Ok so i have achin the size of a tennis ball and a cracked knee cap?

Question

i decided to give my mare something constructive to do and ended having her back and spear me chin first into the ground and i have spent the last 4 hours in hospital. just got home. my chin and knee really hurt. the dr said he couldn't believe it wasn't broken and said it was to do with my amazingly dense bones.

what is a fall that you think and look back on and say perhaps i should have been more injured than i was or maybe even not living?

Answer 1

I had a "what if" incident last September.  Oddly, it was my first horse-related emergency room visit in 33 years of riding.  I went out at 5 am, as usual, to feed my horses.  As usual, they were hanging around the gate to the backyard.  I went through, said hi to each of them and we all turned towards the barn.  Then, I stopped to take the grazing muzzle off my old pony, and my bossy mare spun around and kicked the pony.  The only problem was she missed the pony and got me on the back of the hand and the cheekbone.  At first I thought they both might be broken, then thought only the hand since it was unbearably painful for the next 4 hours.  The hospital was more concerned about my skull and brain, which both turned out to be fine.  The hand wasn't broken either.

The what if's hit home on that one.  While it was happening, my 6 year old son was sleeping, and if I had passed out (or died), no one else was around to help me or be with him.  If work followed the procedures they're supposed to, they should have started looking for me by 10:00, but who knows if they actually would, and that would be 5 hours after it happened.  If the kick had landed anywhere else on my head, I'm sure there would be trouble.  It hit only on my cheekbone, but what if it got my eye, nose, jaw or temple?  A few inches in any direction would have really changed my story.

This mare is extremely sweet to me, but can be bossy to the others, especially when food is involved, and I just got caught between her hooves and her target.  Now I keep a closer eye on her as I walk through.

Answer 2

It's scary to think about the 'what ifs' when something like that happens, I know I feel VERY lucky when I come out of something without a permanent injury! It's like playing a game of russian roulette sometimes because just a silly fall the wrong way can spell disaster! Of course the only time I think like that is just after a fall or a 'near miss' with my horses, if I thought about the dangers all of the time I would never want to get back out there again! I know some people who have minor things happen & it shakes them & they can't 'get back on the horse' so to speak...

I find homeopathic remedies (from the health food store or naturopaths) ie Traumeel &/or Arnica work wonders for bruises & swelling etc - but that's just me :)

I hope you're feeling better soon!

Answer 3

Well you are having some pretty cruddy luck just lately - hope it changes for you soon.

The fall that sticks in my mind wasn't actually mine - -it was my daughter

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11231383@N0...

You can see how small she is compared to him, well she decided to do some schooling work with him in the field while we were messing around sorting the hayfield out. At the very last moment she sent her sister down to get her body protector - lucky she did, Harvey managed to trip over and fall on her ( and we were all about an acre and a half away - only her sister was with her) anyway, having fallen over he then squirmed about trying to get up and planted on front hoof right on her chest to lever himself up. My other daughter phoned me shouting that they'd fallen and we set off up the fields. By the time we got to the gate she was leading him down.

She still has a hoofprint on that body protector. She never even got a bruise from it. I was expecting flashing lights and hospitals but nothing.

Wow talk about a close one.

Answer 4

I have lots of those.  So, do you think this happened because she is so freaked out about the other horses being gone?  Or is this her typical way of acting?  You had mentioned that she isn't fond of people in another question, but I figured you meant people other than you.  Or were you doing something new with her that she overreacted to?  I'm glad you are okay...I read about all your injuries in yet another question on here....you've been through an awful lot in your young life.

Answer 5

Well, this is a long story, but after some of the stunts we pulled with horses when we were kids, my sister and I shouldn't be alive.

To begin with, my dad's theory was that the first horse you train will probably end up spoiled and ruined, but at least he still gave us kids the opportunity to choose our own colt to train and have for our own.  He'd given me one when I was nine, but it was blind in one eye, and when a buyer came along, he sold him.  So I had the chance to choose another, and I picked the only colt from our old Three Bars bred mare and our new Two Eyed Jack stallion.  Started riding him when he was two, and I don't think he ever bucked.  I didn't ride him a whole lot until he was three, coming four, and that spring we worked a lot of hours bringing in cattle pairs from the field, one pair at a time as the cows had their calves.  So he learned the basics pretty well, and was a real nice acting colt.

My crazy sister and I would always race our horses, and she had a really fast colt that she was bragging about.  My colt Rudy would just sorta lope along on a race, and my sister was just certain he had some untapped speed in him.  So she asked to ride him.  Well, she ran him hard and fast, and I guess he liked it, and after that he would never stop.

It got so we'd be working cattle, riding out in a group to start the day's work, and my dad trotting along sensibly, and Rudy would just get more hyper and more worked up, and just about come unglued, and then he'd be gone, running full speed, out across a pasture until he'd come to a fence, and wouldn't stop for about a mile.  It was as if he was panicked by something.  I'd be pulling for all I was worth!  I did fall off a few times, like once when my saddle blanket was slipping, I reached back to adjust it, he leaped into a big run and I was just back out of the saddle and actually fell in a mud puddle.

We had guests out once, and not enough horses for all of them, and we put a big strong football player type on Rudy.  I was riding a younger colt that wasn't safe for company, so I figured Rudy was the safer choice for the guy.  I rode right beside him and said, "don't let him start trotting, it just escalates and he will run away with you."  We were all in a group, and another kid thought he'd play cowboy and came galloping up behind us whooping.  Rudy was off like a lightning bolt, ran away home, jumped over two auto gates (cattle guards) with the guy still aboard.  He came to our yard fence and took a quick left, the guy fell into the fence and dislocated his shoulder.  Rudy didn't stop, went through my mom's garden up into the woods and I found him clear at the other side of the woods standing there panting.  

Well, my sister said the guy shoulda just jumped off when the whole thing started.  About a week later, she and I were headed out to move some cattle.  Rudy was trotting along fine for me, we were looking forward to a good day.  She lagged back, walking her horse.  And then here she came at a lope, wanting to lope past us.  Rudy got hyper, and I was yelling at my sister to stop (she said later she just wanted to see if he would still run away!) and he ran away with me again.  This time we were headed for a group of cedar trees and a barbed wire fence at the end.  I jumped off, but didn't do it right, and ended up underneath Rudy.  I'm still not sure if it was because of his speed, or else his hind legs were picking me up and carrying me along, but I turned about three cartwheels underneath him.  He didn't step on me, and when I finally came to a stop, I wasn't hurt at all.  But my sister was certain I was dead, she said I was literally underneath him for about two strides.

We were just that crazy when we were fourteen or so (she was two years older, and caused a lot of the fiascos we got into).  But I was never hurt working with horses, and many of the colts we trained for our dad turned out to be first class ranch horses, and he still owns many of them today.

As for Rudy, he is twenty years old this year, and still lives on my dad's ranch in Idaho.  We went out to visit for Memorial Day and I rode him to help sort some cattle.  I can guarantee you that he would still run away if you didn't ride him properly.  My dad started riding him soon after the football player fell off, and he really liked Rudy.  But he would not let him lope, not even a canter, because it would get him all panicky.  Rudy could cut a cow and work cattle like the best cow horse ever, and he was dependable as long as he knew it wasn't a "kids race"...I would often hear my dad talking to him as they trotted along....Rudy would be getting a little hyper (head up, pulling at the bit, etc.) and dad would be gruffly talking him out of it.  It worked.  And I learned to ride him carefully, too...if Rudy was allowed to be the lead horse in a group of riders, he was usually fine.  If someone came loping up or tried to pass, he'd be gone.  But he worked fine alone, and in a group if you let him be first.

I always wondered just how fast we were actually running....I'm still convinced he could have been a race horse if born into a different lifestyle.  He didn't have the bulldog build of the Two Eyed Jack horses, he had high muscle on his hindquarters, and was really nicely put together.  And he would have been a winner at barrel racing, but I knew he would never turn if you got him to that high of speed.  He was a special horse, but it's a wonder I ever survived training him.

Answer 6

oh no! thats never good! i hope everythings okay with you!

but, i once had a really bad fall off my horse.  We were doing a nice collected canter one moment, and the next he was bolting, i was off balance, and i started to fall, but it was one of those slow motion things where i KNEW i was comming of beau, but i had first landed on his neck, then slipped off so i didn't have a chance to "tuck" or roll into a ball and save myself.  

I landed on my shoulder, and had momentum so i then flipped over my head-i was about this > < close to breaking my neck.  i sat dazed for a few seconds, then got up and went chasing after my horse who decided it would be fun to run through the paddocks of the mean horses of the facility.

And of course, i was pissed.. so i got Beau, brought him in the indoor, got on, and made him work.  I couldn't do much though, we trotted maybe a lap and then i realized how much my neck hurt so i got off, handed him to a friend to take care of and went home to sleep.   I couldn't move for 3 days, and couldn't sit up for more then 30 min for 2, but i didn't die!

Answer 7

One i tripped over a pile of old wood we were going to burn and i fell in it. I was all cut up and bruised but there were like old nail like inches from my face *shiver* and one time my brother fell down the stairs and his tooth went through his lip it was sick.

Answer 8

Ahh, oh wow R!! Glad to hear you're okay!! What would we have done without your silly random question asking and extraterrestrial obsession?? =P... Seriously, glad you're okay.

There are a few but the first one that pops into my head was one I got when I was still in my teens. I was riding a four year old named Caper that my dad recently bought. Out by where my old house was there was a huge field that my friends and i would always 'play' around in with our horses...

I was trying to work on some simple lead changes with the the four year old when my friends horse spooked and when flying past us which of course, spooked Caper.. He went galloping off with me and headed towards the edge of the pasture, which was a barbed wire fence covered with some overgrown weeds.

I knew by the way he felt he wasn't planning on stopping and I'd be damned if i was going to go head first into barbed wire so I tried to bend his head and one-rein stop him. He changed leads in the middle of it to the opposite side of where I was bending him and proceeded to trip over himself. He slid down and crashed right on top of me.

Thank GOD I was wearing a helmet, because somehow my entire body was lodged underneath him including my head. When he got up and i finally calmed down enough to figure out what happened my helmet literally 'fell' off my head. We both walked away with a little soreness and brusing, but somehow niether one of us were injured.

I have no idea how I survived that, or even made it through without any major injury.

**Edit**

Aww, sorry Redial. =( I really am happy to hear that everything is okay...