History Main / LandInTheSaddle

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'': In the episode, "The White Knight", Link jumps down from his tower window and bounces/backflips off a tent canopy below before landing in his horse's saddle. The horse is startled and tries to throw him off, but he stays on and calms her down.

A subtrope of NoEscapeButDown. Not to be confused with FallingIntoTheCockpit. Definitely ''not'' TruthInTelevision. Doing this in real life will either cause you or the horse serious injury, and doing it from high enough can kill the horse outright by breaking its back and collapsing its lungs.

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' has Lucky leaping onto his horse so often, that Jolly Jumper has expressed surprise if Luke exits a building through the door. Jolly is sometimes seen complaining about how Luke gets to make merry in the saloon, and his horse must wait outside under the window. There are also occasional subversions to keep things interesting. In one instance, Luke throws himself out the wrong window, leading to his escaping while Jolly Jumper laughs at him. In another, he realizes the horse he's landed on is not Jolly Jumper, who explains that as he didn't know which window Luke would jump from, he put a horse under each window to be sure.

* Pulled twice by Creator/JeanMarais in two {{swashbuckler}} films made practially the same year:

* Hanzo's trait in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' allows him to jump over terrain and land on the far side. Selecting his Mounted Archery talent will cause him to immediately mount up when he lands.

A subtrope of NoEscapeButDown. Not to be confused with FallingIntoTheCockpit.

* Reconstructed in ''Literature/WaxAndWayne''. New lawman Wax suggests doing this to escape from a gang, but the more experienced Lessie shoots him down by asking how a full-grown man could expect to jump on top of a horse and not [[RealityEnsues break its back]]. Wax can pull this off because of his Metalborn powers; he could either use his [[LiquidAssets Skimmer abilities]] to reduce his weight and drop with little impact, or his [[MagnetismManipulation Steelpushing power]] on the horseshoes. Since Wax's telekinetic Pushes move him away from metal if it weighs more than him (or is anchored to something that does), he could gently land by Pushing against gravity, without hurting the horse, by sending his weight into the ground through the horseshoes. Alas, the horse already ran off at first sign of gunfire.

* Discussed in ''Literature/WaxAndWayne''. New lawman Wax suggests doing this to escape from a gang, but the more experienced Lessie sarcastically asks if he uses a magic saddle that would stop him from [[RealityEnsues breaking the horse's back]]. [[JustifiedTrope The answer is yes]]; Wax's two powers are to change his weight at will and telekinetically Push on metal, and he mentions practicing this maneuver. They still can't do this because the horse ran off at first sign of gunfire.

* ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'' takes it up to eleven, with Flynn [[spoiler:catapulted over a high wall and landing the saddle of the horse waiting on the other side]]. Thanks to RuleOfCool, nobody gets hurt.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''The Masque of Mandragora'', the Doctor jumps from the execution platform onto one of the guards' horses, shoves that guard out of the saddle, and takes off galloping.

* A running gag in ''Film/ZorroTheGayBlade'' is that Zorro's horse is always in the wrong place fr him to land in the saddle.

* Indiana Jones tries to leap into the saddle of his horse in the prologue sequence of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. The horse moves. The mooks chasing him repeat the process, but with a truck.

* ''Film/AustinPowers'' has the titular Austin leap into his convertible via a forward flip. When he tries it into [[BondGirl Felicity's]] car in the sequel, he lands on the gear shift.

* Early in ''Series/{{Casanova}}'', Casanova completely misses the waiting horse while escaping from a disgruntled husband. [[/folder]]

* ComicBook/LuckyLuke does this so often that his horse, Jolly Jumper, has been known to express surprise if Luke exits a building through the door. Jolly is sometimes seen complaining about how Luke gets to make merry in the saloon, and his horse must wait outside under the window. There are also occasional subversions to keep things interesting. In one instance, Luke throws himself out the wrong window, leading to his escaping while Jolly Jumper laughs at him. In another, he realizes the horse he's landed on is not Jolly Jumper, who explains that as he didn't know which window Luke would jump from, he put a horse under each window to be sure.

* In the ErrolFlynn ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'', Robin pulls off this jump with his hands tied behind his back. (Well, he's supposed to -- if you watch closely, the stunt guy's hands move in front of his body in one shot.)

* A running gag in ''Film/ZorroTheGayBlade''. Z's horse was always in the wrong place.

* Franchise/IndianaJones tries this one in the prologue sequence of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. The horse moves. The mooks chasing him repeat the process, but with a truck.

* Creator/AntonioBanderas tried this trick in ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', but the horse moved. ''On purpose''.
* Film/AustinPowers pulls this into his convertible via a forward flip. When he tries it into [[BondGirl Felicity's]] car in the sequel, he lands on the gear shift.

* In ''Film/TheLoneRanger'' when Rebecca is pushed off the roof of the train by Cavendish, she lands in the saddle of Silver who is galloping along beside the train.

* Early in ''Series/{{Casanova}}'', Casanova attempts this while escaping from a disgruntled husband, but completely misses the waiting horse.
[[/folder]]

* If you aim just right, [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything you can land on your horse]] from a second story jump in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''.

* Happens automatically in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' when Edgar, Locke and Terra escape from Kefka.

Can be spoofed by including one or more of the things that could go wrong: the horse is spooked, the horse is injured by the impact with the rider, the rider is injured by the impact with the horse ([[ShareTheMalePain ouch]]), the rider misses the horse entirely, ...

* AntonioBanderas tried this trick in ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', but the horse moved. ''On purpose''.

* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheScarletPumpernickel'', where WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck misses the horse, causing him to muse that "this never happens to Creator/ErrolFlynn".

* IndianaJones tries this one in the prologue sequence of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. The horse moves. The mooks chasing him repeat the process, but with a truck.

* Played straight multiple times in ''Zorro's Fighting Legion''; not just {{Zorro}}, but several of his Legion can pull this off.

-->'''Flynn''': "Elbows in?"