you gotta know when to BAIL

There is something to be said for Pony Club. Yes, it is overly picky when it comes to tack, attire, grooming, and everything else. However, NOTHING will keep you safer than following the Pony Club manual when you are working around horses. One of the very first things it teaches you is how to act safely around horses, how to walk around horses, how to lead and tie them safely. I am currently in an internship with a top Grand Prix rider and I help out at his barn where he keeps his imported show jumping horses. One day, his best student (a Grand Prix jumper herself) let her guard down around one of the stallions while filling his water bucket in his stall. The stallion ended up kicking her nose out of alignment and she had to have extensive surgery. No matter how much you know, no matter how much of an accomplished horse person you are, you NEVER let your guard down around horses. Don't decide to not wear your helmet one day because you've been riding a particular horse for many years, or walk around the back of a horse without letting him know you are there, even though you've done it a hundred times. That's how people get killed, good, experienced, knowledgable horse people.

Another thing Pony Club teaches you is how to get out of an dangerous situation. Before you learn how to jump, you must learn how to execute an emergency dismount. Before you learn to ride in the open, you must learn the"pulley rein." The emergency dismount is pretty self-explanatory, and the pulley rein is, quite frankly, yanking on your horse's mouth when he is completely out of control. Leo is not only a dear friend of mine, but also my lifeline and my one-way ticket to international competition someday. However, he tries to kill me. Whenever I ride him out in the open, I ride in one of these. I have very soft hands and completely understand that this bit could damage his mouth; however, I have had to use it harshly on several occasions. Namely yesterday, in which I also had to execute the emergency dismount. Leo, being the whiny little shit that he is, decided that he did not want to cross a small creek. Keep in mind that he has swam in lakes before, he can jump well over 4ft wide, and the creek wasn't even 2ft in diameter. In my naïveté, I assumed that he would merely step over the small creek and possibly break into a slow trot coming up the other side. I was sadly mistaken. He crow-hopped the creek and ran off bucking wildly. Realizing that not only was my horse a complete idiot, but he was also rapidly approaching a solid fence, I executed a not-so-perfect emergency dismount, rag-dolling in the sharp grass, and lifting my head up just in time to see my horse crash into the fence, flip over, entangle himself in the reins, break the reins, scramble awkwardly to his feet, and run off madly back towards the end of the pasture (easily 4 acres long) with dragging reins and bleeding mouth. Being a sunny spring day, there were easily dozens of other riders out in the pasture who saw my predicament, caught Leo, and even gave me a ride double bareback up to the pasture gate. When I finally recovered him and took him back up to the barn to grab my spare pair of reins, I found his mouth has several deep cuts from where the corners of the port had dug into his mouth from when he broke the reins. I'm now riding him in a hackamore until the cuts heal, which will take several days. He was found guilty of being a dumbass and sentenced to 2 weeks of hardcore dressage training with an emphasis on buck prevention.

Looking back on it however, I realize that if I had not bailed, I may have ended up like this girl. Her name is Jassica Forsyth, and she died tragically in a riding accident. This is what happened to Jessica:
"Jessica was found lying about 4 ft outside of the arena fence. It is clear that they flipped over the fence and Boomer landed on her, (barely catching the top of her helmet as her face and rest of her body appeared unharmed) crushing her skull and breaking her neck. What we believe happened, based on all the evidence we have and on past history, is that Boomer became frightened or bolted after one of her jumps (something Jessica herself talks about in one of her YouTube videos “Why I don’t release more” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zFxvnM4sHg where she shows that occasionally Boomer would bolt/run out after a jump), and in the struggle to stop, they flipped over the fence."

My heart bleeds for Jessica's family, and this story has reminded me of the importance of knowing what to do in a dangerous situation. Sometimes, it's better not to stay on.