I just wasn't sure it was a believable death for a cavalry officer who'd been riding all his life.

Think of it like hitting an icy patch in a car -- an experienced driver has a much better chance of steering safely through the skid, but that's just a better chance, not a certainty. Sometimes, the skid takes you into traffic no matter how good you are.

Now I'm picturing a Real World sort of Muppet show. Topless Muppet hot-tub action!

Think of it like hitting an icy patch in a car -- an experienced driver has a much better chance of steering safely through the skid, but that's just a better chance, not a certainty. Sometimes, the skid takes you into traffic no matter how good you are.

Makes sense. And the nice thing about rocky country is he can always hit his head just wrong on an inconvenient rock and be killed by something that otherwise would've been survivable.

t surveys fictional corpse with satisfaction

What are some believable ways a skilled rider could be killed instantly when thrown from a horse? I'd prefer to avoid the horse refusing or falling at a jump if possible because I'm not sure it's realistic for the circumstances--a cavalry troop out on patrol in countryside that wouldn't really have a lot of fences, though it would be rocky and uneven.

How fast did they ride when on patrol? If they're out looking for things, I wouldn't expect it to be very fast.

To be honest, I don't think there is a realistic way for you to have that happen in that situation.

A sudden unexpected noise--a gunshot. a branch snapping or a small animal darting across the path--can make a horse shy.

But unlikely for an experienced calvary horse.

<surveys fictional corpse with satisfaction>

<arranges fictional corpse in wacky position>

Maybe someone else nearby who's less experienced could fall and accidentally discharge a musket in his direction?

Probably also unlikely that the horse is homicidal, and would go galloping under low-hanging branches, huh? They don't brook that sort of thing in cavalry horses.

Pretty much, there is only one method for killing instantly in a fall, and that is a broken neck. Even a skull fracture can take days to kill you (if it does), and although it's possible that thorax trauma could destabilize the heart, I think it's a lot more likely when being tackled by a football player than when falling.

Plain old "bad injury got infected" won't do?

Even a skull fracture can take days to kill you

But if someone hits their head hard enough on something hard, it can kill them instantly.

Or so I've heard.

edit for editiosity's sake....

But if someone hits their head hard enough on something hard, it'll kill them instantly.

Well, if you hit it just right. A math teacher from my high school died summer before my freshman year from a brain stem injury during a soccer game. Fluke tragedy.

The thing about falling off a horse that's not going very fast, in my experience, is that it's not a fast and violent thing. (It's also a lot less easy to do.) Even if the horse stumbles and you're not paying attention, it's generally a less dramatic stumble than if you were going faster than a walk. So, sure, there are probably deadly low-speed accidents, but in fiction, it's not something for which I could suspend my disbelief.

And it would probably take a lot to get a good cavalry horse to shy and run away.

Maybe it could be a remount? New, you know, inexperienced?