Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall, Humpty Dumpty had a Great Fall...

I don’t think there is a worse feeling in the world than that split second before you fall off your horse. That second when you realize that you’re not going to be able to save yourself. That second where you have just enough time to think “oh SHIT” before you hit the dirt. I know I’ve been there. Added up, my split seconds would make hours upon hours (thanks Echo, thanks a lot). My confidence has been destroyed by falls, and my confidence has been built by falls. My friends have fallen off. My students have fallen off. My mentors have fallen off.

Everybody falls.

One of the most popular questions I get when I am teaching a beginner doesn’t come from the student, but rather from their parents.

“Is horse back riding dangerous? Could little Susie fall off?” They ask, all serious like, as if the $150 helmet they just bought their child is all for show.

I just smile and tell them that anyone can fall, that it is a part of riding, but the likelihood of a beginner falling off of a twenty five year old horse that can barely trot let alone buck or spook, is very slim. This explanation, of course, brings up the inevitable question:

“How many times have you fallen off?”

“Over a hundred,” I say easily. This is usually when the parents look at each other out of the corner of their eyes and nod wisely at each other, as if they knew what I was going to say. I know they are burning to ask me more questions about the dangers of riding, but by now little Susie is looking a little green and they back off. Thank God.

Yes, falling is a part of riding. If you want to become a horseback rider but you don’t want to fall off or get hurt, take up knitting. Take up running (except don’t run where Reese Witherspoone did). Take up any multitude of activities that don’t include getting on the back of a 1000lb animal that thinks for itself.

If you are of the mindset that yes, everybody falls and that is just part of riding, then you are also probably of the mindset that if you fall, you must get back on. I used to think this was the golden, unbreakable rule. Now I am not so sure. If your tried and true old trail horse spooks at a deer that just jumped in front of it and you went sliding off the side then yes, by all means, get your butt back in the saddle. If you were doing a jump course and you asked your horse for an extra stride where an extra stride didn’t exist and they took off earlier than anticipated then yes, get back on and do it the right way. But if you get bucked off, or your horse does a massive spook, or they bolt… is it really in your best interest to get back on, just to prove you “aren’t afraid?”

I ask this only because when I was younger I had a quarter horse mare named Echo. One day during a lesson Echo bolted. She ran at a flat out gallop for hours (at least that’s what it felt like to me) until I finally popped off and fell into the rail. I scraped up my arm, so I don’t think I got back on that day, but the next time she bucked me off I did. And the time after that, and the time after that. Soon my confidence was so shot I was terrified of getting on her at all and she, being the smart horse that she was, learned exactly what buttons to push. My mom did nothing wrong in insisting that I get right back on every time I fell. After all, she was of the hard core Pony Club generation where it’s a badge of honor to fall off your horse… the more bounces you make on the way down, the better.

But what if I hadn’t gotten right back on after a nasty bucking episode? What if I had taken a few days off, given myself time to relax, to breath, and then tried it again? A horse that has just gone haywire for whatever reason is going to sense your fear and feed off of it. What are we really proving when we get back on? Other than that we’re idiots for climbing on a horse that just shoveled us face first into the dirt ten seconds ago? I suppose the old mantra of “fall off, get back on” came from the idea that if you didn’t get back on your horse after a fall, you never would again. That’s fine. If one fall really shakes you up so badly that you never want to get on your horse again, then you shouldn’t be riding horses. The other train of thought that ties in with getting right back on when you fall goes along the lines of not letting your horse “win.” Fine. You don’t want him to feel like the winner after he dumped you into the rail? Grab a lunge line and lunge the bejeesus out of him. Put him away, go home, soak in epsom salts, and think about riding the next day when you’ve had to time to think about a) why you fell and b) how to prevent it from happening again (or at least for the next few weeks).

The idea for this thread was born yesterday, when someone I am close to took a flying header into the ground. Their horse spooked at nothing and went left, said rider went right. Right onto her back. She was shook up, but she did get back on for a few minutes before back pain forced her to get off. I didn’t pressure her to get back on. I let her make the decision… and sometimes that’s the best thing you can do for your riding friends and for yourself.

Remember, falling off doesn't make you a bad rider. It just makes you a rider.