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    [RC] Fear, bareback riding, PTSD, etc. - Dyane Smith


    This is a subject on which I have dwelt a lot lately.  I am now of "a certain age" and can tell you absolutely, old ladies do not bounce like we used to.
     
    When I was 16, I didn't have a horse because we moved a lot, but I took tons of lessons at various riding stables.  At one, I used to ride a young arab gelding with a very thick neck (probably had been a stallion for awhile).  I have seen this horse run away from a member of the President's Body Guard (Pakistani elite mounted military group) and break the curb chain doing it.  He also had a roached mane because they played polo with him.  I used to ride him bareback with a snaffle because I figured he wasn't ever going to stop anyway, no use worrying about it.  He once bolted with me and headed back to the stable.  When a horse is really galloping, it's like riding a glass horse, you can't grip at all.  It's all balance.  I was lucky and stayed on and probably did become a better rider for it.
     
    On the other hand, I have fallen off millions of times.  Good ole tuck n roll, I never got hurt until I got my middle horse....
     
    Second time I rode him, I ended up behind the saddle and headed straight for a block wall.  I bailed for the first time in my life (reasoning that my other choice was to be painted on the wall when he made his obligatory sharp right turn).  I still have the hematoma to show for it (ten years later).
     
    Next time, he shot out from under me, I fell backwards and broke a shoulder blade and three ribs.
     
    Last time I fell, I broke another shoulder blade and four ribs and my thumb. 
     
    Understand, I took him to three Harry Whitney clinics between the first broken bone incident and the last.  I rode him often, including across the rocked creek on a metal railroad bridge.  This horse was dead quiet.  But, when I got on and he started crow hopping, I froze.  I fell off because I was so afraid (of nothing, anyone could have ridden through these tiny, half-hearted bucks).  So fear is a difficult thing to conquer, because, like Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, it appears out of nowhere almost, and it disables you.
     
    I finally decided that I have to ride this guy a lot in company, so that next time anything happens, there will be someone there to talk me through it.  Actually, I did ride him this spring in the mountains, over a hillside paved with lava rock, but, he was good and I was cool.  We really haven't had a fair test yet.
     
    Dyane