Jock Safety-Mechanics of Correct Falling

Might gear of this sort have prevented Gary Stevens broken collar bone?

Last night I was practicing falls. For illustration I have fallen off big Rod about 4 times in 12 months. Each of these falls has been the body of the horse suddenly disappearing under me due to a bolt, my body suspended in mid air and then descending to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The body protector, last post will soften ground impact considerably, but advise that though the distance is short the impact is large. On one of the falls I lost my breathing and had trouble breathing for maybe 30 seconds.

The thought process of the fall sequence is something like this:

1. Oops.

2. get feet out of stirrups.

3. I'm in mid air and will impact shortly.

4. Thud.

5. Surprise how hard the thud is and how quickly it comes.

What's missing above is the thought of "prepare for impact". If, e.g., one would only get their hands down to break impact, would concussion be reduced!

Last night practicing falls I jumped off the porch about 15 inches to the ground, landed feet first, and rolled to the ground with the idea of using my hands to break the fall, which is as gentle a falling as it gets.

I was extremely surprised at the concussive force from this gentle falling on my wrist and arms. Trying to break your fall in this manner at speed from a much higher distance is likely to have little effect at speed except to fracture your wrist, arms and even shoulders.

Thinking this through, I realized the aim in correct falling is to break the downward momentum by rolling with the force. Instead of stopping one's speedily moving downward descent (160 lbs x a coefficient of acceleration) abruptly with the hands, what seems necessary is-- at first contact-- to roll in direction of the force in effort to reduce it while aiming to avoid rolling into a hoof or worse.

Does Jock gear protect? Strides have been made, but the sport is in the dark ages. Consider e.g. this--take a look at the back view to consider the additional protection!

http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?cp=usns_CSE_081109_Froogle&l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-240164/pgid-240165&CAWELAID=385305114#l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-240164/pgid-240165

Training:

Sun. 8/22: 1 mile walk on wet ground.

8/23: 1 mile trot + 5 x 3f riderless play spurts.

8/24: Off. Office commitment torpedoes w/o.