mallet's Blog

Almost a year and a half into my riding career, and it finally happened.  I bounced off of Radcliffe and into the dirt today.  My bell is still ringing as I write this post.  I was warned before the lesson that Radcliffe was acting a little looney.  He has been testing people.  But I was willing to ride that big, black and beautiful draft mix despite him feeling his oats.  I figured he would be more fun to ride like that than when he is being lazy (which happens a lot).  At any rate, Radcliffe was in a lesson before mine, so I had to go to the other ring and retrieve him.  When his 9am rider released him to me,  Radcliffe thought I was going to take him to the barn.  He fought me the whole way to the other ring.  I walked him by his reins, but had to push my shoulder into him to keep from being overpowered.  Still, once we got in the ring, he allowed me to adjust my stirrups and stood still when I hopped aboard.

Christine had us trotting, doing some cantering and also doing some dressage type stuff at the start of the lesson.  Radcliffe is so big, he gains ground easily on the other horses.  My biggest challenge was finding an open space in the ring and keeping him there.  He was alternating between going a little to fast and going way too slow.  But we managed to do most of what was asked of us.

Then we started jumping.  One thing about Radcliffe: He loves to jump!  So this part of the lesson was a relief to me.  We cleared a number of jumps together.  The only problem I was having was Radcliffe wanting to go faster than we were supposed to.  Then we started doing three cross-rail jumps followed by a sweeping turn and two more jumps.  Radcliffe did the first three beautifully every time.  He even handled the turn pretty well and the first of the final two jumps.  But then he kept ducking off of that last jump, throwing his head down and cantering sideways.  I probably should have seen it coming.  When Christine told Radcliffe and me to focus on those last two jumps we had repeated problems.  We'd clear the first, balk at the second and then loop around and clear the second.  But then on my final attempt, we cleared the first and went crazy sidways again.  I remember feeling my foot come out of the stirrup as I went off of Radcliffe's right side.  There was a moment of relief.  I have always feared being dragged by the stirrups like Red Pollard in the movie Seabiscuit.  I don't remember anything else.  The other riders told me there was a loud thud when I dropped headfirst onto the ground.  Next thing, I was sitting up in the ring feeling like I was going to throw up. 

The ambulance guys and police were great.  They wanted to take me to Chestnut Hill hospital.  I considered it, but then decided I'd have my wife come and get me.  They were pretty certain I got a concussion.  Hours later, as I sit here with a sold headache and remaining dizzyness, I'm in not position to dispute their diagnosis.  It was scarey incident, but I'm largely relieved that my first fall didn't involve any broken bones.  Right now, I really want to take a nap but am told I might want to wait a little while before I close my eyes.