I fell off my horse today.  I am in a world of pain.  It hurts to type.  Yes, it does.

I was riding a horse I was unfamiliar with, doing exercises to develop balance, ie. riding without stirrups or reins, just holding on with my legs and by sitting deep into the saddle and centering my weight correctly.  The horse had a neck strap on, which is just a plain strap looped around their neck that you can grab onto, but it doesn’t actually control the horse in anyway.  I was holding onto this and trotting when the horse went into canter.  I’m not particularly confident in canter, and the neck strap is positioned differently to the reins, and I think my slightly unbalanced position, as well as the fact that this horse has quite a deep, rolling canter, meant that I just wasn’t ready for the movement.  And without stirrups, I just slid off.

I hit the ground very hard, landing on my left side.  My upper body hit the ground first, and it just felt as though my ribcage was severely crushed and I was winded.  I landed on my left arm, and the place where it was lying against my side is particularly tender now.  My head and upper body hit the ground at the same time, and I remember being grateful not to have landed head-first.  I lay still for a moment and waited for the pain to become more specific – did I break my arm?  Does my head hurt?  What about my shoulder?  And how many ribs cracked?  Did I hear them crack or was that just my helmet hitting the sand?

Anna, one of the instructors, came right over and told me to just lie still for a minute.  I was winded, and had a mouthful of sand.  I breathed very slowly, and I think she asked me how it felt and I just said it really hurt, it hurts all over.  I moved my legs, they were fine, and my other arm was alright.  I wanted to lie on my back so I could fill my lungs with air.  I spat out the sand and Anna helped me roll over.  Ouch.  Immediately I knew my left arm was fine, I waved it around and brought my hand to my face to brush off the sand.  But oh my god how my body hurt. 

Eventually I sat up, and Anna helped me to stand.  It was a relief that the pain was just general, and that there wasn’t any specific pain to suggest I might have broken something.  One of the other riders brought me a bottle of water and I rinsed my mouth out (you don’t want to think too much about what the sand on the floor of a riding arena might taste of).  I was still spitting grit out ten minutes later. 

I got back on, and then after the lunch break we went for a trail ride.  I passed on the opportunity to canter up a hill.  I trotted instead, which actually is a lot bouncier and therefore more painful than canter but I wanted to stick with what I knew I could do.  The trail ride doubled back through the riding school and I opted to get off then.  I was too sore to lift her saddle off, or give her a decent brush-down. 

Nine hours later, I’m sitting up in bed and as long as I don’t move from side to side I’m ok.  I can do my bra up but can’t bend forward to pull my socks on.  I can’t fill my lungs with air without it hurting, so I’m doing yoga breathing (inflating my abdomen).  My left hip is a bit tender, but most of the pain is still in my ribs.  I don’t think I’ve broken any, I think they’re just badly bruised.  I’ll be bloody annoyed if I don’t come up in a multi-coloured bruise over the next few days.  I need visible evidence of my agony, otherwise it wont be worth it.

I’m glad I got back on the horse, I can understand why they encourage you to get straight back on.  I wasn’t nervous about riding, but the pain in my side made it hard to relax.  I hope that by my next lesson on Wednesday the ache will have subsided enough that I can get back on without wincing.  One of the other riders, a seasoned faller-offerer, warned me that the two days after you come off are the most painful.  And Madeleine’s first words to me when I got home were "you’ve only got to fall of 99 more times and then you can call yourself a rider!"