well there was also the time when my uncle’s horse and the horse I was riding, not mine, bolted when we were racing and ran into the middle of a paved road, fortunately with no traffic, and I got dumped as usual on my rear end. My uncle was so worried cause I was a little kid.

Everyone’s dignity is destroyed when dumped off of a horse. As long as you and the horse at not injured, all is well. All the spectators have been dumped, even if they were not dumped in front of an audience.

As long as it’s just your dignity that is hurt, all is well.

[Bluey]

So, I was 15, our riding school got every military police horse that retired at 16 for school horses, they were wonderful.
We get this one that had show jumping experience, there is a show coming up in the fancy Polo Club and I am designated rider for him there, to see what we have.

While practicing, we determine he tends to try to run off on the left if given a chance, so you need to keep watching for that and I do and have him jumping straight.

Our riding school only owns one show cork cap, that all of us take turns putting on before entering the class.

My turn goes first, horse jumps beautifully, the three last jumps are on a bend on the far off side one the water jump, with some bushes growing to the side.

We get to it well, the horse seems to start to jump, then stops hard, his head way low, slingshots me right over his head, thumbs hook on the bridle and I fall into the water puddle head, that means, cap first, taking his bridle off at the same time.

He takes off running loose, no bridle, hard to stop and catch, but someone finally gets him corraled, while I march back to the in-gate, dripping water and hand the soaked cap to the next rider.

I never quit hearing about not letting me go first, or everyone else will have to ride with a wet head.
Very embarrassing to a teenager.

Later they tell me the horse stopped because there were some ducks in that water that took off as the horse started to jump, that I never did notice, looking ahead at the next jumps already.
So much for worrying about keeping him from drifting to the left, I should have been watching for ducks!

[beowulf]

not me, but will make OP feel better:

to commemorate that falls happen and everyone is human, the barn i lesson at has a frame-by-frame recount of one of the best riders in the barn falling at the water jump… in their bathroom… so you see it while you are peeing :lol:. frame one is horse and rider eyeing the line, frame two is horse stalling and rider saying “GIT” - you see the gleam of doubt in horse’s face… frame three is horse and rider “disuniting” over fence into water, frame four is rider somersaulting upside down in water, frame five is rider rising from water soggy as all get-out as horse says “toodel-loo!” and last frame is the rider and horse reunited with a big sheepish grin on rider’s face!

[sassyottb]

[QUOTE=beowulf;8731579]
not me, but will make OP feel better:

to commemorate that falls happen and everyone is human, the barn i lesson at has a frame-by-frame recount of one of the best riders in the barn falling at the water jump… in their bathroom… so you see it while you are peeing :lol:. frame one is horse and rider eyeing the line, frame two is horse stalling and rider saying “GIT” - you see the gleam of doubt in horse’s face… frame three is horse and rider “disuniting” over fence into water, frame four is rider somersaulting upside down in water, frame five is rider rising from water soggy as all get-out as horse says “toodel-loo!” and last frame is the rider and horse reunited with a big sheepish grin on rider’s face![/QUOTE]

That made my day :lol:
Also, just so you guys know, i thought this fall was absolutely the funniest thing to ever happen to me, with the circumstances. At the time i was gutted, but now its just a memory and i got some cool pictures to collage with an unimpressed simon cowell
Ive also had my fair share of embarrassing moments that didnt even include falls, like the one time I got the honest-as-the-day-is-long schoolmaster eventer to stop at a ditch because i was looking down, or the one time in a reining pattern when my horse wouldnt move in front of an entire coliseum, one of the audience being Arnold Schwarzenegger :lol:

[flashwhitelock]

falls

[QUOTE=sassyottb;8731398]
Hey guys, ive wandered around the chronicle forums for a while now, enjoying stories and posts but never really bothering to create an account until now- so hello!

Anyways, about 4-5 days ago i had one of the most gloriously humiliating falls ever in a clinic i was riding my somewhat green, sassy (obviously) OTTB mare in a 2’6" - 3’, incredibly hard course with swedish oxers, jokers, and the horrifying liverpool. In front of my trainer, who is already big and bad, but also in front of HER trainer, who was teaching- AND the whole barn, who all decided to group up and watch my fabulous course which turned into an epic fail.

So, i warm up with the two other riders, and everything goes fine. Mare isnt rushing like usual, and is totally chill. So when its time to go do the course, i opt to go last, thinking im gonna show everybody up on my super talented semi-green ottb. Wrong. The first two go perfectly, and i start out just fine. Then we get to the swedish oxer. She jumps from atleast one stride out, and im caught off guard. Keep in mind this mare HATES being caught in the mouth, she will create the worlds biggest rodeo. So over the fence, I chuck my hands forward to not catch her in the mouth, which loosens my legs. We land in a semicontrolled heap, which is already embarassing, but on the way down i somehow clipped her with my heel. She bolts into the following one-stride, makes it easily, and we actually get out of it fairly flawlessy. But- whats coming up is our worst nightmare. A 90 degree angle to a liverpool vertical. As i come up, i give a reassuring kiss. Mare lifts off. Mare slams her feet down, then regrets it and jumps it like its on fire, all with me still on her back. The actual motion of her deciding to jump bewildered me, and i catapulted into the dirt. At the feet of the clinican, all of my friends, the barn helpers, and the manager.
I was internally screaming. I got back on though, and finished the course, regretting my existence the entire time.
Then the next day we made it up to 3’3 so atleast it has a happy ending ;)[/QUOTE]

Try riding as a guest of a prestigious hunt, your lovely OTTB in the first flight, jumping everything through 4’6". At the hunt breakfast after listen to the huntmaster telling everyone how glad he was the hunting had gone well and how great I had done. I was only one of three people who jumped anything and everything. He had been particularly worried after watching some ignorant beginner stop and fall off at a 6" crossrail in front of the entire hunt during the warmup. I had to look him in the eye and tell him that I was the idjiot who fell off over the 6" before the hunt went out.

[saultgirl]

Pfffft. I managed to fall off at a walk when the horse tripped over a ground pole I was walking her over while cooling out.

[Salty]

I love your story, Flash! Reminds me of the day I had the worst score & the best score at a dressage show. Both on the same horse. Both in front of the same judge!

[mroades]

worst fall I ever had was over a crossrail…good job getting back on!

[billiebob]

[QUOTE=Natalie A;8732031]
I fell off the other side getting a leg up once…[/QUOTE]

I have catapulted myself over my horse while mounting. Twice. Once in front of about 15 teenage boys and once while moving bulls back into the correct pasture–I scared the sh*t out of those bulls.

OP, just wait until you fall off at a show! Bonus points if you let loose with a string of (loud) profanities in front of a bunch of Pony Clubbers…yes, that one was at a crossrail…

[Gamma]

There was a jump? And you were attempting to jump it? Totally not the most embarrassing fall ever.

I fell when the horse I was riding tripped over the mounting block I had just mounted from… I say fell, either I went or we both went together, so I decided to take one for the team and also not have her land on top of me. She then did me the favor of breaking my toe stomping on it as I was remounting. She’s not my favorite horse ever.

[Gamma]

I’ve also ended up on my butt dismounting on to slipperier than expected ground…

[Shine]

Decided to go on a trail ride - so tacked up and went out to the back yard to tell DH where I was going. Soooo instead of walking the 200 feet back to the mounting block I used the front of the bucket loader (reason was the trail was closer and I could get DH to open the fence for me).

Welp my foot slipped and I ended up in the bucket. In front of DH and all his employees. DH comes over to make sure I’m ok and deadpans “Do you want me to start up the loader and load you on your horse?” I did the 200 foot walk of shame back to the mounting block.:o

[Engage]

I came off once whilst showing a horse to potential buyers for a client. Stupid me, totally my fault, my stirrups were skew and when we landed off a jump, i just went bye-bye. Didn’t land hard at all though, so I jumped right up, hopped back on, shouted over, “That was SO my fault. He did nothing wrong!” and jumped him over again with no issues and did a few more jumps beautifully. I brought him to a halt in front of the buyers (including mom, sisters, trainer and yard owner) and prattled on about how that honestly wasn’t his fault and really he would never do anything to unseat a rider, when I saw one of them pointing with a rather shaky hand at my arm…I had sand-grazed my forearm and there was blood dripping off my elbow. WHOOPS!! Horsie redeemed himself later, despite my foolery!

Another time, I hopped on off a mounting block and suddenly found myself underneath my mare. First and only time I’ve forgotten to tighten my girth before mounting :lol: