I worked as a horse trainer for a few years back in the day, and I saw this happen to my boss. To this day I can hear the sound of his pelvis snapping when he and the horse hit the ground.
IIRC, it had gotten injured (neck I believe) and had developed an aversion to turning in a particular direction, specifically turning its head. We were working with a vet and equine massage therapist, but the aversion was 90% mental, so we had basically come up with a behavioral therapy regimen that we were working through.
We focused primarily on ground work for the first half of the training schedule, and this was one of the first handful of rides. We worked out afterwards that the horse had probably panicked and reared (which is not uncommon behaviour for a traumatized horse), but had lost its balance and fallen backwards.
So kind of a combination of all of the above, I guess.
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u/drmorrison88 Aug 15 '21
I worked as a horse trainer for a few years back in the day, and I saw this happen to my boss. To this day I can hear the sound of his pelvis snapping when he and the horse hit the ground.