First Fall!!!

 Ha ha, it’s funny to me that my title to this article is just as excited as my first jump article.

Like I promised in my last post, I come bearing stories of falls! Believe it or not, before riding at my English barn, I had only ever fallen off a horse once.

So I’ll start with telling that story. We had been riding bareback at my western place. We were practicing emergency dismounts, which meant that we had to get on to the horse from a short stool to ride after the dismount. I was trying to get on, and I hopped up on the horse on my stomach. I tried to swing my leg over to get into a sitting position, and I fell face first into the ground. Most embarrassing fall story ever. But I thought I had broken my nose because I had landed face first. Luckily I did not, though I had sand in my mouth and nose and eyes and…… But anyway that was my first ever fall. Hope you enjoy 😂

Now, my first real fall..

That last fall was more of a losing of balance than a true fall, so this is going to be a real fall story. One that actually counts.

Basically, Vegas and I were jumping our small crossrail. He was having trouble keeping his speed up, and I was having trouble with the straight approach. When I jump, I still reach forward to grab the mane.

So we were going towards the jump and it was a little wobbly coming in, and a little too fast and then to slow, but it was OK we were going to jump it and it was going to be fine. So I got to the jump and reached forward with my hand to grab the mane and two-point. But I only reached with one hand, which meant my other hand was ever so slightly pulling on the other reign. So Vegas decided to take advantage of this, and the second we hit the ground he turned, a sharp jumper turn. I would’ve stayed on, but the second he realized I was off balance he skated to a stop and yanked his head down, pulling me down and out of the saddle.

So this fall wasn’t too bad, as I could easily tell that it was my fault, and Vegas was only partially to blame. We got back on and jumped the jump again, and all was well.

Tomorrow, I’ll come to you with my next fall story. Much worse than both of these.

Bye,

Amelia