[RexBeach]

I wonder how often this happens?

I had a dear friend who got tossed off her mount when the horse balked in front a jump. The rider landed on her head, suffered a serious concussion and broker an ankle. She was lucky.

Oh yeah, she's not riding anymore.

[HairOfTheDog]

I wonder how often this happens?

Not as often as we might think, given the size and strength of horses and the potential for accidents. But it can always happen.

[Non-Sequitur]

I wonder how often this happens?

Not often. My daughter rides and she's been thrown a couple of times. Every time it was a case of the horse refusing a jump and stopping short. Fortunately every time it was in a ring with a soft dirt surface.

[cowboyway]

I wonder how often this happens?

More that you'd think. I know of two people that suffered broken legs when their horses reared up and fell over on them.

[primatreat]

More often than you think. Our daughter was 15 and was just getting on the horse in a riding rink. It reared, flipped backwards, crushed our daughter. 8 breaks in the pelvis, leg and ribs broken.

She is 22 now and riding 4 th level dressage in Florida at this time. The laws are very clear " The horse is entitled to the first error" In our case the training barn had had rearing problems with this horse before. Hid the fact from my daughter. They were trying to sell it to us. We are in a huge lawsuit due to that fact. Our daughter will never look the same.. Damage to pelvis was huge and could not be put back the same. She will never have normal childbirth and has huge scars, etc. Not a nice thing for a girl (very pretty) to carry around with her. I fully understand the motives of the young girl, but know that she did exactly what she wanted to do to help the other girl.. God bless!

[Triple]

Had a very similar accident at @ age 13.

Horse did not see back rail of an oxer (wide jump).

He caught rear legs in a downward motion on the rail, thus facing resistance. The rails sit in cups, so they can easily roll out, but downward pressure does not release them.

I was still in the saddle when we hit the ground. The horse did not have his legs under him. After hitting the ground the horse rolled over his back to get up. I was pressed into the ground.

My mouth was full of dirt, and my wind was completely pressed out of me. I managed to get a breath after what seemed an eternity (20 seconds?). The ambulance had already been called.

3 minutes later they cancelled the call - unbelievably, I was fine.

---

However - nobody I know ever saw anything remotely like that.

[AlexW]

"I wonder how often this happens?"

As a 15 year staff member of a large fox hunt club, I crashed
over jumps plenty of times. As a rule, it is not so serious, but if the horse lands on you it is a different story.
With as many as 25 or more riders in the field, I do not recall an accident that required emergency service.

I do remember a horse falling on a girl in a horse show, and it was fatal.