I’m pretty sure a few years ago I had never heard of a rotational fall, and probably never even considered one as a possibility.

I remember my first awareness of this terrible type of accident came with watching the ESPN special called “After the Fall” which, among others, featured Laine Ashker’s rotational fall at Kentucky in 2008.

Here’s an example with Nicola Wilson and Opposition Buzz at Luhmuhlen (both walk away!)

After watching this special, I investigated everything I could about these accidents, what we know about them and how to prevent them.

I learned from the last AEC convention how fast a rotation occurs and that the human reaction time gives you 0.2 seconds before you hit the ground. In other words, there is virtually NO chance to DO anything.

 

This isn’t a “tuck & roll” situation. You won’t get the “T” in tuck thought out before you are on the ground. It’s hard to believe this, and I was trying to explain this to a friend who kept asking me what you do when this happens…………..You don’t DO anything! By the time you know it’s happening you are ON THE GROUND.

So I’m schooling on my new lovely horse, and we are working on corners.

Corners have been the bane of my existance for awhile, and this lovely horse has stopped & run out at every corner since I started riding her. I decided this problem MUST be fixed and we started jumping everything I could find that would be considered a “skinny.” I stayed up at night reading articles about jumping corners, and developed a plan.

We arrived at the XC course ready, and after a warm up jumping the “edges” of wider jumps – I pointed her at the Training level corner.

She ROCKED IT!!

I was sooooooo happy. No hesitation, and I thought – my corner problem is OVER!

I jumped it again from a different direction (just to make sure) and she was perfect AGAIN!!

There was a slightly bigger corner in the same area, and I decided it was the next jump to conquer.

We made the approach, and honest as the day is long she leaped into the air straight over the corner.

I was about to yell “Whoo Hoo!” as we landed, and I think my lips made the “W” shape when I felt her tail come over my head & in that moment in time I was slamming into the ground.

They aren’t kidding when they say you don’t have time to DO ANYTHING.

As it turns out, in a slight misjudgment she hung a knee on the corner and rotated into the air. I knew it was a rotation for about a millisecond before I was tumbling underneath her as she scrambled to save herself.

I was VERY VERY lucky, because she didn’t fall on top of me.