I agree, I volunteered at a therapeutic place a long time ago and even though I wasn’t supposed to I dismounted a kid on the way back to the barn. They were always letting the kids walk their horses home when the horses knew there was dinner in their stall… ponies were great in the arena but yeah a second after I dismounted the kid the pony bolted. Really not something a random volunteer should be handling but fortunately I knew what I was doing. I don’t let strangers handle any of my horses alone. The people there were really nice and experienced in working with people with disabilities but not really horse people tbh. Red flag to me but it’s a popular program so nothing I can do. Told them my opinion that either dinner time needs to change for the horses or kids need to dismount in the arena with experienced handlers holding horses but yeah it is what it is.
Yeah as instructor people are going to fall and sometimes… it’s your fault lol. Not always but yeah a lot of times it is.
Usually I can read the horses well enough that if they’re a little too fresh or grumpy or something I can keep things safe still and find exercises to do to not provoke the horse further but yeah sometimes you misjudge where the line is.
Knowing your students is really important too, some people really want to learn to handle difficult situations and it’s okay to risk it with them, while other people really cannot handle a fall or any difficult situation and you need to just prioritize keeping them safe.
I had a kid fall a few weeks ago very light learning to canter without stirrups… the horse was being good but he has little spooks once in awhile that she has stayed on many times… WITH her stirrups. When I let her canter without her stirrups I knew it was a possibility that he might spook and she might fall… but this kid is pretty brave and has only fallen once in 2 years and is getting a new horse that is a lot bigger and stronger and I wanted to test her a little. And she fell and she laughed and got back on and did it again fine. So that’s the kind of calculated risk I’m comfortable with.
But another student I have who is very very timid but similar skill level I would not try this with at all. I know if she falls she is going to be messed up about if for weeks so if the horse looks sketchy in any kind of way we do a looot of walking, a toooon of trotting, and maaaybe canter.
It’s sooo hard when you have intermediate type people you don’t know well… I have one lady who rides with me and I think she’s great and tries so hard and has a really nice seat and can put anything on the bit and flat nice but she cannot stay on anything. Horse chips the jump, she falls, horse takes a long spot, she falls, horse trips, she falls… and I really don’t understand it I have kids who ride way worse that stay on like nothing. Now that I know her I always put her on my horses that do gymnastics really well and am SUPER careful with her but it took me a while to figure that out since idk I guess her nice riding lulled me into a false sense of security lol.
But that’s part of riding and as long as you’re not putting people in stupid dangerous situations that’s just going to happen sometimes.
You can’t beat yourself up too much about it, but yeah it’s hard not to I’ve shed many tears for injured students in my life.
I’m sure its been said but bears repeating: a horse that is going to spook because it senses nervous energy from someone LEADING it should not be a therapy horse. Full stop. What happens when a nervous rider gets on??
Don’t feel guilty.
So much this. She was being extremely defensive because she didn’t listen to you in the first place. I would find a different place to volunteer, I’m sure there are other places that need insightful horse people such as yourself that can see warning signs and try to act before anything bad happens. 100% not your fault your instincts weren’t listened to.
Going back to the question of bouncing back after a rider fall…I was fine for the first 10-15 yrs but as I got older I could not deal with the drama so I cut way back on teaching. Maybe it’s the social media thing but such a big deal is made about falling off these days that I just could not handle it any longer.
I mean I am 65 and don’t want to fall off obviously but if you ride horses you are bound to come off once in a while.
Now I will say that in your case I think you did the right thing! I have been hurt more on the ground by horses than from the saddle…you also could have been hurt trying to help!
