- Published: October 3, 2022
- Updated: October 3, 2022
- University / College: University of California, Davis
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 13
Crash Horse The calamitous crash had thrown me from my horse onto the hard ground. I could hear the panicked voices of my parents, and the very serious voices of people I didn’t recognize. I willed my eyes to focus and my voice to answer, but nothing was working. Was this really happening?
I have to get back on Willy, or else I wont have enough time to warm up, my ride time is at 12: 09. What time is it? We drove ten ours to get to this horseshow and spent months preparing for the California Dressage Championships. I am currently in first place. And have to get back out there and finish my second ride. I worked so hard for this.
However, no one seemed to hear what I was trying to tell. All I could hear were bits and pieces, “ call 911”, can you hear me?’, “ keep her still”.
What is wrong with these people, do not they understand I have to get back on!
We have all heard the old expression, “ get back on that horse”, but when you are strapped into an ambulance on your way to the ER, that is not possible.
Unfortunately, falling or getting bucked off a horse comes with the territory if you are an Equestrian. However, the important question is how you deal with it once it has happened. For me the big issue at hand was trust. After you have suffered bone bruises, major abrasions and a concussion, its kind of hard to “ get back on that horse”. It is hard to trust.
Trust is the main thing a rider has to consider while riding a horse. However, once a horse drops his/her rider during riding, the level of trust gets down and it becomes very difficult for the rider to get back on that horse. In my case, it became very difficult for me too because I had practiced riding only on the horse that bucked me off. Nothing was coming in my mind and I was feeling like in the shell because I was seeing my dreams being shattered due to the incident. At one point, I was thinking to get back on the horse and right on the next moment, I was getting scared of my horse. My level of trust was almost at the lowest level not only because of the injuries that I got but also because of the fact that an apparently accustomed horse dropped me off in a very harsh way.
I had thought only of getting one of the top positions in the championship. It was nowhere in my mind that the horse would buck me down and I would be thinking of either getting back on the horse or not. It was totally a new situation for me and I was feeling the lowest level of confidence and trust in my horse. However, I ended up going in the emergency room of a nearby hospital.
After that incident, I felt it very difficult to ride my horse because my mind was not getting free of the severity of the incident. If I say I lost trust in my horse completely, it would not be a false statement. I would say that trust is very important for a rider to concentrate on achievements. A rider has to have complete trust and faith in his/her horse in order to focus on targets. If the level of trust of a rider on his/her horse is low, the rider can never achieve the targets because his/her focus would be on positioning and repositioning himself/herself on the back of the horse.
In my case, I planned to rebuild my trust in my horse upon getting back from the hospital. To do this, I reduced the duration of riding for the first few days of training. I also watched many videos to learn which actions or moves make horses drop their riders. I learned a lot from the videos and learned to sit on the back of the horse evenly. I also learned to rub hands on the back and neck of the horse and pat a little on its back before riding the horse. These little things helped me gain my confidence and trust in my horse although it took me weeks and even months to get a long ride on my horse.