There was a lot of yelling going on once I realized things were not good, which may have helped.

Had the deer and me collided I would have tried to continue riding. How successful I would have been we'll never know, and hopefully I'll never have the collision to begin with.

Deer rarely react the way we expect or hope they will, and the outcome of surprise encounters at speed are probably more driven by chance than any training or preparation.

I do have experience with deer - when I was riding motorcycles I hit 6 of them. Killed most, totaled a couple motorcycles but never fell off.