Share your battle wounds..... what are all the ways you have gotten hurt with horses?

Bearing in mind that I never had my own pony as a child would ride anything and as the stables I learntat was very good we had many ponies and horses come in for remedial training or breaking and I was usually the first one on and often off them!

Majority of my accidents never happened with these animals but came from me trying something I had seen on TV or in a film or circus on well broken ponies and horses, or, just fooling around with them.

I have had so many concussions that I know when I am concussed - three time with fractures to my skull and I always wear a helmet.

Shoulders I have broken right twice and left once

Collar bones 5 right and 7 left

I have also dislocated my shoulder more than once but that was on the ground both times.

Busted ribs twice.

Fractured coccyx,

Smashed my knee up.

Busted right leg three times, ankle once

Left leg once - but that was not really horse related - we kids from the stables went scrumping (stealing apples from an orchard!)

I have had numerous stitches.

Had my teeth knocked out twice.

Broken toes on numerous occasions.

Busted my back and was in a frame for 8 weeks.

Apart from the latter and a couple of concussions where I was hospitalised nothing stopped me from riding for more than a day. Oh, I lie! There was a time when a nasty little pony struck out at me and caught me on the inside top of my thigh and tore the skin. I never mark much for days or weeks from bruising it takes ages to come out and that doubled the size of my thigh and it was just to painful to ride until I had to go into hospital to have it drained.

I also fell when filling the oat crushed and in doing so knocked the guard off and my hand went into the cogs. That took 70+ stitches to repair. LOL

My mother was brilliant and would say "If you can't take the rough then do not go riding." There was never any sympathy usually just a lot of teasing and laughing.

Of all these things I know that they hurt but one cannot recall the feeling of pain. The worse and most painful was when I drove a balckthorn through the knuckle of my little finger and, when a severely autistic child bit me through the muscle and hit a nerve on my hand.

When I went to my doctor - usually after hours - he would say "Kick, bite or a fall?"

I will also say that the ground get harder as you get older! Despite all these injuries I do not have a touch of arthritis or stiffness even though I am officially 'old'

I haven't had anything too scary. Once I got stepped on while a horse I was leading in a tight barn isle was turning around. He didn't move his hoof the whole time he was turning and kind of squashed my toe for a whole 20 seconds which felt way longer...and of course he had shoes on! I could hardly walk (or hobble I should say lol) for days after that. Another time I got bit when a horse charged at me while I was feeding her in the dark outside. If I didn't have thick winter gloves on it would have been a lot worse. Also while I was jumping in the dark (poorly lit arena lights) and we were doing a rollback and apparently I didn't turn tight enough my knee hit the standard pretty hard (It fell over!) I couldn't even brace myself for it because I thought I turned early enough. I know I have more but can't remember. I've never fallen off and it's been 6 years...I'm well over due xD

My friend has had some scary moments: She got kicked and cornered into a fence. It actually left a bruise in the shape of a horse shoe. She didn't even do anything wrong that horse hurts people for know reason and is evil.lol She hasn't even had any bad experiences (she's hasn't been abused or anything) And she got literally trampled once. She got completely knocked out and felt fine afterward even though everyone was "like, OMG you got trampled are you sure you're okay!?!"

I've been riding for 15 years (since before I could walk) and I only have 3 things that have happened to me and they aren't even major. Once I was feeding the horses in the pasture and the dog comes out to chase the horses the horse freaks out and kicks me in the stomach and i had a hoof print on my stomach till the next day. Another time my pony was annoyed by the flies and shook her whole body, down I went like a rock not a scratch I got back on and finished day of competition. Then most recent my moms horse got a little excited and gave a little buck I half fell half jumped the worst thing that happened was a bruise on my butt.

I've been REEEAAAALLLLYYYY lucky so far! Nine years and all i've gotten were:

Twisted my back and landed hard on it, couldn't walk or stand for thirty minutes. That was WEEKS ago and it STILL hurts (my mom says I need an X-Ray but I don't want to go haha)

My ear ALMOST got bitten off...long story...

Running into a jump standard on a crazy horse...nevere even asked him to jump lol..not sure how I stayed on O_o

Other than that i've gotten cuts, bruises, toes stepped on(ouch!) and some other random bumps.

Pretty lucky considering they always put me on the green horses that bucked the entire hour and galloped around the arena like maniacs until I could stop them O_o

Pretty good for nine years!

But daang! I hope you're okay! Stay safe xD

Geez... I've been really lucky compared to a lot of people. The worst injuries I've had was internal bruising on all of my ribs when I was 6 years old after falling off a lesson pony and getting thrown into the jump (the jump completely collapsed on top of me, standards and all, and I had to 'dig' my way out of it). Oh and the best part of that fall was the fact that the trainer I had yelled at me for crying when I fell. Then I got to go home and try to breathe without crying. Other than that one bad fall when I was younger I have mostly just had a lot of trouble with a lot of back pain after falls. The last time I fell off of my gelding I went zooming through the air, completely twisting around and landing flat on my back. It was painful, I had the windblown out of me and seriously thought I had just broken my back because I couldn't move for like 10 minutes. Lucky me, all I needed was a good massage and some adjustments from a chiropractor. I've been womped in the head a good number of times too, the best one happened a really long time ago when I got hit square in the mouth soon after I had gotten braces and the inside of my lips got all torn up, it was just the way the horse's head hit me and kind of dragged my lips against my teeth that did me in. It was really gross.

Reading these stories is scary! Lol...

1) I was riding a two year old who I had just broke to ride about two weeks before. It was a nice day and she was being really good, so I decided to take her outside. She forgot how to turn and ran sideways into the fence and my shin still hurts 11 years later.

2) I was breaking a pony to ride and was dismounting when she decided to throw her head violently backwards, hitting me in the jaw. My leg got stuck half-on, half-off, and pulled my groin muscle. Probably my most painful accident.

3) I was breaking a two year old (theme here?) and stupidly rode him first thing in the morning. I guess I wasn't really awake yet. He was just walking along and then stopped, bucked, turned, bucked...I fell off and hit the wall. Just too much trouble to stay on I guess....

4) I was combing out a horse's tail before he went into the show ring and the rider lost control and he whirled and then whirled back and kicked me in the thigh. I still have a dent there and it hurts about once a year.

Considering the horses I have ridden over the years, I am amazed that these are my worst injuries. I consider myself very fortunate! Be careful, everyone!

1) 2 concussions from falling on my head (only one of which I actually remember!).

2) Broken toe (well, self-diagnosed as broken :P) from when my horse spooked, jumped, and landed on my toe. Ouch.

3) Severely bruised ribs when my horse bolted and bucked me off onto rough ground (the one day I decided not to ride in the arena)...that one hurt. One of the few falls where I didn't hop right back up. I tried, but I fell back down.

4) Severely sore neck/back/entire body for about a week after taking a header off a horse into an oxer while at a full gallop. Bad idea. To make it better, this was almost exactly one year after spinal fusion surgery (which had restricted the amount of sports I could do for a certain period...not really sure I was supposed to be jumping yet!). My mother was thrilled.

5) Hoof-shaped bruise on my hip/almost broken finger when my horse (my old horse who is slightly mentally unstable) spooked, nearly went over backwards, threw me underneath him (not really sure how that happened, but somehow I was under him), stepped on me (hence the hip bruise), and then kicked out as he took off (hence the almost-broken finger...never put your hand out to try to catch a horse running away from you).

6) Possible torn muscle/something (still occasionally hurts 6 1/2 years later) from this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgpYQPWlEXE. Don't do that, it's bad. Surprised nothing worse happened!

7) Huge knot and bruise on thigh (lasted several weeks) from falling (due to my ADD-ness and doing the wrong thing on a course and then getting distracted...ha) onto a jump pole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wREQAVL7uOg

That's really about it, in 20 years of riding (I've been riding all my life and I'm 22) and many falls. Most of my falls, though, were the silly kind you do when you're either little and stupid (and brave) and think it's funny or when you just aren't paying attention. I've only had a few major falls from really bad accidents (like the horse bolting or crashing a jump). Usually, I stay on during the bad stuff and fall when it's minor enough to be embarrassing. Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3o9VFOaSu4 - I stayed on (and no, that's not how I typically ride or how my horse usually behaves!).

I've been riding for 11 years and I've fallen off 20 + times (I stopped counting). I wish I had some kind of sick horror story to share haha. Thankfully I've never had any kind of serious injury from riding. My last fall was definitely the worst though. It was schooling day at this show and it had poured a few hours earlier so the footing was crap. My horse trips going on her knees and doing a face-plant right into the ground and I, naturally, go sliding down her neck and do a face-plant myself. I landed on my neck and the force of the fall flipped me over. I wish I had it on tape!! Apparently, it looked pretty bad. Not to say I haven't had some painful falls but nothing serious....thankfully!

I can't blame her though. We are both equally as uncoordinated. We can both trip over our own shadow.:)

Countless bruises and cuts

Luckily no broken feet, but definitely hurt feet from horses stepping on them

Once I got this huge inch long splinter shoved up under my thumbnail- got it yanked out at the doctor and a tetanus shot

Another time when I was thrown into a fence, I got a gigantic six inch circle of a black and blue bruise on my shoulder. The skin started peeling like it died on impact

A couple bites, just bruised and a little blood

Not much, I haven't broken any bones

Well I've just had the usual scrapes and bruises and concussions. But the best rider at our barn was exercising horses and when she was just trotting, the horse tripped. She was basically sling shot (haha I have no clue how to say that) to the ground and the horse came crashing down on top of her. She was knocked unconscious and then started like having seizures. She had to be helicoptered to the hospital where she spent 3 months in intensive care. Her lungs were filled with blood and she had blood clots in her brain. Now she like has big mood swings and randomly passes out. It was seriously like the scariest thing of my life.