Felt down from horse in the trail!
I got a jumping horse, (named Russian) which is not used to going out the trail. Before going out, I flatwork Russian for about 10 minutes in the arena and Russian was a really steady boy while walking and trotting.
When we hit the trail, I gave Russian the clue to go canter. He started off with slow canter and within very short time he transition into fast canter and I couldn’t slow him down.
Russian kept fast cantering for the next couple of minutes and eventually transition into galloping while going down hill. Yeeeeehar! (Well, it was actually steadier than I thought it will be)
The only problem was, I couldn’t slow him down and I felt fairly uncomfortable riding a horse that I couldn’t control.
Eventually at a very sharp turn, Russian was fast cantering into left while my body momentum was still going forward. I felt down on my right side and knock my head. I could tell I almost lost my conscious as the world was spinning when I hit the ground. I laid on the mud for a couple of minutes before Din came to my rescue.
Din and I exchanged horses. I got back on to horse back and ride back to the arena. At this point I could feel I lost a bit of my balance because my hand and leg coordination was out of sync.
Back into arena, I flatwork Russian again for another 45 minutes. The objective for doing this is to make sure I find back my balance and confidence on horse back before calling it a day.
It’s been a while since my last fall from a horse. The good thing about falling down is we always get to stand back up on our own and remember to stay humble no matter how much one has been riding.