Top Riders' Most Embarrassing Moments

Over the course of the season at Spruce Meadows, Rita Mingo caught up with some riders who shared stories about some of their more infamous moments in the saddle.

Matthew Sampson

“Two weeks ago, I was trying to help somebody catch a horse in the ring and I was running to stop the horse jump out of the ring and I ran straight into the start gate. I cut my face open, my hand open and my legs open and I went for a big tumble. I’d say that was pretty embarrassing. Everyone had their eyes on the horse running and then their eyes on me on the floor.”

Christopher Lowe: “… I did it while bleeding and without stirrups.”

Christopher Lowe

“Weekly we have embarrassing moments! It’s such a humbling sport. One of the more infamous was years ago in the Queen’s Cup; I was riding to the Mount Rushmore wall and the horse spooked. I kicked hard, the horse jumped it and jumped it very high and I went up in the air and my head hit the top of his head, broke my nose. I turned and kept going. I didn’t have any stirrups. As I’m going around the course, I’m feeling warmth on my face as the blood dripped down. I heard them announce it was a clear round! I had to pull myself together before the second round. On one hand it was a fantastic moment because I jumped clean in a five-star grand prix – but on the other I did it while bleeding and without stirrups.”

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Kent Farrington

“When I was a young rider I first came to Wellington and I would catch ride horses all day. I would keep track of how many rounds I did in a day – I was very proud! One day I did 26 rounds in a day, which is a lot. But another day, they had an open water in all of the classes and I fell off three times into the water on the same day. So I would fall in the water, go change my clothes, come back, ride another horse, get thrown into the water, come back, change my clothes, get thrown into the water and after the third time getting chucked into the water, I didn’t change my clothes anymore. I think the last horse made it over!”

Jim Ifko: “…falling off three times in the ring and then being asked to leave.” (Spruce Meadows Media/Ashley Jimenez)

Jim Ifko

“If I go way back to when we used to not get eliminated for falling off, I suppose it was falling off three times in the ring and then being asked to leave. That was pretty embarrassing. But that’s going back a ways.”

Hilary McNerney

“I was riding Cooper, my big grand prix horse, in a three-star, [and he did] just like the biggest pop chip I’ve ever seen. I’ve also tried to do four-star and a five-star on Chuck … what was I thinking? They’re just mistakes, embarrassing as they are.”

Nayel Nassar

“There was one moment in Rome a few years ago: I was on Lucifer and he is a notoriously cheeky horse. I went in the ring and I could not get him to pick up the canter to the first fence. My 45 seconds had already gone, the clock was ticking and the whole stadium was clucking at him to get going. I started like 20 seconds too late; by the time I got going, I was already on time faults! It was definitely not one of the proudest moments of my career.”

Paul O’Shea (IRL) and Matthew Sampson (GBR) having a good day at Spruce Meadows during the Continental. (Spruce Meadows Media/Mike Sturk)

Paul O’Shea

“The first one that springs to mind was when I was jumping a metre-20 at a show in Ireland and I had five horses in the class. The first four horses jumped well, they were clear, and then on the fifth horse I did the wrong course … so that was pretty embarrassing. It took a while before people let me forget about that.”

Conor Swail

“I had a major fall here [Spruce Meadows]. I had two clear in the metre-50 jump-off and Flower, who’s extremely fast, had a huge run-up to the last fence and got lost. We had a serious tumble, the two of us. Thankfully the horse was able to get up. I was a bit shaky, but I got up and got on the other one. I was determined to win on him and thankfully I did. I went from zero to hero.”

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Have you ever had an ooops moment in the ring? Send your stories to editor@horse-canada.com and we will post some of the best!