Poor Robin! 🙈 This was one of those freak things that could have happened to any single one of the riders on the lesson, but her luck happened to run out! Robin got to have a go on gorgeous Zee in this lesson, who you might already know if you follow either her owner or ST Equestrian, who rides her regularly, on Instagram. While Zee is back at this yard for the holidays, her owner very kindly let her be used in the riding school with experienced riders to keep her fit. As you can see, Zee is so sweet and Robin really enjoyed riding her during the lesson! As you may have seen in my last video, we had a little Chase me Charlie competition where we ended up jumping a bit bigger than we usually do (yeah yeah, I know, this height is tiny for a lot of you, but for us once a week wimps in a riding school that likes to look after its horses legs, it’s pretty big!). Both Zee and Robin are very capable of jumping the heights the fence went up to in this lesson, but a lack of experience together and some plain bad luck meant that despite jumping well together for most of the lesson, it all unraveled a bit at the end!
They got a slightly dodgy stride into the final big fence and caught the poles so the instructor told them to do it again just to make sure they were both still feeling confident. Unfortunately on this final jump their stride into the fence wasn’t spot on again (no ones fault, remember Robin had never even sat on this horse before this lesson), Zee hesitated at the base of the jump while she sorted out her legs, but being a very honest pony still tried to jump it from a bit of a standstill. They both crashed through the jump and landed over to the right, and as poor Robin came back down from being catapulted, her right stirrup came off the saddle, meaning that she had absolutely nothing to brace against on landing and so fell straight out of the side door with no hope of staying on! (A quick reminder here that stirrups are designed to come off as a safety feature, such as when getting your foot stuck through the stirrup and getting dragged, so although it was unfortunate that the stirrup came off on landing, it was just very unlucky, rather than a total tack malfunction!).
Lovely Zee was completely fine and her owner gave her a quick pop over a cross pole to make sure she didn’t lose any confidence - again none of this was her fault in the slightest, she is a superstar horse and Robin really enjoyed the lesson on her up until the fall! Robin was slightly dizzy (which is why she didn’t re-mount) and ended up with a broken rib from where she was caught by a hoof (bless poor Zee, she tried so hard to avoid stepping on her!), but is otherwise 100% A-ok and will be back in the saddle as soon as she can!! I hope I’m as game as her in my 60s 😂
For those of you who don't know, Robin is my mum and she rides with me in my lesson every week. She's 64 and fearless as ever, loving a good gallop across the fields, cross country schooling and regularly jumping higher than I do in lessons!
🚨For a bit of balance, I would appreciate it if anyone leaving rude or negative criticism/tips/advice would also donate at least £1 to a charity of their choice 😊
Ponies/horses:
Zee - 16.3hh chestnut mare
Helmet Cam: GoPro Hero 6
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