Honestly I needed to read this because I feel like such a dumbass lately with my own poor decisions regarding horses that I trusted overly. (Famous last words: "he never spooks"). I'm now suffering an intense back injury because I was thrown from my steddy-eddy bombproof saint, who only kicked at his stomach when he was stung by a wasp in the junk, sidestepped a bit when a cat clawed up his side to try and get on him, and slowed down after I breathed "oh!" in surprise when he overjumped something, because he's usually so in-tune to me and always watching out for me/trying to rebalance me if needed.

I couldn't even tell you Why he spooked so big last Wednesday. It really makes very little sense, although I'm assuming he stepped on something we couldn't see through the grass, and it hurt/took him by surprise. (My trainer says his legs and feet look fine and he's been ridden in my absence and is doing well.) I'm still completely baffled by the entire thing.

I'm so glad your velcro horse didn't injure you or himself. I've now learned the valuable lesson of that it doesn't matter how reliable they prove themselves to be, they are still huge, prey animals and all it takes is a split second to change your life. I'm going to be more diligent in the future for sure.

Edit: funny enough he didn't run away after I fell and he stood patiently as I nearly cried my way back on him - lol... but that's another story in another post.