Eventing Nation’s UK connection and guest writer, aka lec, recently sent me an email mentioning that she was planning to attend a clinic for eventers on the proper technique of how to fall off a horse while minimizing the risk of injury. Every clinic I have ever been to has been about how not to fall off, but the topic had ‘Eventing Nation’ written all over it and I asked lec to write a clinic report. This is just a report on lec’s experience at the clinic not any kind of manual on falling so Eventing Nation’s vast legal staff has advised me to ask everyone not to try the methods in this report at home. So, only try them at work and the barn. But seriously, consult a trained and certified falling professional before attempting any of these techniques. Thanks for writing this lec and thank you for reading.
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Just another day at the barn
From lec:
In eventing a great deal of things are trained and coached for but one of the things that we tend to try and avoid is falling off and practicing falling off. I was recently lucky enough to embark of some falling training and found it really useful so thought I would share it with Eventing Nation.
I apologise in advance about the photos but the shutter speed is not quick enough and the light was fading. We used an outdoor arena for this training. Anywhere can be used as long as the landing is soft. Start off slowly and very low down so you do not hurt yourself.
Neil our trainer is a judo expert so has been taught to fall correctly. He demonstrated an impressive leap into the air and fall onto his back that we all gasped at and hoped that we would not have to copy. Neil is also a horse rider and feels that every rider should be taught to fall correctly. Neil says riders that are scared to fall off will get injured more as they hit the floor rigid. The more relaxed you can be about falling off the better it is for you. Jockeys are taught to fall correctly by being pushed out of a moving vehicle but luckily we were dealing with kinder methods than that!
The most essential part of falling off is that ideally you want to land on your back. The reason is that your back has the strongest muscles and your internal organs are all protected if you fall like this. Ideally you will fall absorbing the impact on your shoulders and upper back.
We started on our knees and then you crouch over with one hand touching the floor. This hand is the one you do not write with. You then tuck your other arm by your side look under the elbow of the arm that you are supporting yourself on and do like a forward roll. Do this a couple of times until you feel confident. By looking under your armpit/elbow you are making sure your head and neck are tucked in. You are aiming to roll into a ball and land on your back with your arms outstretched.
Note the looking under the elbow and the outstretched arm
The aim is to practice every day. It has been proven in sports science that something practiced over 1000 times will become ingrained into the memory and so that if you do find yourself having a fall the brain will automatically kick in and you will land better.
Interestingly one of the discussions we had in the arena was that those who were not worried about falling off had ridden as kids and had fallen off a lot. This practice of falling off lots was ingrained and because they did not worry about falling off they often walked away from some nasty falls. The riders who were more worried about falls were those who were adults and had only really started riding later in life. They said through this training they felt more confident and were soon flinging themselves around on the floor with gusto.
Neil also said it was easy to recognise riders who had been trained to fall properly and he believes Zara Phillips has been taught very well as has walked away from some crunching falls. Particularly her fall at the Burghley mushrooms a couple of years ago.
