They say riding is the art of keeping a horse between you and the ground. I wonder if 'they' ever had a horse face-plant on them. On the flat. With a photographer at hand.
Horse and rider got up and walked away from this. My horse was a hair stunned, I was a hair stunned, but I jumped up and helped him up (not physically of course. I reassured him, tried to keep him down, then held his reins out of the way and kept talking to him).
He'd fallen toward his right side, as you can see, but somehow got a lot of gravel in his left eye. After flushing it, washing him and the tack, and letting him dry some, I got back on bareback and rode a little in all three gaits, both directions.
I didn't get crushed, I didn't hit my head, but I did jolt my spine/neck hard enough to get a good sized headache. Riding again helped a little with the stiffness, but not for long.
Two hours later, when the photographer said she HAD caught the fall on 'film' I looked at the pic and almost started shaking. These kinds of epic falls are usually reserved for jumpers and eventers. And you'll notice only his face is touching the ground in the instant the photo was snapped.
Dressage horses aren't supposed to trip over their own feet, even if they do hit a soft spot in the mud. Poor horse. He was fine the next day too, but I gave him some belated NSAIDs anyways.
Horse and rider got up and walked away from this. My horse was a hair stunned, I was a hair stunned, but I jumped up and helped him up (not physically of course. I reassured him, tried to keep him down, then held his reins out of the way and kept talking to him).
He'd fallen toward his right side, as you can see, but somehow got a lot of gravel in his left eye. After flushing it, washing him and the tack, and letting him dry some, I got back on bareback and rode a little in all three gaits, both directions.
I didn't get crushed, I didn't hit my head, but I did jolt my spine/neck hard enough to get a good sized headache. Riding again helped a little with the stiffness, but not for long.
Two hours later, when the photographer said she HAD caught the fall on 'film' I looked at the pic and almost started shaking. These kinds of epic falls are usually reserved for jumpers and eventers. And you'll notice only his face is touching the ground in the instant the photo was snapped.
Dressage horses aren't supposed to trip over their own feet, even if they do hit a soft spot in the mud. Poor horse. He was fine the next day too, but I gave him some belated NSAIDs anyways.
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) so a lot of stuff went through my head as we fell but was soon overridden by 'Get clear get clear get clear don'tgetyourlegpinned' which I managed pretty well. Unconsciously I twisted over 90 degrees with my shoulders and nearly 180 with my hips, thus landing shoulder-back-ass (and getting very muddy). Didn't get more than a few specks of mud on my helmet, thus showing I saved my head (Still: WEAR A F-CKING HELMET! We were trotting slow then BAM!)
