RIP Mark, amputee soldier thrown from mount at Help for Heroes event

OK so now we start to get a bit more information on which to make a judgement and it looks more likely there was indeed a cock-up of the first order....I await the full picture.
 
kerilli said:
i found a report last night where the horse's owner said that a Kings Trooper was supposed to ride the horse, but there was a last-minute change of plan.
I, too, doubt that he was an RDA horse. I have a bit of experience with RDA, and if a big horse is used (and they have their problems, e.g. it is v hard for a walker to stabilise/help someone on a tall horse, plus a lot farther to fall if the worst comes to the worst) it is usually a real weight-carrier. e.g. we had a Percheron x Highland (elephant x elephant) which was about 14.3 iirc, who was perfect for the job.
Click to expand...

Ditto this! HW ponies and cobs are the first choice of the RDA groups I have helped out at. The HW cobs can take adults but still give the helpers a chance of stabilizing the rider if needed.

The horse in the accident had already reared up once before the second fatal rear. In my RDA training a rear means take the rider off immediately and re-assess the horse's suitability for what you are trying to do. The horse had a leader as well which to my mind means he really, really meant it with the rear as most leader should be able to prevent a horse from doing a little rear by a tug on the leadrope.
 
absolutely Booboos. i've been a leader, a walker, and in charge of RDA rides and it is always clearly understood by ALL people on foot that at the LEAST sign of bad behaviour of the horse you get the rider off asap and then reevaluate. safety takes precedence over dignity...
if the horse had already reared (and allegedly had never done so before in the many years he'd been with that owner) he was already being very eloquent... :( :(
in this situation perhaps they didn't want to embarrass the rider (his prosthetic would prob have been back at the stables, for example) but the leader or whoever was in charge really should have gotten the rider off immediately.
anyway, tragic.
 
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