Grand Prix dressage rider Caroline Roffman suffered a head gash, requiring 20 staples, and serious bruising on her right side after falling with a young horse and being pinned against the arena wall at her Lionshare Dressage facility in Palm Beach Point, Fla., on Nov. 12.

Roffman, 26, was riding the horse for a client in the morning, and as she was cooling him out at the walk, she reached toward the bit to feed him a sugar cube. But the day prior, the white plastic show fence that enclosed the arena had been removed in order to harrow and laser grade the footing, leaving a 3’ wooden fence and the wall mirrors acting as a fenceline to a broader area than usual.

“I was walking up along the edge of the wood fence, and when I went to give him the sugar, he took a step back with his right hind leg, and he actually got it through the wood fence,” explained Roffman. “And then he panicked trying to pull it out and actually sort of sat backwards over it and fell over the top of it with his knee pinned underneath him. Unfortunately it was at the end of the arena where the mirrors were, so I got pinned between the mirrors and the fence.”

As the green horse struggled to break free, Roffman was pushed into the mirrors several times, shattering the glass and dislodging the helmet from her head.

Roffman’s mother, Andrea Nason, noticed the commotion first and rushed to her aid from the barn.

“She probably shouldn’t have done it, but she grabbed the reins of his bridle and just tried to steady him, and he stopped thrashing,” said Roffman. “It allowed me to try to remove my leg. I was pinned, so for about 30 seconds, I was pulling my leg out from underneath him and the mirror. Honestly, I’m pretty sure that saved me from having a broken leg. And then he steadied enough, and everyone came out to help get him out.”

Roffman didn’t lose consciousness as she waited for her helicopter ride to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, though it was a frightening situation.

“My eyes were open, but I could only see black,” she recalled. “I was conscious; I could hear everybody. That was the worst that happened. There was no concussion, no anything.”

Roffman’s diagnosis was serious bruising to her right side—“They said I’ll be picking out glass from my side for two months!” she joked—and since she had lost a lot of blood from the side of her head during the fall she had to get 20 staples to close the wound.

When her CAT and MRI scans and blood work indicated she’ll make a full recovery, Roffman was released from the hospital at about 5:30 p.m. yesterday.

The staples will be removed in seven to 10 days, and though the doctor said she can be back in the saddle within the next day or two, she might sit out for the full week.

“Showering was not a fun experience yesterday, and putting a helmet on I can imagine would not be a very fun experience!” said Roffman.

The horse suffered a minor cut above his eye and an orbital bone fracture, but neither will impair his vision.

“He’s a super sweet and very smart horse. He’s a good boy,” she said. “Once he knew what was going on, he stopped thrashing, and I think he let me get out of the way. He’s a great patient and will make a full recovery.

“It was not pretty, to say the least,” she added. “I have obviously been working around horses and have seen a lot of stuff, and of course I’ve fallen off, but this actually had me quite scared.”