Sounds like we could swap war stories. I have had many accidents where I could have been seriously injured or killed but by the grace of God was not. I was foxhunting in Ireland(worked for one of the hunts there) and the hunt was galloping down a paved road. The horse in front of me slipped and went down and since we were right behind we fell over it. I jumped up and caught my horse, but the other person had his foot caught in the stirrup and his horse panicked and began kicking him. Luckily his foot came free and he was able to get back on. Neither the horses or us were injured after falling on tarmac at a gallop. I don't even recall that it hurt - probably the adrenaline. I also was hit by a pickup truck after my horse bolted into a road - I went into the windshield, bounced off the hood, landed on the road and walked away without a scratch. So I have been extremely lucky so far. The horse had 5 broken ribs. Since then I am extremely careful about riding near roads!
If you are going to ride, and especially if you jump, you are going to fall off. I think the biggest limiting factor for older riders is fear - kids just aren't as afraid. I know I did crazy things when I was a kid that I would never do now - like riding a cross-country course in Ireland bareback.
The Good Lord looks after children, drunkards, and fools . . . ;-)
I had my share of foolishness on horseback as a kid, but I never rode cross country bareback (and if you had my skinny T'bred mare with withers like a board fence, you wouldn't either! < g > ) Dumbest thing I probably ever did was (at age 11) take an unbroken horse out jumping on a dare (he only fell down twice). He was a backyard pet who had never been ridden before. He was a sweet boy, though, and he tried his best to do exactly what I told him to. And amazingly enough it didn't spoil him or scare him, once I put some training on him he turned out to be a handy little horse, I think his owners even took him to a couple of local shows.
Even trotting on a paved road makes me nervous, I'll get on the shoulder if I can. There are a number of roads in our hunt's country that we have to cross from time to time, and somebody always winds up slipping on the asphalt. Talking about cars - last season I guess there were about 50 or 60 horses up with the hounds (it was early in the day) and we had to cross a two-lane county road after riding up the road probably a quarter mile. All the hounds poured across in a bunch, then the horses. I was back in the scrum probably half way, and here comes this little old man driving a minivan. He somehow DOESN'T SEE fifty horses beside and in front of him, and just plowed through . . . we were all yelling "GET OUT OF THE WAY - GET OUT OF THE WAY!" to the people up front. and horses were scattering left and right into the hedges. Somebody kicked the door of his minivan - serves him bloody well right.
Good night!! You are very lucky!! Just hasn't been your time, I guess. I've had 2 horses rear up and fall over backwards on me, been kicked in the face, ran over by herd, bucked off once and jammed my ring finger, it swelled up and cut off the circulation. I had to have my wedding rings cut off. The only hospitalizations were the rear-ups. All accidents were my fault, just being stupid. All were when I was a kid, with the exception of the buck off.