Al at Cold Fury is still riding a fixie (fixed gear bike). He has a humorous post about accidentally learning to skid stop.
Cold Fury » The Accidental Skidder

I’m not a master yet, but it’ coming along. Mostly by accident and happenstance, but hey, I’ll take it any way I can get it. Accidentally acquired knowledge is just as useful as information acquired on purpose.

I’ve never ridden a fixie, but I had the “Accidentally acquired knowledge” experience a few times, mostly on horses. While his was inspired by missing his truck, mine have traditionally been inspired by fear or outright terror. I broke horses for a number of years, and while they all turned out good in the end, a few got a little out of hand along the way. Few things are quite as inspiring as riding on a horse that suddenly doesn’t want to be ridden. You find yourself remembering every riding trick you’ve ever learned, as well as three places you’d rather be and fourteen reasons you really really shouldn’t be in the saddle to begin with. Along with all of those random thoughts you sometimes think of something new.

A number of years ago I was working in Eastern Washington State when I had the opportunity to ride in a public demonstration. Everything went well until about half way though the ride. I and about ten other riders were in the middle of a serpentine pattern when my horse started to come unhinged. (The bicycle equivalent I suppose would be riding down a nice mountain road and noticing your handlebars rapidly loosening.) The serpentine pattern quickly broke apart as my horse shed all of her training and most of her common sense. Two or three jumps into the really interesting part of the ride I decided to let her continue on without me.

While the decision was sound, my timing was bad. Mere milliseconds after pushing off and abandoning ship I realized something important. While it was quite hot down on the ground where we’d launched from, it was a little chilly where the horse and I were now, and I could swear I could see my breathe condensing. Right then and there I learned a new trick, remounting a horse I’d just jumped off of, before she (and more importantly I) hit the ground. I didn’t finish that ride in the saddle. I landed on my feet though, and maintained control of the horse.

I’ve never (thank you God) had the opportunity to use that particular remounting technique again, but I learned something else that day. I’ve ridden a lot of horses since then, and had a few accidents as well, but that lesson has stayed with me. No matter what’s going on, no matter how bad it looks, stay calm and don’t make rash decisions that make things worse.

Thanks Al for reminding me of that “accidentally acquired” lesson, it’s been a while since I’ve thought of that ride. The horse I don’t need to be reminded of. Once she learned she could dump me if she really wanted to, she didn’t really want to any more. I will have owned her twenty-one years this coming August, and her daughter will be nine in June. Best horses I’ve ever owned.