Horse breaks leg at Strathallan Show

pizzi

pizzi

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So Sad. My friends horse broke her leg showjumping on Sunday. She had won a class the day before and was jumping the next day when she snapped her pastern taking off awkwardly. A lovely super talented mare, only 8 years old. One of those freaky accidents.
The vet had wanted to strap the leg and try to get her out of the ring - to save the publics feelings! There was no animal "ambulance" - he wanted to try to get her to walk out. She couldn't bloomin' walk! My friend insisted that she should be PTS there and then - compound fracture of the pastern, no way of it being repaired and she wanted to spare her suffering.
Everyone is absolutely gutted. RIP Petal, :(
 
pizzi said:
So Sad. My friends horse broke her leg showjumping on Sunday. She had won a class the day before and was jumping the next day when she snapped her pastern taking off awkwardly. A lovely super talented mare, only 8 years old. One of those freaky accidents.
The vet had wanted to strap the leg and try to get her out of the ring - to save the publics feelings! There was no animal "ambulance" - he wanted to try to get her to walk out. She couldn't bloomin' walk! My friend insisted that she should be PTS there and then - compound fracture of the pastern, no way of it being repaired and she wanted to spare her suffering.
Everyone is absolutely gutted. RIP Petal, :(
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How awful, so sorry for your friend and her horse, astonished that at a jumping show there was no horse ambulance
 
Condolances for your friend.

Unfortuntately most shows dont have a horse ambulance on site unless it is a county show or British Eventing as they are too expensive to run and normal shows dont take enough to warrent the cost of paying to have one sat there on standby all day " just in case".
 
Very sorry to read this
There was a similar accident at Dumfries Show last year, totally again a freak accident, it took a little while to get screens up etc but a plan was in place, there was no way the horse was asked to ''hop out of the arena''
 
Dreadfully sorry to hear that. Could you pm me who it was pls as I may know them and would like to pass on condolences.

We didn't enter as I was concerned that the ground would be difficult despite the efforts of the fantastic organising committee. I had heard it was fine though and my worries would have been unfounded.
 
flaxen said:
Condolances for your friend.

Unfortuntately most shows dont have a horse ambulance on site unless it is a county show or British Eventing as they are too expensive to run and normal shows dont take enough to warrent the cost of paying to have one sat there on standby all day " just in case".
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As a competitor, i, and id like to think others, would be prepared to pay a little extra in entry fees to cover it, for exactly the type of accident thats happened.
I can think of nothing worse than being stuck in the middle of a field with a seriously hurt horse and no ambulance for it, absolutely devastating for the owner/rider and awful for others to watch.
Personally if it was up to me id make it a legal requiremant at a show where there is any jumping taking place.
 
I'm not sure I would want my horses loaded and travelled out of the ring either though if no chance of recovery, I can't imagine a trailer across a field being very comfortable. I would probably prefer it to be PTS where it stood and well done to the OPs friend for insisting that this happened.
 
As a show organiser I have to tell you that it is not just a matter of paying a few extra pounds - it would be quite a number of extra pounds. Also there would not be enough horse ambulances in the country to provide this facility to every event.

Fortunately, this situation is comparatively rare in the show jumping scene - yes it happens but in relation to the number of starters not often. Personally I think one has to take a balanced view and accept that there will be the odd occasion when an ambulance would have been a great help but a hugely greater number of days when an ambulance would have been uneccesary. At a major county show where there are huge numbers of public, yes it is necessary. At your local centre perhaps the answer is no.

It is very sad when these things do occur and we all feel desperately sorry for those involved - both the owners, other competitors and indeed the show organisers.
 
Very very sad. Hope your friend is ok.

I agree with sport horse though, I don't think it's feasible to have a horse ambulance at every event. Competitors might say they would be happy to pay for it, but as most tend to quibble over the £2ish medical fee anyway, I would think an extra tenner for a horse ambulance wouldn't go down too well
 
I think a requirement to have it at all jumping events could of course be brought in but all it would result in is many many fewer events being held, which I think would be very sad.

We all say we would be prepared to pay more but it would be quite a bit more....
 
I think the question of the ambulance only came up because they were wanting to take the horse out of the ring. They did try to put screens up but they were scaring the mare. My friend had to ask the vet to give painkiller while decisions were being made! I think the horses needs should be put first .
 
sport horse said:
As a show organiser I have to tell you that it is not just a matter of paying a few extra pounds - it would be quite a number of extra pounds. Also there would not be enough horse ambulances in the country to provide this facility to every event.

Fortunately, this situation is comparatively rare in the show jumping scene - yes it happens but in relation to the number of starters not often. Personally I think one has to take a balanced view and accept that there will be the odd occasion when an ambulance would have been a great help but a hugely greater number of days when an ambulance would have been uneccesary. At a major county show where there are huge numbers of public, yes it is necessary. At your local centre perhaps the answer is no.

It is very sad when these things do occur and we all feel desperately sorry for those involved - both the owners, other competitors and indeed the show organisers.
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Thanks for this, having not organised a show, im not aware of costs, i find it strange that its deemed neccessary for some shows and not others :confused:
 
I don't think it should be necessary to have a horse ambulance at shows to be honest. Sure, great if there is one but thankfully they are rarely needed and therefore I don't think the additional expense can be justified. Accidents happen and in this particular situation I wouldn't want my horse to be taken off in an ambulance when the outcome was inevitable - you are still having to walk a seriously injured horse into a trailer and expect it to stand whilst trailer is driven across a field and then be unloaded to be PTS. Unecessary I feel.

Of course, if a horse is injured but not fatally then an ambulance is useful rather than having to walk a horse any great distance but I would be happy enough if it was me to wait whilst one was called or bring my own box/trailer across to load the horse in. I think the main thing is that a vet is in attendance or on call for these events so can at least make a horse comfortable if an accident happens.
 
My commiserations for your friend and her horse. I saw her jumping on the Saturday and remember thinking how well she was riding. Its hard to believe the highs and lows of sport sometimes. There for the grace of God go all of us. Hats off to her for keeping a level head and doing the best by her horse.
 
Mithras said:
My commiserations for your friend and her horse. I saw her jumping on the Saturday and remember thinking how well she was riding. Its hard to believe the highs and lows of sport sometimes. There for the grace of God go all of us. Hats off to her for keeping a level head and doing the best by her horse.
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This. Your friend has my sympathy and respect for ensuring that her horse came first.
 
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