Does it count as a fall if you land on your feet?

That was the discussion question of  the day after Tyke popped me off (again!) during a hack canter. In France, the tradition is that whoever falls buys the Champagne for the yard (not that we need an excuse). Falls are part of the job, unfortunately, and they happen to everyone. Theirry was felling pretty defeated a couple of weeks ago after Turfani chucked him off while walking back after her work was finished and then tanking off at a full gallop across the training center. The very next day, I was walking out Skid when a loose horse (not one of mine) came careening around a corner right at us in full gallop. Today, Tyke was surprised by a group of horses on a path normally only used by service trucks. The path intersects that galloping track where he was hacking with Tommy, and I felt him tense up, but then he relaxed again when we had turned the corner and the horses were behind us. But it was a trick – a stride later he pulled his hind quarters under him in a stop worthy of the finest quarter horse and spun around in the direction of the departing horses. I landed on my feet next to him and managed to keep hold of the reins and not let him get away. Tyke has a gift for this kind of move, which is exactly how he’s dropped me twice before. He’s not very brave, but strangely he always decides to pull his stop and spin AFTER he passes whatever scary thing has upset him. It’s like he’s changed his mind about passing it.

In any case, it happens, and as long as no one gets hurt, it’s no big deal. Good old Tyke did manage to pull a ligament in my little finger, which will be very annoying for a while, but nothing major. He stood on my foot the other day, too, so for the moment, all of my bruises have come from him. Meanwhile, the Champagne is chilling…