Before you get stuck into reading this and raise your eyebrows I’d like to clarify an important point – this blog is not about falling off and obtaining life changing injuries – nor is it belittling those amazingly inspirational people who are fighting hard to recover from horrendous riding accidents. This blog is about the majority of falls that happen in our sport, which happen day in, day out, where people are able to get back on and continue doing a sport they love.
Life is full of ups and downs, as is our journey with our horses. Setbacks in our riding come in different forms and for many people this is either falling off – or the fear of falling off.
As willing participants in a high-risk sport we all have to accept that sometimes we might fall off.
We can of course minimise the risks that we take to try and reduce the likelihood of us falling, but horses are not machines and occasionally unscheduled dismounts happen.
While I’ve not met anyone that wants to fall off sometimes the fear of falling is actually more crippling than a fall itself, and this effects people in varying amounts.
The importance of mindset
When I ask people what they want to achieve in a lesson, or at camp I regularly hear, “I just don’t want to fall off.”
I get it – I really do – but you also need to be careful using these words as it immediately puts you in a negative mindset. Try changing it to “I want a really positive lesson and I’d like you to help me with this issue I’ve been having.”
And as a coach, I don’t want you to fall off either! But unless you’re going to get off your horse and not ride at all I can’t 100% guarantee that at some point you won’t.
There is no doubt about it – falling off is pretty rubbish, but it’s how to reconcile it in your head that really matters – and of course understanding how and why it happened.
Falling off, hurting yourself and not being able to get back on is a very different concept to falling off and having to dig deep to be able to get back on and continue riding.
It also matters ‘why’ you fell off. For example, if it is because your horse has deposited you with no warning, multiple times, then there is a conversation to be had around why those behaviours are happening.
This is a very different from, ‘I lost my balance’, or ‘I didn’t look where I was going’, or ‘my horse got a fright and I wobbled off’.
And now the controversial part… sometimes you need to fall off
Yes – I said it. Sometimes you need to fall off to progress your learning and sometimes you need to fall off to realise that it is not as bad as your head has made it to be.
Falling off is not usually a complete disaster resulting in multiple fractures, eight weeks off work and no one to do the school run. Falling off usually results in some bruises, a knock of confidence and a need for Biofreeze and/or Deep Heat.
The walk of shame back to the mounting block whilst picking surface out of your clothing isn’t ideal – but as long as you don’t hurt yourself it can be turned into an opportunity to help reduce your fears around the thing most of us are worried about.
Seven years ago I had a fall whilst jumping which resulted in multiple fractures. I couldn’t walk so getting back on to learn from my mistakes wasn’t an option. It was the first time in my whole riding life of 30 years that I couldn’t get back on straight away and it really played on my mind.
Weeks later I went and rode before I was ‘allowed’ to because my head needed to know if I’d lost my bottle – I needed to know if I was going to be petrified about getting on a horse. As it turned out I was totally fine riding and I walked, trotted and cantered no problem – but I’d fallen off jumping so for me, that was going to be the challenge.
Starting to jump again
I waited a few more weeks until I was further down the healing process before booking a lesson to have a jump, in a safe environment with a fellow coach on the ground helping me. I rode to the cross pole with complete terror but my desire to want to get over a jump again and the practical part of my brain pushed me to do it.
Ahead of my lesson I’d thought many times about the number of fences I’d jumped in my life v’s how many times I’d actually really hurt myself jumping. I couldn’t count the number of jumps as it was well into the thousands, but the hurting myself tally was only at two. Quite a small percentage said my practical brain to my ‘what the fcuk are you doing this for’ brain.
Holding back….
I jumped a handful of cross poles that day and to me it was massive.
Although I was proud of myself for jumping again, it didn’t feel good because I had been so scared doing it, but I knew it was a step in the right direction.
I built back up slowly, rebuilding the confidence blocks one small step at a time with the help of my coach Sarah Oakden and my horse Fliss. It was a long process and in terms of height I was back to where I had been, but a few years down the line I knew I was still holding back with jumping. I wasn’t really enjoying it – I was ticking a box. I didn’t really know why but just put it down to my accident.
The walk of shame!
Until one day I fell off again…. it was a complete freak fall where the horse spooked, unluckily got her legs muddled under her, stumbled and we both fell down a wet drainage ditch.
As my horse trotted off back to the yard I picked myself out of the ditch and realised I was still in one piece. My back and pelvis were fine and, apart from a small bruise and a fuzzy head, I was totally unhurt. The worst part was doing the walk of shame to the yard with wet breeches to be met with James Oakden holding my horse!
I was so delighted I’d fallen off as I realised it was the missing piece. While the knock of confidence with jumping will probably always be there for me on varying levels, I needed to fall to realise that I could fall off and not hurt myself, and need weeks off work. It also means that I am now much better at doing my job because I really can relate.
So whilst no one likes falling off, please remember that it doesn’t have to be a major drama and total disaster – in fact sometimes there are positives in the situation. So before you overdramatise think about how many times you’ve stayed on, what you can learn, how you can improve and maybe, just maybe falling off could be turned into a positive.
Liz x
