A woman I use to train young horses for us
learned, at 8 years old, how to jump free of a horse and land on her feet.
I wish someone had taught me that when I was little, although I was never the
athletic type. I have slow-twitch muscle, not fast-twitch. I'm not
given to quick reactions, but more slow, methodical ones. A spooking horse
almost always catches me off-guard.
My farrier said when he was learning how to ride bulls, some old cowboy
put him on a horse and sent him across an arena telling them to jump off
before they made it to the other side (at a full canter) and if they didn't
jump, he roped em' off!!! Bet that hurts worse than jumping!!!
"If I were describe myself with way, for me, this would be another
thing to "practice at home." :)
I am personally of the opinion
that one of the most important things to know how to do in order to avoid
serious riding injuries is to know how to fall off without getting hurt,
and yes, there are ways to practice this (and much of it can be done
without a horse)."
My husband has done martial arts his entire life and insists that I can
learn to fall safely. I challenged him to fall off the bed "safely", which
is a good bit different from falling while standing or being thrown in a
martial arts or wrestling throw. He has never taken me up on it - so how do
you fall off the 5 feet from a horses back safely? I had a serious
injury in a spook, spin and bolt a few years ago. We were meandering at a
walk after a wonderful relaxed trot/canter and a bird flew up in front of
him. There was no time to react and I was flying through the air and broke
my back when I hit. Now I think about it - how could I have fallen "safely"
at that velocity, from that height at that speed?
