Taking a tumble

There's an old saying in the equestrian world: 'it takes seven falls to make a rider.' I'm pretty sure that I picked up my allotted seven (and then some!) in childhood, and until last weekend I can't remember when I last fell off a horse. The internet is full of people proudly proclaiming that in 20 years of riding they've only fallen off four times. It does make me wonder if they've only ever ridden completely bombproof horses or have never been over a jump or outside an arena, because all of my falls have occurred when one or more of the following conditions coincide in the stars:

1) riding a young or nervous horse
2) attempting something (usually a jump) that I shouldn't have
3) riding out in the countryside on a horse who suddenly decides that trees (or birds, or fields, or wide open spaces, or stinging nettles, or grass, or just about anything completely innocuous and very familiar) had suddenly become TERRIFYING.

This time it was dust. Next time it will be his own hooves.

If these things happen it doesn't mean you're necessarily going to fall off. I was always rather proud that I had quite a good seat, and that I was pretty good with young horses. However, the laws of physics dictate that if a horse does something really unexpected and dramatic, you may well find yourself briefly levitating before coming down with a thump. This is basically what happened to me the other day...

I was going to try out a young (5-year-old) horse to see if I could help with caring for her and exercising her. It sounded like a nice idea, but I knew she was fairly green, and my main concern was that I wouldn't be able to handle her on the ground with my uncooperative body. Funnily enough, I was less concerned about riding - I thought that would be OK. I was wrong! The day I went to try her out, it was blowing a gale across most of the country. If there's one thing that almost every horse hates, it's wind. You'd think that animals spending a lot of time outside would get used to wind in the same way that rain and sunshine do not cause any adverse effects, but no. Wind is terrifying. The stable yard where this horse lived wasn't too windy, so I felt reasonably confident that all should be OK.

I watched the owner ride the horse round. She looked fresh and fast, but not too skittish. The owner came back in from the arena and asked if I wanted to give her a try - of course I did! She warned that the wind was much stronger out in the arena. We swapped the stirrups over (I have toe cages to help stop my feet sliding through when I can't feel my legs properly) and I prepared to mount. My first warning should really have been that the horse didn't want to stand still to let some stranger get on board. It took a while to get me up, partly because of me but also partly because of the prancing steed! However, I did eventually get up and settled and walked gently into the arena.

Well, the owner definitely wasn't making up the strength of the wind out there - I couldn't believe how windy it was! I was trying to keep the horse calm by talking to her in a relaxed, low and smooth voice, but I could barely hear myself over the wind. For about five minutes we just walked gently round the edge, doing nothing more than letting her get used to me, and me desperately trying to get used to her. I was reluctant to use too much on the reins and the bit, because she was so young. However, I definitely didn't need any leg to keep her going. I tried to sit nice and deep in the saddle, to make my body feel heavier and more grounded, hoping that this would keep her calm.

This isn't the one I fell off - but I don't have a picture of her, so we'll have to make do with the pony who lived next door. Somehow, I think most horses would be terrified of this little chap.

In retrospect, I should probably have been a big stronger with the hands. I was riding with a very light touch, and maybe that didn't help. In fact, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have clambered on at all! We managed to have a couple of trots, but each one got very fast and very strong, and it was an effort to get her back down to walk. Suddenly, as we were walking, there was a huge gust of wind, and the horse just bolted.

I think it was only a few seconds between the horse bolting and me falling off, but that was enough time to think:

1) Argh!
2) Sit deep
3) Keep toes up (I didn't manage this one too well, which is why I have the toe cages on my stirrups. If I'd had better leg/foot control I might have been OK, but there we go)
4) Pull back on one rein to try to bring the horse into a circle so small that she has to stop (unfortunately, the only way I could turn was to the inside of the galloping loop we were on, because that was my only strong arm - ideally you turn a horse bolting in an arena into the fence and pray they don't try to jump it).
5) Sudden realisation that nothing I'm doing is going to help
6) Curse the wind for not having died down at all
7) Brief moment to consider bailing out
8) See fence rapidly approaching, note horse's willingness to jump this if needed (there was NOT a good landing on the other side)
9) Another brief moment when you realise that this can only end one way...
10) Resignation to one's fate...
11) Thud.

I think I looked a bit like this.

Beyond the points described above, I don't remember a huge amount about what happened, because it all happened so quickly. I know that I hit my left shoulder on a fence post as I went down, and that the first thought after 'Oh, I'm on the ground' was 'owwwwwwwwwwwwwwww my arm!'. I couldn't feel my hand and I couldn't move my arm at all. Whilst I sat still for a moment checking that the rest of me was OK (it was, or at least any pain which I felt later on was masked at that moment by my arm) the owner and another rider caught the horse and helped to calm her down.

My initial thought was that my arm would probably be OK again quite quickly - I've had plenty of falls before, and although this was a very fast fall on to something uncompromisingly solid I felt that the injury probably wouldn't be too severe. As I got up to walk away (legs worked!) I realised that my phone had been flung out of my pocket - it also managed to work its way out of its case, which is a wrap around one that holds in place with quite a strong magnet. I was also pretty sure that my pocket had been zipped up, but whilst I was puzzling over that I took a few more steps and realised that my glove was lying on the ground too. It hadn't occurred to me that my painful hand which I couldn't move had had a glove on a few moments before until I saw said glove lying on the ground. Now, these are children's gloves which I'd had for years, and they were pretty tight, so I was impressed that my shoulder had been hit so hard that my glove had flown off. Impressed, but also slightly concerned, because the pain was not going away at all...

It was a bit like this, but more painful and less magical.

Anyway, off we went to hospital. Funnily enough, we went to what was being presented in the media that day as the worst hospital (especially A&E) in the country. Perhaps because of this, it wasn't very busy and I think I had really good care. The X-rays showed that miraculously nothing was broken, but it was clear that I still couldn't really move properly or feel anything properly all the way down my arm. I was told that the nerves had been mangled in the shoulder and that I needed to wait for the swelling and bruising to go down before they began to feel better. As my mum helpfully pointed out, I had at least managed to hurt the arm that was already pretty useless! I still couldn't move the arm at all. so I was given a sling and packed off home with strict instructions to rest, come back if it didn't get better, go to the GP when the swelling had gone down to get the nerves checked properly, and never to go near a horse again. Well, they didn't quite say the last bit, but I would have forgiven (and ignored) them if they had! The first bit of bruising was on my fingers (which had swollen up massively in the immediate aftermath) but that's gone down now, and now my shoulder and upper arm are taking over the revolting colour aspect of the injury.

So, tonight I'm getting back on a horse for the first time since the accident. It's the first time I've ever fallen off and not got straight back on, but I really wouldn't have been able to, and the horse wasn't really in the right state for that either (i.e., still cantering around the arena). For the first time ever, therefore, I'm slightly nervous, but I know that getting back on in an RDA environment will be safe and will hopefully give me the confidence back straight away. At least I know I followed this bit of advice:

I love how unconcerned this horse is.

This hasn't stopped me from doing too much yet, mainly because I'm lucky to have people willing to ferry me around. This happened on a Saturday, and on a Monday I went wheelchair racing. That is, I didn't actually race anyone, but I had a go in a racing wheelchair and laboriously pushed myself round an athletics track with one arm and one helpful boyfriend to help with steering. More on that soon - I need to do some work now!

This just sums it up so well!