Gravity always wins

[glenatron]

We went out for a ride on the common around some of the places we visited last week, enjoying the autumn sunshine and giving sleepsy_mouse a chance to try her new saddle out a bit more. We decided to have a little canter a bit ahead of one of the places we cantered last time, which was nearly a good idea except that our chosen stopping point was around the place we started cantering last time. And when I say "our" I mean only the humans. The ponies figured that as the path split there, that was where the race proper could begin. Suddenly I found myself in very brisk canter over very rough ground because Zorro had decided to inexplicably leave the path altogether and at that speed I was holding on more than I was steering. Small was vanishing off up the wide sandy path and I really started to worry that Zorro, who can be a tad careless about the placing of his feet, would trip and take us both down. I shouted to sleepsy_mouse to wait up a bit but she didn't ( it turned out she couldn't hear me, and could she have heard me her brakes weren't amazing either ) so I pulled Zorro back to a walk and turned us back towards the main sandy path that Small was vanishing off up. Zorro trotted a couple of steps and then bucked in the general direction of vertical and sent me straight over his right shoulder.

So, that was my first proper fall off a horse. I landed pretty well- the ground was quite level and only really compacted sand, my ninjutsu kicked in well enough that I rolled quite safely and miraculously I didn't hurt my bad leg at all. Zorro immediately stopped, having got shot of me, and started snuffling around beside me searching for something worth grazing.

We went back over to a bank at the side of the path and after a short fight over whether Zorro was going to stand still or turn round and snack on all the grass and heather on the bank ( I have started riding out in a mecate which is fantastic for trail riding because you have your lead right there if you need it ) I hopped back on, we cantered ( nicely ) over to Small and sleepsy_mouse and continued with our ride.

I first rode a horse about six years ago now and I've done quite a bit since then so I was certainly due a fall, in fact I'm probably due a fair few by this point. I've never been afraid of falling off because I'm confident I can land and now I've done it for real I feel a bit vindicated in that- I've got a couple of bruises and a sore shoulder but the world didn't end, I got right back on and aside from some aches that will wear off soon enough, I'm fine.

I'm quite relieved in another way too, come to think of it- there comes a point where if you've been riding a few years and you haven't fallen off that it starts to look as though you're just not trying.

Comments

[sleepsy-mouse.livejournal.com]

With my amazing timing, I managed to look round just as Zorro bucked! It was pretty huge :)

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm impressed that it's taken 6 years for your first fall, haha. Glad you weren't hurt. :)

[flax.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that it took six years for your first fall, either, but you're so right about being "due" for falls. I haven't fallen since I was like ... 12(?) or so, and I have the feeling that a. I'm basically on borrowed time now for the next one and b. when it happens, it's going to be SPECTACULAR.

Glad you're both okay! I love that Zorro was all revved up until you came off and then stopped to eat. :)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Everything else is basically incidental to the eating. When I got myself kicked ( actually it was almost four weeks to the minute between when he kicked me and when he dumped me today ) that was all about food as well. He is basically the fat pony from your userpic writ large.

My worry is that people I know who have gone for a while without falling off tend to follow it by having a bit of time where they constantly fall off. I hope that I can ...ahem... buck that trend.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Well, you've certainly had some excitement lately! I think I rode 6 years before my first real fall off of a horse too (although the one I'm not counting was about 5 years into horseback riding and admittedly, trying to do around the world with no one holding your horse is just stupid so I bailed out).

My first fall was when a lesson horse I was riding cantered through a hidden pile of manure in a grass arena and wiped out. Between that and Sage's slipping in manure and injuring himself last summer, I now see manure as very dangerous. :P

Glad you landed well. The only reason people then tend to fall off loads is because a.) they suddenly realize it CAN happen and thus think about it and attract it to themselves more and b) they go all fetal again trying to stay on and protect themselves, which screws up their balance.

Wishing you plenty of arnica for your shoulder.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

oh p.s. are you buying a new helmet or did your current one survive without any possible damage?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

No damage- I don't think my head really touched the ground until I was lying on my back staring up at my hungry hungry horse. The elastic on my trademark zebra-print hat silk is completely dead by this point so if my head had really made contact with the ground I'm pretty sure it would have been dislodged and it wasn't.

One thing I've trained pretty heavily in doing is keeping my head right out of the way when I fall and that seemed to be right in the muscle memory there, even if I did also breakfall in a classic hand-on-ground way, which is something I'm trying to unlearn at the moment as it's great for the training mat but potentially dodgy if you're on rough or hard ground...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I'm not counting one about 2 years in where a big round school horse I was hacking out on decided to run off home on the last straight and the saddle started slipping round so I dismounted while we were still going on. I figure it doesn't really count because it was an unplanned dismount rather than a fall...

[wldhrsjen3.livejournal.com]

I had a trainer once tell me, perfectly seriously, that my problem was the fact that I hadn't fallen off yet. She said the sooner I discovered I could fall without the world ending, the better.

I fell off two months later, and the world didn't end. :D

[stu-the-elder.livejournal.com]

Your career as a rodeo clown begins!

- Crumpwright ;P

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I think because I'm trained in rolling and receiving throws I wasn't really afraid that I would fall off, but I'm really glad to have had that vindicated...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Well into my career as a regular clown.

[spoon-doom.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you are ok. From previous family experience I will say that very little tends to go wrong as long as helmets are worn, and if you are on your own a charged mobile phone is a very good thing to have as well.