At 23:53:29 on 05.01.12, Aimstar wrote:
I am having troubles with the canter at the moment and had a few falls lately every thine it has been on a big horse, at a canter and I do not remember my last 3 falls as I got concussion. With my mist recent I couldn't even remember what day it was let alone gettingnon the horse. Does anyone have any advice on how and fall to avoid getting hurt too much? I have seen 6 year olds come off a horse and land on their feet ( would love to be able to do that)

At 20:37:40 on 06.01.12, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
You don't want to land on your feet! It is a bad idea, my friends mum landed on her feet and the impact broke the bone in her leg seriously in 2 places and she is not supposed to ride again. I had falling off lessons when i was at the riding shool and we would practice flinging ourselves onto those blue mats you use in PE to perfect our falling position lol, it was good practice for the ponies to learn to stand and wait when we fell too, anyway long story cut short you are supposed to relax and go limp, do not tense up, if you relax then your body will naturally absorb the impact, if you tense up or brace for the fall then your muscles which are already taught will absorb impact and this is what winds you or hurts you, also try to maneuver yourself to land flat on your back or on your arse, of you land on your head it is very dangerous the same way landing on your back at an odd angle would be so yeah mainly relax on impact ;), i remember my last fall of grenville he refused a jump i was expecting him to jump and i sumersaulted over his head and landed on the jump but it didn't hurt too much because i relaxed, my first thought was "where's that bloody horse, he will get his arse over that bloody jump right now" opened my eyed and he was stood there like "oh crap i killed mum" then i sat up and he was like "phew" then ran away -_- here is a pic after i fell lol you can see he was in a daft mood but i am uninjured thanks to my practice falls when i was younger, oh also ALWAYS let go of the reins

At 20:39:16 on 06.01.12, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
that day jumping after he refused, excuse the position and the over jump, i was acheing and he was having a silly day

At 04:12:40 on 14.01.12, Chandra1313 wrote:
I took a fall this summer, my horse spooked and took off in a canter and I tried to do a one rein stop. I pulled to the right since it's my strongest arm but for some reason my left leg likes to pull up when I get scared so I felt myself slipping and I thought here is as good a place as any to fall and I pulled my arm into my side and let my body fall and sorta landed on my side. I resisted the instinct to put my arm out to catch myself. I was sore but I'm 46 takes the body longer to bounce back but no broken bones ;-)

At 21:05:08 on 15.01.12, Aimstar wrote:
Thank you for your advice I will have to try this, I have had 3 falls and concussions in the last 18 months and every time I have had to go to hospital. Needless to say my confidence is getting smashed as well as my parents Worrying too much. But my horses do their best to look after me :)