http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6sB9H8GNA

Dissecting the 17'1" Fall

To figure how to fall safely at height first specify the concerns, maybe?

Noted last post, compared to sitting on my 16'1" hander, sitting on the 17'1" hander, from those heights it's fairly easy to visualize a safe landing at 16'1" whereas I personally am having a lot of trouble figure it at 17'1" even thought the difference in height on the measuring stick is--what?--a little more than one foot.  Will have to take my tape measure to measure the actual differences in terms of inches.  Certainly the actual difference in falling is much more than one foot.

While on this subject this--is there a big difference between 15'3" and 16'1" in terms of the fall?  #17 was 15'3" on June 29 when I had my firecracker fall.  Thus I can relate, yes, there's a fairly significant difference--both in visualization of the ground from the heights and in the falling.  I fell off 16' 01" Rollin' Rod many times.  The fall of the 15'3" horse was comparatively very easy.  Why?

The explanation starts with understanding that most horse falls result, at least at the inception of the fall, in a horizontal drop as opposed to a straight vertical drop.  A vertical drop from height would be straight down.  Release a 150 lbs iron ball from 4 feet and there will be a significant thud on ground contact.  Cause that same 150 lbs iron ball to fall more at a horizontal angle then at ground contact some of the falling force will
dissipate as the ball rolls at the horizontal direction.

Conclude then that the more horizontal (as opposed to vertical) the fall, the less direct ground energy (thump) will go into the rider's body on ground contact.

So--can we see the first problem from falling at the greater heights--at some point up the height scale part of the fall is going to be vertical--i.e. straight down--and that is even if the beginning of the fall is horizontal.

continue with this next post.

Training:
#17--goal was continuous gallop around course by tomorrow, Sunday.  What we have instead is four continuous days of rain, snow and extremely cold weather.  To keep our trainer's sanity we're having the goal of doing as much as is physically possible with #17.  The good news is that over several tack sessions the past two weeks the horse has been totally calm and into his work out in space.  This is the necessary precursor for serious work in the pasture.
#148 Nature of the latest injury to the heel bulb area is now fairly clear.  Will post before and after vids later.
Fairly obviously the horse once again put his paw through a fence, luckily avoided extensive damage, but caused a parallel to the ground puncture line about 3 inches long(hence all the bleeding) that is shallow instead of deep  but has one fairly deep thimble size puncture right in the middle.  The good news here is that all this will probably heal and would be well on the way except due to weather we're having to bandage, and the bandage itself is causing damage.  Some innovative bandaging.  Will do a post on this.

Bad To Worse

12/17/13 --owner fresh out of truck, shoots a happy looking vid, or so it seemed just then. Clue #1--pause vid to see blood on middle horse's nose:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77AlT17qJiE&feature=em-upload

Vid #2 walk into paddock to see more blood--on ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABwplk1YvDU&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share

Unable to diagnose due to all the blood.  Some sort of injury in there though little a vet could do at this point. Decision made to wait 24 hrs and see what's up. Horse poked himself, hit himself, got caught in another fence--unknown..

Scene next day 12/18 in a strong wind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf6I0wnp2tc

 30 horses on this farm. One that continuously injures himself.  I had posted better chance that #148 kills himself first before ever making it to a race track--way too smart and precocious for his own good. I am without facilities for such an energetic animal unfortunately.  I just want to avoid imprisoning him in a little enclosure.  Let 'em have their life, come what may. The horse lost another chunk in his heel bulb area, and at least two weeks more of training.

More 17'1" Horses

Few riders deal with horses at 17'1" hands.  Mucho Macho Man comes to mind.  Zenyatta was 17'2", which is likely were my horse is headed.  As a rider and being now "up there" I can relate that at some point up the height scale it becomes a different world.  The critical point might be were the tuck of the body at the fall fails to result in logical contact with the ground.  To say this another way--falling off a normal size horse one can tuck and calculate the landing.  How?  Once you're in the tuck the ground is there, and you can see/sense exactly when ground contact is happening.

When I sit on the taller horse, however, I visualize "tucking" my body at the fall and the problem becomes that there's still plenty of air between my tucked body and the ground.  The central problem thus becomes what happens to the body between getting into the tuck and hitting the ground.

What's concerning me about this--when I sit up there vizualizing a fall what I see is the body spinning at the tuck.  And that the spinning is a bit out of control, which would result then in an out of control landing from a significant height.  This would be true particular if--as frequently happens with falls at the slow gallop in a pasture--the horse has bolted up into the air.

Coming posts will break this down a bit and hopefully analyze correct falling.  The link below is a good one that shows the scope of a 17 hander. One can see in this vid immediately that 17'1" is a different world, and what the concern is in terms of falling off and landing.  Visualize this rider going down compared to one riding those rodeo midgets couple of posts ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXI6wv1kBrc

Training:  Two weeks of mostly very cold weather cost some under tack time.  Back on last eve, and the forecast looks good rest of year, knocking on wood.  Short term goal is to have #17 galloping the course within 7 days and #148 walking under tack without protest.

This Week's Snow

#148

#148 Ears

#17 Ears

More Falling From Height

Per last post, the higher the fall the harder the fall.  And as noted, my concern has sprung from sitting on the 17'1" horse trying to visualize a safe landing.  Am having trouble with said visualization--and go as far as to say that I sit up there and am unable to see any way to land without an extremely hard crash.  Hence the inquiry into correct technique.

Anything to be learned from professional fallers in the rodeo sports?  Worth a look-the last fall at the 4+ min. mark is other than pretty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkm4l0okXBY

How dangerous is bronc riding or bull riding?  Subtract being gouged, I thought the bronc riding to be the far more dangerous sport.  The bulls are one trick ponies.  They just spin and all the rider has to do is move with the spinning.  The horses are completely unpredictable in contrast,  resulting in falls at any height and direction.  Extreme sports to be sure, and at least some of the bull riders have enough sense to wear helmets

 And yet--in discussing correct falling-- two things impressed me from the bronc vid. Those are little horses and, hey, those riders fall on a soft deep sand..   Do the same fall at 17'1 or even 16'1 onto a dry hard pasture--different story.  Unsure how much technique is to be learned from broncs re falling from greater heights, and so a little more inquiry is needed.

Training:  17 degrees on arrival yest. with snow.  Since #148 was limping a bit on his heel bulb injury in last pasture romp, I've decided to let him rest and they've basically had the cold week off.  Recommence today at 30 degrees.

Falling Off At 17'1"

Brief blog hiatus as we take another weather punch to the gut here in KC.  Good weather news is that they predict mild temps through early January.  Fearing this may change in a heartbeat.

Back to complex subject of falling correctly off a horse, a thing that occurs to yours truly when getting on our newly sprouted 17'1" hander  Tee Pee Minister who I've referred to as #148.  #17 btw is hardly a midget anymore.  Looking at him this weekend, he may have shot up again and maybe is now a full 16'1".  Cause for optimism if we can get 'em to the race track.

So, describe what I see as the #1 problem in riding a tall horse.  Looking at these Clydesdale's recently featured in Paulick report one might say, "what's the problem"?  The riders look comfortable regardless of distance off the ground.

There are two aspects to this along with the presumption that in training the young horse the rider will fall.  It's going to happen.  When it does, what happens?

Aspect #1 is prior research that I read in "The Horse" that fall injuries are geometrically more severe related to the height of the horse.  I'll try to illustrate this point in the next post.  Makes logical sense, of course, from the simple aspect, higher the fall the greater the impact.

There's a #2 aspect to this, however, that occurs when you're sitting up there at 17'1" which the reader may pick up by looking at the Clydesdale's. To pick up on this--picture one of those jocks being dislodged by visualizing the trip to the ground.  If you're sitting on a 16'1" inch horse calculating  your fall--unknown what other riders do, but I calculate how I'm going to fall with each and every step the horse takes, and this is particularly true at speed on the race track--at 16'1", although that's up there a little ways, if you are falling off, the idea--per that British Riding School Vid a few posts ago--is to tuck, hit the ground and roll to disperse the force off any one area.

At 17'1" however--here's the problem--I am unable to figure out how to tuck and roll because I am up so high.  At that height--and in particular if the maneuver of the horse would throw me up even higher before the actual fall--any attempt to tuck and roll is likely to result in the body of the rider spinning on the way down so that the rider loses control over the landing,

Illustrate by looking at those Clydesdale's and imagining a rider diving off one of those head first into the tuck. One can visualize the tuck being achieved way too high before hitting the ground so that the rider might be spinning in the air before hitting the ground.  This could result in an uncontrolled landing--on the head, neck, or anywhere.

This is the trouble I am having on Tee Pee Minister #148.  I sit on horses 16'1" such as #17 and though it's a ways up there, I can calculate my fall at that height and how I am going to hit the ground.  On Tee Pee however, I am having a lot of trouble figure out how I am calculating that fall to land safely.  A little more on this next post.

Training:  Since last Thurs. when I arrived weather has been 14 degrees, 18 degrees and on Sun it was 25 degrees.  I've been on horses as low as 15 degrees.  Since there was also precip Sun. decided to lay them off till weather improves.  Possibly recommence today depending on temps. Forecast looks good from here into Jan.

Training: Pasture Run

Yesterday's pasture run in its entirety.  Slow to get it going for both camera and horses, they get in some decent running toward the end.  #148 being babied along right now so this was less than all out although they got some decent spurts that were mostly missed by the camera person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_nFn1TNXdM&feature=em-upload_owner

More #148

#148 has now been tacked third day in a row, and I am asking were is that overly nice, respectful, compliant yearling that I was riding last October before #148 hock injury.  Tee Pee Minister has turned conscientious objector under tack, although getting a bit that will fit the big fellow may help.  One is on the way.

We had a successful walk under tack today, and, wow, when I get on this horse my impression, even just walking, is "what a horse".  Hoping that feeling continues.

Per last post, when I bought #148 at the Louisiana Yearling sale in Opelousas at 16' 1" hands, was thinking growing to 16'3" or thereabouts.  Tee Pee is out of a 17 hand son of Storm Cat who is out of the nearly 17 hand Spend A Buck mare Antespend who won a million in the early '90s.  The stakes placed dam Tee Pee Tomahawk who won $50,000 is by The Prime Minister who was no midget, and the bottom line sire is Cherokee Colony who the informed will recall was a nice stakes horse by the 17'1 Pleasant Colony.

These height stats escaped me on the spur of the moment at the Louisiana sale.  Tee Pee has 17 hand horses all over his pedigree.  And so, what would one expect except a 17 hand horse?  Note that Rainmaker (the sire by Storm Cat) and his size were unknown to me until after the sale, and I had pre-sale eliminated the #148 catalogue page because I was avoiding unraced horse.  It was only after I spotted the horse on the spur of moment that I decided to take a shot despite the unraced status of the sire.  This may yet come back to bite because I suspect that Rainmaker, being the only unraced and non-stakewinner by Antespend had a breathing problem.  I think Tee Pee can breathe but he has a disconcerting constant hiccup (weird) that  concerns.  It seems to kick in every couple of minutes.

I digress from the subject, which is how to fall safely off a 17'1" horse.  My first experience with this came back in 1985 the very first day I was to become a race horse owner.  I went to Tom Pryor's (Oaklawn Trainer of old) farm in Pleasant Hill, Mo. to look at and buy my first horse Jeckimba Bay as a two year old.  They were galloping for me over Pryor's farm track and the gallop lasted exactly 50 yards before the little cowboy rider fell off.  He dusted himself off and came over to where we were watching.  I said to him "that is kind of dangerous".  Reply:  "a shucks, that's nothing. You ride two year olds, and you will fall".

That has stuck with me.  Given the height of this horse I have decided that some thought re this statement is in order, next posts.

Training:  #17 made a couple of minor break throughs with some gallop under tack today.  Serious training soon, hopefully.  #148 did ground long line work and walked under tack with minor protests.