First fall

Today I had my first fall from Kadey.

I took him out for our virgin ride on the side of the road, outside the safe confines of the agistment property. I'm still riding him bareback as bareback > saddle that hurts him, even if it means I'm less secure.

He was a bit jumpy but eventually calmed down... until we turned to walk back to the property. Then he became quite silly. This wasn't helped by a strange rattling sound of a truck pulling a rattley trailer over bumpy ground behind a bush somewhere. So when that truck and rattley trailer eventually whizzed past us on the road (at full speed.... past an obviously freaked out horse.... who does that?) he freaked out and tossed me off. Luckily it was one of those slow motion falls where I had time to make a choice as to how I came down so was able to land on my feet - though I then fell back on my butt.... but at least my feet took the brunt of the force and not my head.

I wanted to jump back on (uhh... kinda) but he was too silly and wouldn't step into a ditch so I could jump on (he's too tall for me to jump on unassisted). Instead I walked him back to the property (mercifully not too far) then remounted using the mounting block. I rode around the property for another 10 minutes just to ensure neighter of us was too shaken or left things on a bad memory. Obviously it'll take some work but at least we had a sensible finish.

So... my lessons for how to avoid falls in future:

1. Having a saddle rather than riding bareback would assist with grip when he's spinning about like a loon. Fortunately his saddle fitting is in 2 weeks so nearly there...

2. Perhaps lunge him before our next ride out. If possible, ride out with another horse.

3. Don't finish rides by walking straight back to the saddle up spot. Instead ride him back and forth past the property (or if doing arena work, back and forth past the saddle up area) so he doesn't think pointing towards that spot = end of ride = reason to be silly.

4. AVOID RIDING HIM AT FEEDING TIME. This factor didn't help and we had to walk past the feed truck on our way out, which he wasn't pleased by. Not helpful. A girl who used to agist there said the only time her horse ever threw her off was when she rode him at feed time. Lesson learned. Tough one as often that's when I'm there but I'll have to work with that.

5. Having Kadey in a roadside paddock in the new place (if it proceeds) may assist with getting him used to scary trucks and things zooming past him.

6. Remember to wave my arm for speeding cars and trucks to slow down. If I don't ask and if they're not pony people, they may not realise. The truck slowed down when he saw me on the ground, but sped off when he saw I was on my feet. What an idiot!!!

In all, at least it was a gentle fall (though my foot REALLY hurts now!) and we were able to ride a bit more before putting Kadey to bed.