FMNM Blog Hop - The Fear

Four Mares No Money has come up with a new blog hop - and super awesome art to go with it: 

She wants to know:

What has been the most fearful moment you have ever experienced with a horse?

I've been fortunate in avoiding any truly hair-raising moments where I feared for my life or well-being. Honestly - my lack of confidence stems more from taking 4 years off and trying to build back up, rather than from any deeply negative experiences. 

And as a 'fraidy cat, I generally avoid 'scary' situations - so if a situation is clearly escalating beyond my abilities, I simply stop. But of course, with horses - sometimes bad things happen when you least expect and it's only after the danger is past that you realize how scary it was.

So my answer isn't necessarily a moment when I was quaking with fear and the 'danger' was very short-lived. But it's also a memory that has stuck with me over time. 

Years ago I was riding a 4yr old QH named Jack for the first time with the plan to get him going for the lesson program. He wasn't bad, just a super uneducated (duh, 4) freight train with no steering who proceeded to exit the arena while we were cantering. It's kinda hard to describe so here's a bird's eye view of what that meant:

two indoors under one roof, separated by an aisle

We were tracking right in the lower ring, and Jack pulled out across the aisle and into the upper ring. Except, his line wasn't very good and he dodged the wall at the last minute. But I didn't dodge and managed to hit the back left side (how?) of my head on the wall, cracking my helmet (must have been curled up in the fetal position, but thank god it wasn't my face!). 

sorta like this - Jack dodged to miss the wall and i didn't

It all happened very fast - and was over before anybody quite realized what had happened. 

Riders in the upper ring said I did a handstand on the horse's neck (he blessedly halted immediately upon impact) and I landed on my feet facing forward like it was an intentional dismount. And honestly, if I hadn't landed on my feet it would have taken a while to get up...

I wasn't hurt, but very badly shook up. But being on my feet I hopped right back on in auto-pilot mode to continue the lesson. And proceeded to cry the entire time. 

Everyone was very solicitous and eager to make sure I was ok - and I WAS ok physically. Mentally - not so much. But we carried on and did the full lesson, jumping and everything (and the horse was FINE, exactly how you'd expect a willing but thick-headed QH baby to be) - I just couldn't stop sniffling or shut the tears off... lol?

Fortunately that particular incident didn't have any lasting effects... but tho it wasn't a bad wreck physically, it definitely takes the cake as the most mentally upsetting!