Sustaining a Concussion from Falling at a Halt: It’s a Thing

I’m really glad that I was wearing my helmet that time I fell off from a halt. I was alone in the arena by myself at dusk. This happened about 15 years ago with my horse DC–my first love and heart horse. I boarded him at a lovely, historic equestrian center not too far from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. I’m not sure how it happened, but I had been riding in the arena doing my walk, trot, canter thing. It was a Sunday evening and quiet at the barn. I wasn’t completely alone on the property, but there was no one at my end of the facility.

For whatever reason, from the halt, DC spooked and I literally stayed in the air a split second as he shot out from underneath me. One minute he was under me, the next I was headed for the ground. The key word being “head’ in headed. I landed flat on my butt, back and head simultaneously. It was a hard jolt. 

DC was easy to catch; he might have been remorseful. I loved that horse beyond words, but he was spooky!

Because I was taught when you fall you have to get back on the horse, I led him over to the mounting block and swung back into the saddle. (Side note: I do not believe in order to be a good rider you need to immediately remount after a fall. I learned that valuable lesson that day.)

I walked a little bit and then asked DC to canter, picking up where we had left off in the ride.  Suddenly the arena footing swelled and receded like waves on the Pacific. The ground undulated and I had a funny, weak feeling. I pulled DC up and hopped off, flipped the rains over his head so that I could lead him to the cross ties where I had tacked up.

I was confused and scared, all alone with abnormal vision. I called my older sister who was two time zones ahead of me and two thousand miles away. I knew I couldn’t call my parents and freak them out, so I called my one family member who wood be able to authoritatively tell me what I should do and remain calm.

I remember crying, telling her I fell off DC, “But I’m okay, and don’t tell Mom. My vision is funny and I’m scared and I don’t know what to do. Should I go to the hospital? I don’t think I need an ambulance, but I’m scared to drive.”

Now the reason I doubted whether I should go to the hospital, was that in my family we don’t got to the doctor at the drop of the hat. You have to be really sick or in major pain. Also, this fall happened in the days before all of the awareness on concussion actually thanks in large part to the NFL. Did you see the movie Concussion starring Will Smith? This was also before International Helmet Awareness Day, before the hashtag #riders4helmets.

My sister said that yes, I should go to the hospital but I told her I was afraid to drive. She asked me if I could call a friend and have a friend take me to the ER. So I did just that. It was nice to have someone else do the thinking for me in my shaken up condition.

A few minutes later my mom called. Apparently my sister thought I said, “Call mom.” Oh boy. I assured her I was fine–nothing broken, and that my horse didn’t do anything bad. He just got scared momentarily and I wasn’t prepared. It wasn’t his fault. Just a fluke thing.

My friend showed up with a Trader Joe’s bag filled with some magazines bottled water and snacks. She obviously had emergency room experience and knew that not all trips there are handled as swiftly as the title “emergency” would suggest.

My friend smiled and cracked jokes and made the situation seem less grave. She tried her best to make the ER waiting game a fun experience.

A few hours later when I was finally admitted, I happened to get a very handsome young doctor. He would have fit right in on the show ER–he was as dreamy as George Clooney and Noah Wylie. There was one point at which I remember being in the bed that was propped up so I was sitting/lying down at an angle, and my friend lowered the bed because she wanted me to relax and get more care from the doctor. I seem to recall she said she was going to find out if he was married, and I was mortified. This is long before I knew my husband Mark even existed, so I was single and available.

Hospital staff wheeled me in to get an MRI and that was not very fun, sliding into the cave-like tube. I learned a new word that day. Contusion. I was told I had a mild contusion. That didn’t sound good. Contusion rhymes with bruisin’. My brain had actually made contact with my skull! 

I was given a doctor’s note to take a day off work, maybe two, the details fifteen years later as I write this are blurry. And my friend followed me as I drove to my apartment from the barn since I was only a two-mile trip. (That was the closest I’ve ever lived to one of my horses–I was living the dream.)

Flash Forward about a week.

It was the end of the school day, and I erased the date from my whiteboard so that I could write the date for the next day. When I erased, I wrote the same date I had just gotten rid of! That caught my attention. The other thing that occurred was a parent/teacher conference and I struggled to come up with a certain word. Also, when I was in the middle of teaching, I caught myself with inordinately long pauses. I felt tired and like I had aged 40 years. I was afraid.

I thought I had only had a mild concussion.

Thankfully at that time we had an English teacher who had switched careers from being a nurse. I immediately called her extension after my whiteboard date fail and told her I needed some advice. I wasn’t particularly close to this teacher, so for me to reach out and be vulnerable like that shows how desperate I was.

I walked over to the other side of campus, sat down in a student desk and explained to her what was going on and how I had fallen off my horse and now a week later, even after the doctor at the ER said I would be fine, I was having a hard time with certain words and I just felt really forgetful and flaky. I normally feel bright and sharp. I didn’t know if I should go back to the ER, I did not know what to do because my symptoms did not seem as dramatic as when I fell off my horse and my vision was altered.

She encouraged me to go back to the same ER because they would have my records to reference.

I honestly don’t remember if I drove or had a friend come pick me up. But I did return to the ER at Huntington Hospital and was hoping to see the original doctor <wink, wink> but instead had a female doctor. I shared with her what was happening and that I was scared because I was told I only had a mild concussion. She spent about five minutes with me and said that everything I was experiencing was completely normal for someone who had a concussion.  “Healing takes time.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I told her that there was a horse show coming up at the end of the month it was about three weeks away. “What do you think?” 

She said although the likelihood of me falling off my horse again and landing in the same exact spot hitting my head the same way again was very minor, that I had to consider that the risk of it would be serious to re-injure an already injured brain. “There will always be other horse shows.”

I knew that she was right and so I stayed out of the saddle for a few weeks.

That really changed my view about the importance of helmets. I always knew they were important but the fact that I had such a hard fall from a halt was surprising, ridiculous and potentially life altering. So yes, a concussion from a fall from a halt is a thing. I’m living proof.

Thank you for reading!

You might also enjoy reading 7 Reasons to Always Wear a Riding Helmet.

Your Turn to Comment: Have you ever fallen off while doing something “tame,” like chillin’ at the halt or just walking, etc.?

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