Hi Nutkin,
I had my fall from a horse in Feb 2012 and over a year and a half later am not yet back riding. I was wearing my helmet... probably wouldn't be here without it... or would at least be a way bigger burden on my family if I hadn't been wearing it. I fell directly on my head and cracked my helmet in about 8 places.

I'm 42 and have ridden all my life, used to show hunters and jumpers in the ammie ring, not pro, but a serious rider, but had scaled back a bit over the years as life had gotten in the way of showing, but was still riding regularly.

The September before my fall, we took a trip to Alberta and rode through the mountains there... had a fabulous trip... my husband and I were the only ones that wore our helmets.

I had giving up putting first rides on horses and dealing with horses that had serious issues and instead was focusing on horses that were green broke that just needed miles to become solid citizens. It was one of those horses that I took my fall from, unfortunately. It really was a combination of freak events that lead to it.

In the year and a half since my fall, my recovery has been slow, I've still not had a single day or moment without head pain since, in spite of many different drugs and treatments tried... I still have a variety of balance and gait issues that are being addressed through physiotherapy and I'm still dealing with intense fatigue that my occupational therapist is trying to assist with through various pacing strategies and more recently, through medications from my rehab doc.

My rehab team is dead set against me riding again at this point and some of them are dead set against me riding ever again. They feel that as long as I'm unsteady walking, the risk is way too high in the saddle.

So far, I've obeyed them and in fact, I've not even *touched* a horse or been close to a horse since my fall, but that's mostly because my husband does not trust my impulsiveness and thinks if I get near one, I will be on it before he can stop me. He may not be wrong.

I'm sorry to hear about your fall. What happened? Share if you want. I'm happy to listen.

As long as you are experiencing any symptoms, its probably best to stay grounded and off the horses. Also probably best to limit your risk of falling once your symptoms have cleared and if you do go back to riding... the effects are cumulative, which is probably why this fall I had, this time, I'm not recovering from. Even though it was a bad fall, it certainly wasn't my first.

Best of luck to you.
Starr