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What is your worst horse exp?

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weather it be falling off when riding or having a night mare h**e in hand. ANY thing you can think of and the story that goes with it.

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  1. My aunt and I were warming up our horses before a teampenning, whe were at a slow lope and out of no where her horse trips and it is like I saw the whole thing in slow motion... the horse does a complete front flip and my aunt did looked like superman going over his head. She was ok but a vet check later determined that he had neurological damage. She kept the horse after that but didn't ride him anymore. One day all of the horses were out by the water trough and he I guess blacked out, had a seizure something... anyway he fell into the trough and my aunt had to hold his head out of water until the vet got there to put him down. Even though that horse was the meanest thing ever I cried my eyes out just thinking about my aunts situation and if it were me.

    My cousin and I (about 5 at the time) had been riding my aunts horses (that we used to barrel race on) all day with my aunt and we were so proud of ourselves because we could get them to lope all the way from one side of the pasture to the other. We did it all day without a hitch then our moms get there and we wanted to show them so our moms and our aunt are standing by the barn watching and we get all the way to the back of the pasture. My cousin and her horse were in front of me and my 1/2 arabian quarter horse. We get into a good lope then her horse jumps over a HUGE yucca plant (that he had been going around all day) I am in shock staying right behind her trying to tell her to let go because she got off balance and she was hanging on to his neck and he was steadily getting faster. Her and her saddle were on the side of the horse and She just wouldn't let go... finally he jumped another yucca and she fell right in a patch of cactus. I was so shocked I didn't even think to stop and my horse jumped right over her I turned my horse around to see if she was alright and besides the cactus she was fine just crying extremely dramaticaly... I remember thinking then thinking that she was a big baby but now I think back and I wouldn't want to land in a cactus patch. I would cry myself! lol

    Another one, I was on my 7 yr old gelding and we were just having fun playing a little backyard polo (my dad called it redneck polo) with brooms and such. I had him in a lope turning in a circle and I reached out to hit the ball I don't know what happened but I ended up on the ground with my horse standing over me looking at me like "are you going to get up or just lay there all day" Of course my over protective mom had already jumped the fence screaming and yelling acting like a crazy woman. I don't know how that helped... Oh yeah so I am laying there looking at the bottom of my horses belly wondering why I haven't been trompled... then here comes the crazy old guy (one of the people we were playing with) telling me to move so he could hit the ball sitting right beside me. I scramble towards the fence and my horse turns around and double hocks his horse right in the chest. I guess he was protecting me. The other horse wasn't hurt, even though I thought he would have been from how loud the kick was. Ever since then the bond with me and my gelding is so strong that I would trust my life with him (obviously) :)


  2. Well, about two weeks ago I was riding my horse we were just about to break into a canter...then boom. He tripped landed on his side..and me...it hurt so flippin bad..my back,leg,and head were sore for a week. I was crying hysterically because I thought he was hurt(thank god he wasn't) and yesterday was my first time cantering him again since and it was the most beautiful rythmic canter he ever did so it ends happy!

  3. I was 14, and helping a young friend catch her pony in the field (and a right little snot he was, too!)

    He'd gotten into the swamp, but still managed to spin around fast enough to catch me in the belly with BOTH hind hooves, and knocked me flat int the mud and water.  Worse, he got the bucket of grain I'd brought to bribe him with.

    I was filthy, my boots were wrecked,and I sported a pair of horse hoof shaped bruises for a couple of weeks.  I'm lucky he didn't rupture something.

  4. Well the worst horse experience I ever had was I blew my stirrup saddle bronc riding. Doesn't sound too bad right? Wrong! There are two possibility's when you blow a stirrup when riding saddle bronc. You either come off or your foot gets hung up in the stirrup. Guess which one happened to me. Yeah the bad one. My foot went through the stirrup and I was drug about 100 feet under the horse before my boot came off. When I came too I was in the hospital, with 3 broken ribs, a dislocated knee, cracked skull, and more bruises than I could count. I got off lucky. I have known riders killed from lesser situations. Someone was really looking out for me that day for sure. After that I went on to ride for 5 more years. When dealing with horses or any livestock the best mindset to adopt is. Its not ''if'' its ''when and how bad''. Now that is when you know its all about the love, y'all.

  5. About 6 months ago I rebitted my rescue horse and started riding him loosly in that. Right at the start of our second session he spooked and I asked him to stop, he went a lot faster - bolted basically and we parted company at a full gallop. I landed on my feet and smashed both ankles. I have since rehomed Ollie although I still own a half share in him to protect his future. I've discovered through the lady he has gone to that he's an ex-racer - bolting explained. I'm quite happy to admit it's a lot more my fault than his as he is the first tb I rode and I'm not the most experienced rider. He is the sweetest horse you have ever come across and I think he was more freaked out than I was - he stood at the back of his stall trying to bite or kick anyone who came near him while my friend was trying to untack him - this is all because in his previous home he was very badly treated and from his behaviour I figure he was beaten up on several occasions for dumping a rider! However the good thing is he has now gone to a very experienced lady who has just rebacked him with no problems and he is doing wonderfully with her and has a very promising dressage carer ahead of him as he has beautiful paces.

    I have since started riding my sister's cob and am back to riding him regularily and have just started cantering him - I freaked a little when I started with him but he really looks after you and we're working towards a small show in a couple of weeks at the moment.

  6. I've fallen a lot, and broken many bones, but the worst experience was with one of the best show horses I had, and certainly the most expensive.  He was a 15h TB called Fluke and he was great at home, if a little skittish.  But whenever he left the yard, whether showing or hacking out, he was awful.  I'd been riding difficult horses for years, but Fluke was something else.  We were going out on a hack with my mother and one of her cobs, and Fluke took great exception to a tree at the side of the lane.  He reared up then gave two giant bucks, I wasn't too unhappy to be coming off, and landed in the middle of the lane to see Fluke hot-footing it down to the main road.  Luckily the farmer was nearby and grabbed hold of him and brought him back.

    I didn't break any bones, so from that respect it was not my worst fall.  But it did shatter my confidence and I sold Fluke a couple of months later - for quite a bit more than I'd paid less than a year previously.  I call that day my worst experience because unlike any other fall, I wasn't able to bounce back up and carry on riding, regardless of whether I was in plaster!

  7. About 1 1/2 years ago, I was just starting to get back into regular hunter/jumper lessons.  I was doing a course on a large, silver, dapple, TB.  I had gone a few rounds on 1/2 of the course (two long sides) just fine.  My third time around, we went over the first fence beautifully, but I could hear my trainer yelling, "leg, leg, leg!"  Honest, I had my leg on as hard as possible, we were about to take the second jump, I was going into 2-point when the horse simultaneously stopped, turned sideways (parallel to the jump) and bucked up and to the side.  I went flying through the air and my butt was impaled on the pointy top of the jump standard, which then fell over.  I landed on my side on top of the standard and poles, completely dismantling the jump.  My pants and underwear were torn, and my butt cheek was bleeding.  I swear, I could not sit correctly for weeks and had bruises all over.  It was hands down the worst fall I ever had.  I was actually scared to jump and ride for about 3 weeks after that--the first time in my life I was ever scared of riding.  Each lesson, though, I became more comfortable.  Within a month, though, I was over it, and actually jumped a LOT better after that--I think because I used a lot of leg and was like, "We are freakin' going over that jump!!!!" Haha...

  8. Definitely either gettting my face stepped on when I was 4 or possibly getting a concussion and a fractured spine. Or breaking a jump with my back.

    Yet I have never broken any bones...

  9. I haven't had many. The first time I fell off (and only so far, I know I will most probably fall off again some day) was pretty freaky. It was where I do my horse volunteer work, and I going to have a ride in the arena that day, and rode a quarter horse mare we used to have (she got sold on) in western tack.

    I'd never rode western before, and the horse was kinda crazy, and she kept trying to trot. I also didn't know how to control her in the western tack (this horse responded to English commands in an English saddle, and other commands in a western). So I was walking around, and was told to trot, and since she'd been trying for so long, so bolted, then bucked, and I was off. I was unhurt, but it was still kinda freaky. One second I was sitting on her, and the next I'd fallen on my butt!

    Then this past weekend we were putting the horses back in the paddock and me and someone else were just about to take the horses we were leading in when one of the horses who was just being taken out of it's yard to go back bolted and cantered all the way down to the gate to the paddock. The mare I was leading is currently in training and can spook easily and she freaked when this other horse started cantering towards her, and tried to bolt herself. I couldn't move out the way so I just had to lead her to the side and try and keep her calm. She didn't bolt, but considered it, especially when the other horse back at the yards decided he had to canter off as well.

  10. Whenever family comes to see me ride, something embarrassing happens.

    At my first show, the judge's assistant screwed up and bummed me out by saying I was first when I was really third...

    At the barn where I rode last summer, there was a wet patch in the indoor after the ring was watered. I was cantering around the corner and my horse slipped and stopped... I kept going and hit the wall. Got a new helmet out of that one!

    A few shows ago, my breeches ripped in the crotch, showing the whole crowd my blue polka-dot undies.

    And the past couple of weeks have been h**l at work at the barn, since most of the barn staff (5 out of 7 scheduled to work) decided to take vacation, so I'm stuck feeding, grooming, tacking, mucking for 36 horses. And the volunteers really aren't good for anything except leading horses and sidewalking for therapy and don't even know how to tack the horse (there was one day where at least five horses had their saddles on backwards!!!)

    And the lady who runs the place puts the clients before the horses, where I think it should be the other way around, since honestly, she'd be out of business if the horses weren't looked after properly!

    UGH! I can't wait 'til school starts up again and I can get back into REAL lessons. I'm sick of the lesson horses here.

    Sorry, had to rant, lol. It's been one of those days.

  11. My worst horse exprience (so far and I have fallen off once) is when I rode this horse in a circle at a lope (western saddle). I acedentally for some weird reason shifted to the opposite side of where I was supposed to be leaning towards to turn and we went swerving off to the right (I was going left in the circle) and my horse tripped and we fell onto our sides. The good news is that he didnt land on me. The bad news was that I landed right behind a horse but he didnt kick at me. I had a bruise the next day.

  12. I guess I would have to say when my horse had to be put down last Memorial Day weekend from a twisted gut. It broke my heart.

    Buy the way, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that leaves the "s" out of the word horse when typing =} sometimes!

  13. When my 18mth filly put her leg through a wooden lunge ring fence and stripped it down to the bone from the knee to fetlock.  She spent 2 months locked up in a very confined stable and then another 2 months in a small stable and yard. By the time she was 3 she was certified  sound by a vet and was able to be broken in. At 8 yrs of age she was schooled to show jumping and won quite a few ribbons til she was 16 years she  then happily retired, to a lush green paddock with lots of friends to live out her life in peace and comfort.

    today she is 23

  14. When i dreamed that my had a foal, and the foal drowned in the water trouf.

    But in real life, a few would be when we were driving home from school. My horse was on the side of the road just eating grass. I freaked out. My uncles horse got out ones, and got hit by a car and died. So i was really worried about her.

    Another would be when people came with two horse trailers to take the horses away, including my little girl. Because they thought we werent treating them right and werent feeding them. They dont go in the barn themselves they dont like it. And they got fed twice a day. (durn winter).

    ONe of the horses had west nile, and was an aribian so thats just the way she looked. but they didnt know anything about horses. the other was very old. And the other two were just fine.

    Made me so mad. We had to move them to another locotion for about a month. and i didnt even get to see my horse! next time they come near her, or step on our property, they will have good wack to the head with a shovel! they dont even belong to any organization. Just some idoits driving by

  15. my worst experience was getting slung off a barrel horse and sliding (think baseball lol) into a metal arena fence that was cemented into the ground. i hit the fence in my right hip area at a full speed slide across the sand. i couldn't stand up off the ground, and couldnt walk at all for several days. the pain was unbelievable! i never went to the doctor to officially find out what was wrong but i'm pretty sure i fractured my pelvis or tailbone. i walked with a hitch for almost a year, and my hip/pelvis still gets stiff and achy during the winter or extreme cold

  16. back in may i was riding this gelding, who didn't do well in the racing industry as a colt and wound up at my eventing barn, but has completed his first eventing season. His name is Terminator, which fits him perfectly. He is a project that me and my trainer share and train together and he can be a real brat (i love him anyways). But i was doing some jumping with him one night, connecting some fences together and we were doing this nice, smooth, rollback to a combo. As we approached the combo, he started rushing into the combo, we went through the combo at a million miles an hour, and I turned him in a sharp little circle, and we went back to work on a controlled combo. He pulled and pulled on my arms, so i stopped him, and did a strong reinback. Of course with his psychotic personality, he tends to turn things into something 10x bigger than they really are, he's a drama queen. He backed up so fast that he tripped over his own legs (that are too long for his own good =D.) and freaked out, trying to regain his balance, he jumped up in the air and flipped over backwards on top of me. Of course you all know, horses are flight animals. So as i lay in the dirt still trapped under him, he thrashed and thrashed and thrashed. I tried pushing him away so i could atleast get out from under him. When he finally got up, he kicked my head and left a huge gash across the top of my helmet. He spun around and took off across the arena. I remember laying there in the dirt, staring at the ceiling, while everyone in the barn was standing at the arena side watching. My trainer came running in, and one of my friends grabbed Nator, and checked him over for injuries (he was fine). My trainer helped me up and I felt this really sharp pain in my sides. I walked it off (so I thought). And me with my mindset of "when you fall off you get back on." I got back on and as soon as i starting posting, I stopped and got off. Come to find out i had seperated my ribs. And since all of my focus was on the pain in my sides, i never realized Nator had stepped down on my leg after getting up and left a huge gash in my shin. That left me with 75 stitches. Luckily that was all i walked away with. I was off for about a month, and had to start back on my trainer's old school horse. The beginning of July i just started training and riding the other horses in the barn (including Nator). It did not ruin my confidence but it sure scared the c**p out of me!! I have taken Nator to 1 event so far this season and he did great and i also have my own horse now, which is my own project, and about 2 hands taller than Nator (new horse is 17.3), with 10x the energy Nator has!!

    oh i do remember another one too it wasnt so bad tho:

    At my old barn (jumpers). I was riding this ex-racehorse who couldnt jump for his life, sadly he was a schooling horse at a jumper barn =[. And we were coming down this really dark end of our indoor arena. My trainer had her back to me, talking on the phone with a client. Well i finally got this horse to jump. As we left the ground over this oxer, he planted his feet in the middle of the oxer. He tried jumping backwards out of it, taking the whole jump down and breaking the poles. He got his legs unstuck, then spun around 3 times, I eventually flew out of the saddle, clinging to his neck, swinging around and around. Somehow as he was spinning, I was able to get myself back on his back. I dont know how but i did, and he started bucking. My face slammed into his neck. All the sudden he slammed on the brakes and just stopped. It was like the calm after the storm. My trainer just stood there in shock. haha i sat there laughing for about 5 minutes

  17. We bought a beautiful Dash for Cash bred mare for my daughters best friend - YES WE BOUGHT THE MARE (editted to say that I bought it for her friend - not the parents) - took a loan out on my trailer - to keep this 12 year old horse nut into the rodeo scene and be competitive!

    The mare was finished in barrels and poles - AND only 9 years old! She cost us 6500.00

    We'd hauled her to a couple barrel races the weekend after we got her home and had gotten some great video of the mare - the her knew happy rider! They were perfect together -

    We'd had the mare for 5 days - when somehow my oldest daughters horse had gotten into the same pen as this mare - and apparently they had a kickin' match -  I found her likely several hours after the incident - lying on the ground.  The ground was stirred up - so I could tell she'd been down a long while.  Plus sadly there were sores from where she'd been struggling to get up - but couldn't.  She'd had her back leg broken right at the fetlock joint - and it was severe enough the bone was protruding through the skin.  

    Obviously we had the vet put her down - and she is buried on the property out back.  Her barn name was Layla - We didn't have her long enough for them to bond - but it was already starting - so you know it was hard on her.   Not to mention how difficult it was for my oldest daughter - knowing it was her horse who'd caused this -

    Just 10 months later - "Kendra" has a new horse - he's not finished - (couldn't afford one) - but he's a super nice gelding and has the personallity that will make her a talented youth horse!  Twister has filled the gap - but our hearts are still very broken to this day with the loss of Layla!  

    ON that note - I want to say THANKS AGAIN AND AGAIN for GIVING Twister to Kendra - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE - if your reading this!  You are an ANGEL OF GOD and we love you for it!

  18. well me and my new horse[whom i had only had a week or two][whom i had known since he was born and worked with him he was my uncles and he was a yearling] well we were out in the field and he started to kick at me[i was walking him] and he was biting me and rearing and striking at me!! it was so scary he wouldn't stop i screamed at him over and over again, and i was hitting him with the leadrope but he wouldn't stop. i am now selling him 4 months later!

  19. I would definately have to say it was when my horse Bambi died in my arms :(

    When I went to feed him he was lying on the ground and couldn't stand up no matter how hard he tried. At first i thought he had broken his leg, but the vet later told us he had a twisted intenstine or something. There was nothing we could do, so I simply sat outside with his head on my lap for hours until he finally passed away. I wish we had had a gun to put him down. But the worst part was after we moved his cold corpse, my other horse Lightfoot layed down in the exact spot he died and layed there all day long. I thought he was going to die from depression, and that ate me away for days until he finally got better.

    Tears :(

  20. i was 16. i went to a farm my friend lived on. they had been riding this horse all morning. i got on came down a hill and he stopped and bucked and threw me over his head. i landed on mine. i thought my eyes were closed but they were open and streaming tears. i couldnt see. my sight gradualy came back. i had to walk home. about half an hour. by the time i got home one side of my head was swollen to the size of another head. my mother took me to the er. exrays showed my neck was severly bent to the back. i had to go through months of physical therapy but was inches away from having ended up like christopher reeves and paralysed for life. to this day i still have pain and have to sleep in a collar on bad nights.

  21. i was going into 7th grade, and i had just started riding my new horse. she was well-trained, and i was stupid -- i wanted to ride her ONE last time before school started.... so i brought her out at dark. =P

    she was doing okay, but then i brought her around a hedge and it brushed her flank.. she took off at a full gallop. i was terrified. i tried stopping her but she was in a panic.

    so she's running into the dark, and my 12-year-old brain says that instead of getting killed by being smashed into the top of a doorway, i would rather just fall to the left -- and i did.

    i landed on my head.

    i would have died if i hadn't been wearing a helmet! [ALWAYS WEAR HELMETS EVERYONE. just do it.]

    the ambulance was called, at 10:30 at night... they rushed over, and brought me to the emergency room.

    turns out i had a mild concussion and a broken wrist.

    i couldn't go to school for 2 weeks (which was entirely ok with me lol) and mostly during that time i slept.

    my dad was SO scared of letting me ride again, he didn't want to almost lose me like that again, sooo my horse almost went a year and a half without being ridden.

    over the summer i snuck on her because i knew she was ready and i couldn't STAND not riding. it was horrible!

    so lesson learned; never EVER ride a horse in the pitch blackness unless they're extremely trained and don't have jittery nerves.

    =]

    i feel stupid for even doing that.. something i'll never do again.

    hope you enjoyed

  22. I was 15 years old. My aunt had 2 horses and was away at school. She had given the mare to me because I took care of her and my Aunts horse. My grandmother wanted the horses ridden more than I could do and besides the gelding was hard to get to go anywhere with out the mare. She knew a real cowboy and asked him to come and ride the horses. He wanted my brother to go with him on my mare. My brother hated horses and really didn't want to ride but my Grandmother made him. I begged the cowboy to let me go with him. I told him I could ride, but he always said I was too young and too small. I was short for my age. One day my brother got up and left early so he wouldn't have too ride and wouldn't be around to be forced to. The cowboy showed up and when my brother was no where to be found he finally decided to let me go with him. we saddled up and headed out. We had to ride part way through city streets. We came to a busy intersection and while we were waiting to cross, a car behind us honked its horn. The mare took off like a rodeo bronc. She bucked up a storm. After what seemed like forever she stopped and I was still in the saddle. The only thing was is that my chest had been pounding against the saddle horn and I got some cracked ribs. That was extremely painful, but at the time I didn't notice it until later. After the bucking, the cowboy looked at me and said "Boy, you can sure stay in the saddle."  So it was the worst experience, because of the cracked ribs, but a good experience, because after that I was the one who went riding with him. I was also back on that horse in a couple of days.

  23. i think my worst one had to be wen i was out on a trail (i was like 5-6 at the time) with grown ups and i wasnt paying attention (oops) and there was a tree limb and i ran into it and it knocked me off...it was pretty embarresing.

    then i was riding for this one college student (to c if i wud ride her horse wen she was at college) and she had me do different things. she had trot poles set up and i was cantering, the horse turned suddenly and tried jumping them ( i was totally unpreparde for that) and it quickly turned and i slid off ( more like fell off) but then that was embaressing cuz i didnt want her thinking i was bad at riding although i have beenriding since four yrs old

  24. Having to put my favorite old AQHA gelding down.  

    He'd been with me for over 20 years, he'd been my fence horse, my rope horse, my trail horse and when times were really rough, on occassion, my lesson horse (He did not do this well.).

    His soles had begun abcessing the year prior, I managed to get left front hoof cleared up but then the right one started up and the cornet band started to look like cauliflower, my vet couldn't figure out what was going on, even with Xrays and sent us to the leg specialist at Chino Hills Vet.  While there, my forever friend tried to calm me down while we were waiting for the vet's decision.  My horse's idea of calming me down was to give me a bath, like a momma cat cleaning a kitten.  He'd done that for two decades and it had NEVER failed in taking my mind off whatever was going wrong, it failed miserably this time, because we BOTH knew what the decision would be.  

    While waiting, the vet's assistant made some snide comment about the "OLD horse"...

    The vet's diagnosis was that the muscle tissue in his leg was breaking down and that outside of amputation, there was nothing that could be done to cure it.

    I couldn't see doing that to the horse who would rather do flying lead changes than buck when feeling good so made this the hardest decision of my life.

    Although I understood for insurance reasons WHY I was not allowed to be at his head when the shot was aministered by the vet, I was still trying to get to my friend and he in turn, was trying to get to me.  It took 2 shots to end his life, the first one just pissed him off.  After the deed was done and the old horse layed there, I looked at the assistant and simply stated, "You didn't know this "OLD horse" when he carried me over my one and only 6' fence, or when he and I rode trails together, or sat out in arenas teaching kids how to ride.  NEVER make a comment about someone's FRIEND and not know the history!"

    Then I got in my truck, drove off and went home to put my horsetrailer away...

  25. Why would you post a question to remind us of our bad times wiht horses silly goose? lol.
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