This injury is the most common one amongst truck drivers. I was told about it by Mum years ago who was a matron in a Hospital. I try never to do that. Touchwood I haven’t done it yet.
leading two mares in from the pasture wearing a little too big of rubber boots. One mare stepped on the back of my heel, caught the boot only so the boot stopped and I kept on going resulting in a face plant and two very confused horses. Only injuries were some bruises from the hard ground and a pulled hamstring as both mares were good enough to stop and laugh at me as opposed to spooking and stepping on me.
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I win a prize for mildly hurting myself not once but twice while the horse stood stock still.
Some years ago I was visiting friends at their ranch and their young boys were demonstrating how they could mount their steady Eddy ranch horse from a round bale, bareback. Looked fun! Easiest thing in the world! Except I somehow misjudged the oomph I needed to get from the bale onto the horse. He was fat and slick and I shot right over his back and onto the ground on his other side. I remember looking up - my friends’ kids were looking at me in horror; Sailor looked at me like, “you dumbass.” I wasn’t really hurt - I laughed about it and still do - but I was stiff and sore the next few days.
And then a couple months ago I led the mare up to the trailer step side to get on, like I always do, and somehow I caught the toe of my boot on…something? and went tumbling off. It was a fall of all of eight or ten inches to the ground, but it was awkward and I rolled my right ankle as I landed. Sprained my ankle really well. As I laid there and took stock of myself, the bug eyed mare glared at me and said “you dumbass.”
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Earliest one I remember… Horse is standing still. I am sitting on horse (in saddle). Lean back/lie down on horse (still in saddle). No one else is at the barn. We’re in the outside ring. Horse shifts weight behind. My back goes ping…can’t sit up. Takes a good half hour to get self off horse. Thank goodness he was a good boy and didn’t move (much). This was the beginning of my back issues.
Most recent…Half chaps zip from top down. Left knee doesn’t bend well (another injury), so it’s tough to zip that half-chap. Pull muscles in chest while contorting to zip bottom part of left half-chap. Takes 1.5 weeks to recover. (retweak it every time I go to ride because I want to wear the half-chaps)
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Here’s mine:
A few years ago I was planning on moving my young horse to a new barn that happened to be next door to my trainer, the old barn, not the new barn. I had a lesson that day on young horse and as I was mounting, she took off bucking and threw me into the arena wall SPLAT. She continued bucking around the arena like rodeo rough stock while I laid on the ground making sure my arms and legs still worked.
Trainer caught my horse and got on and she tried the same thing with him. Fortunately, he stuck and rode her out. Then put her on the lunge and lunged until she was behaving and being a good girl. My back was killing me however, but I thought it wasn’t serious so ignored it. Eventually I got back on her and trotted her around on the lunge line. Okay, all fine now.
I then had to load my gear from the old barn to take to new barn and my back was still hurting. I called my husband on my way and said I’m coming to pick you up and then taking horse to new barn then we are going to the hospital. Turns out I had fractured a vertebrae and messed up my shoulder. No wonder my back hurt so badly. Little turd.
I actually had done this repeatedly until I finally gave up lace up paddock boots.
I walk a little funny, my heels drag and ankles sometimes brush. My doc has mentioned possible EDS, which I understand causes someone to be clumsy, but I am clumsy at a level suggesting an ancestry tainted by a creature with a different number of legs.
Anyway, walking along with my mare, and the loop from the bow in my laces on one boot, snaggs the boot lace hook on the other boot- go to take another step and find my feet are tied together. splat. several times.
mare is very patient about it.
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The injury is pretty insignificant, but the results are pretty STUPID.
I was grooming one day, and brushed my backside up against the back of the grooming stall. I felt something scrape my butt, HARD, and saw a large screw sticking out of the concrete (obviously it had been there for a long time, as it had been painted over). I thought for sure my breeches had ripped, but when I went to inspect things, they were fine!
Forgot all about it until later that night. I caught a glimpse of my bum in the mirror, and notice it was pretty bruised.
This would be a total non-issue, except for the fact that the BRUISE IS STILL THERE.
THIS HAPPENED OVER A YEAR AGO.
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Moonmountain. My Mum was a matron in a Hospital. She said if it is still there after a year it is not a bruise. Bruises fade. It is something else. Have you ever had it checked.
The penny has just dropped. I have been taught and always teach that when you pick out hooves you only ever to downwards with the hoofpick. Never up towards the top of the hoof. I have kind of wondered way and will guiltily but gently go up sometimes as I thought that maybe there was a way to damage the hoof.
It never occured to me that this rule was to stop me being injured by scraping up my arm.
Moonmountain. My Mum was a matron in a Hospital. She said if it is still there after a year it is not a bruise. Bruises fade. It is something else. Have you ever had it checked.
The penny has just dropped. I have been taught and always teach that when you pick out hooves you only ever to downwards with the hoofpick. Never up towards the top of the hoof. I have kind of wondered way and will guiltily but gently go up sometimes as I thought that maybe there was a way to damage the hoof.
It never occured to me that this rule was to stop me being injured by scraping up my arm.
These are great stories!
I have one from last summer. …
I was jacking up my gooseneck trailer of my truck. This thing is heavy and I am pretty small, so I was putting my back Into cranking it. Well I leaned in too close and punched myself in the face with the handle of the crank. Huge swollen black and blue face…I need to invest in a hydrolic jack
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My other hard-to-explain horse injury: Was working with a friends green mare. Got on, started walking on a loose rein, then gathered the reins to do more. All of a sudden she whipped her head way down. I didnt let the reins slip quickly enough and was pulled forward. She then throws her head up violently, hitting me in the face and cutting my nose (yes, I had a helmet on!) As the blood is spraying she starts rearing. I am holding mane, trying to breathe and see and trying to circle her. After a third rear that I feared might go over, she hops a couple of times and then stops and I jump off.
Friend comes rushing over “what can I do?” I ask for a towel. We guessed that something stung the mare but we never found any evidence. Friend is rattled and falls back on her failsafe “I’ll make tea!” Gotta love the British. I get a look at the cut and it is open and needs attention. Friend gives me ice wrapped in a Sesame Street washcloth (she had young children) and I drive off to the walk in clinic trying to see over my icepack.
I knew I looked bad when they took the information clipboard from me and insisted on treating me first. Nose was broken, several stictches.
I turned up at work the next day with a bandage on my nose and two black eyes. :eek: No, I didnt fall off a horse! :lol:
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I HATE this about my hiking boots! But my paddocks have bitten the dust, so if I’m not riding I have to wear them. Can’t afford replacements yet.
Friend is a breeder, and friend of friend does the training and starting on her youngsters. Trainer friend was having a colt starting clinic, and friend had a two year old colt that she asked me to do the clinic with. Ok, let’s see how we start these puppies. (Different breed and discipline from my preferred warmbloods starting slowly and gently in dressage.)
Colt had had a good amount of ground work and handling, and was typically a good boy. All was going well, grooming, tying and waiting, tacking up (Western, I ride dressage), moving with tack, all good. I noticed I was the only one with a helmet on, and wondered if the other teams of participants felt somehow safe? These were definitely smaller horses than I work with, and I knew the colt I was handling, but I just always wear a helmet.
Time to do the step up into the stirrup, all good. Throwing a leg over, great. Mount and sit, fine. I had a header with a lead on the bridle, and colt was fine with me sitting up there doing nothing while header took us around a small loop in the arena. Yay, success! Good boy!!
Friend was watching at the side of the arena and told me the saddle had slipped to one side, step into the other stirrup to set it straight. Small voice in head says, “we just had a very nice first walk under saddle. I can fix it from the ground, that’s safer.” Friend again says to shift saddle over. So I check with my header and let her know I was going to shift the saddle (no, we had not practiced that at all!). I KNEW I should listen to myself and get off, fix from the ground. But, no. I stepped into the off stirrup and colt sees/feels me moving, shifting the balance of both of us. He whips around bucking, header is in the dust. I lasted about six bucks, and decided I would like to go up to my own barn and ride my own TRAINED horse, thank you very much.
I had an awkward bail, trying to get clear of the saddle horn, and pulled all the inner thigh muscles of my left leg, and more. Every ripped muscle fiber immediately began to swell, and I limped widely to the side. I imagine that is somewhat akin to having a groin injury in football (American football).
Colt starter trainer grabbed the colt, and decided colt needed to work more after that. So he got on, and was bucked off four times. This was a pro!! I felt a bit better that the colt got him off, too, but he was more graceful than me.
At the lunch break, we got to see how trainer deals with colts like my friend’s. I sat/leaned gingerly with ice packs down my jeans, and loads of ibuprofen on board. I learned some things, and was actually glad to see what happens when things DON’T go well. Trainer very calmly tied colt to an inner tube on the wall, and used soft ropes to slowly lay the colt down. Eventually. Colt was not giving up. Even when colt was down on his side. So I got to watch some more of trainer’s work. Colt never gave up, and stayed at trainer’s for a couple of weeks of further training.
Got teased quite a bit when I had to watch training rides for my own horse for two weeks. “Why would you go try to ride a baby horse? You have your own perfectly good dressage horse right here you can fall off from!” My assorted bruises were no big deal, but my inner thigh was colorful for weeks. Thank Dog I only tore a pair of jeans, and not my spendy full seat breeches!
Moral of the story: always wear a helmet, and ALWAYS listen to that little voice in your head. It’s there to protect you!
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