Don't fly or ride a bike anymore. The reason I don't ride horses, is that they can sense that I f-e-a-r them, and they respond accordingly. I don't know why or when I developed that fear of large animals.
I know what danger is. Did 3 tours in Nam ('69-'72), was robbed and shot walking out of a Boca Raton restaurant, and survived 3 near-fatal car crashes.
I hear Reeves tried a very risky jump and the horse balked? True.
Not even a "very risky" one. I've had horses balk at a jump they took 10 or 12 times the day before. Hell, I had one balk at a jump she'd taken about 45 seconds before, in the same round.
I don't know if the jump was risky. I've read the horse took two just fine then balked at the third. I don't jump so I know nothing about it what would be risky and what wouldn't.
I do know that if you ride your going to get dumped occasionally. I took a bad fall about 1 1/2 years ago. Going down a trail at a pretty good clip and deer jumped up out of the grass suddenly. Spooked the horse and he jumped out from under me. That's hard on a 50 year old women:) I've had a fear now of that spot and have to really work at not tensing up. You're right horses sense that sort of thing. For a while the horses I rode all got very alert there, because they could feel me getting ready for it.
Fear to a certain degree is a good thing. Most accidents are because the rider got to cocky.
Becky