Posted on 03/22/2007 8:59:06 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
VENICE, Fla. -- A 13-year-old Venice girl died after being thrown from a horse.
Mary Angela Jaquith was practicing for a jumping competition at her family farm on Saturday when another member of her riding club had a problem with a horse. Jaquith saddled up to see if she could help.
But the horse reared back, threw Jaquith to the ground and rolled over her.
Jaquith's mother, Debra is a former nurse. She rushed to the girl's side and found her unconscious and bleeding heavily.
Jaquith was airlifted to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Despite her riding helmet, Jaquith suffered a fracture to the base of her skull. She died on Sunday.
A Mass of Christian burial is scheduled for today in Venice.
That's the key. WEAR YOUR HELMET - even when you're not jumping. You may get some orthopedic injuries (I have several) but you can get those in almost any sport. Head injuries are the real danger in riding.
I have always worn a helmet, my dad was a bug about it when I was a kid. They didn't have the real safety helmets in those days, so he sent off to New York for a jockey's racing helmet. UGLY - I got a racing silk cover for it.
My grown child (age 21) has been riding horses all her life and how rides jumpers professionally. She was in Pony Club starting about age 11. I have to say the activity of horses generally do more to keep the kids out of trouble more than any other activity. It is simply too time consuming to give them much time to get into trouble. I strongly recommend Pony Club. While, granted, the little girl in the article was killed in a Pony Club activity, it is an organization which teaches safety and how to behave around horses and how to care for them. Check out www.ponyclub.org.
"I wonder how often this happens?"
As a 15 year staff member of a large fox hunt club, I crashed
over jumps plenty of times. As a rule, it is not so serious, but if the horse lands on you it is a different story.
With as many as 25 or more riders in the field, I do not recall an accident that required emergency service.
I do remember a horse falling on a girl in a horse show, and it was fatal.
Oh yeah, Jr. I guess we both read the post differently. I read that Jr was a problem, before the accident. I would not have any horse on my property that killed anyone, accident or deliberate. Here is why:
1. Liability. In Texas, stables are protected from liability (within reason) It doesn't mean they can't be sued though. I live in an area where juries tend to be sympathetic and huge monies are given.
2. Whether accident or not, horses tend to repeat stuff they get away with. Would the horse try it again?
3. Kids will be kids. Dares, curiosity. They are going to check him out. Even though they are where they aren't supposed to be, they can still get hurt. That's why I took my pool down, when the grand-babies moved in.
4. Every time I looked at this horse, I would remember and wonder about the above. I'm not saying either of us is right or wrong. Just explaining where I am coming from.
LOL...I was thinking this same thought while I was out riding. That some jumpers think that it's not safe that I'm out by myself. And I agree, it's not the best scenario. But have you ever tried to find people who are willing to ride 3-4 X's a week for any where from 2-4 hours...Most people don't want to or don't have time to do that. So it's either go by myself or don't go at all which is not acceptable for me:)
My husband always knows when I should be back by, and the general vicinity I'lm going to be riding in. And altho I do not trust any horse any father then I could throw them, I worry more about the idiots I run into out in the woods being a danger then anything the horse could do.
Becky
There was a young jumper ( a girl) who died awhile back. She was killed in a plane crash. It's sad but bad things happen to kids sometimes.
You carry a cell phone too, don't you?
No, I can't get reception in most of the places I go, so what's the point.
Becky
Huh. I thought you told me once that you did.
I did, I tried it, but like I said, I very seldom could pick up a signal, so what good was it going to do me.
You all usually know when I'm going to be out...If I don't check back in call Mack:) Hair has my number.
Becky
Josh take my cell phone yesterday.( stable rules) He was most put out when he got back. He wanted a quiet trail ride and didn't appreciate playing my secretary.
Thanks for your note.
You must be one tough customer!
I'll stick to golf. If my five-iron falls on me, I won't worry. :)
I understand people can, with a few loaded words, convince naive juries of things. I'm just surprised that two horsewomen are so easily swayed to lead the charge. Every horse at a stable could hurt a kid. Without any malice at all.
I read the post and agree it sounds like it was a rather rank stallion. But a couple things jumped out at me. First... "Stallion" in an of itself should serve as a warning and an assumed risk for any reasonably knowledgeable horse person. It seems these people did one thing right and that was that they were pretty good about warning and teaching students not to mess with that horse. It's not like they were using the horse for kiddie lessons. The kids knew to keep their fingers away. They didn't leave the stallion running loose among the children, they had him in a stall. No kid was hurt here, a trainer was.
I think they'd probably warn the next trainer too. "Hey we need a trainer for our rather rank stallion... see, he killed our last trainer in a jumping incident last week." The guy the horse hurt was not a kid, it was one of the trainers who presumably knew what he was getting into. So would the next trainer hired. If owning a rank horse and hiring a trainer to fix it doesn't release you of liability at least toward that trainer, then I hope you're prepared to give your home and all your money to whoever you send SL to to be fixed, if he gets hurt. Not trying to be harsh, just trying to put things in perspective on who you should be trying to protect.
The horse might have been a rank, difficult horse, but the accident as described here is something that might well have happened with the sweetest old school horse in the barn.
We'll call and check on you, but unless you give us a promise of when you'll bee back, we might not really panic for a day or so... I hope you'd have faster response than us :~)
We don't get coverage in the forest everywhere either, but we carry it. We figure, we may not get coverage in a valley, but we may be able to get to a ridge.
LOL...OK, I won't count on fast response then:)
Heck I came back early today, because I was curious about how this thread was going:)
Becky
Awful! Just like that scene from Gone With the Wind that always makes me cry.
God be with the child's relatives and friends.
We're sidetracked on a rank stallion that was at a barn Xena took lessons at :~)
I have to agree with Hair.
Becky
I did equine related litigation for many years. I'm just telling you how it would probably shake out.
May not like it, may not think it's fair, but that's the way it is.
Because of the perceived unfairness of the legal situation, in Georgia an "Equine Immunity Statute" was enacted a number of years ago. It's been thoroughly litigated and has stood up pretty well -- but there is still an exception where the owner of a horse has concealed or failed to disclose an unusual vicious propensity.
As a general rule, it doesn't fly with experienced horsemen, because of the provisions of the immunity statute. For example, I could never sue anybody for an injury I incurred, I've been riding too long and I'm too well aware of all the things that can go wrong.
About the only way an experienced horseman can sue is a situation that I was involved in probably 20 years ago, where a stallion was sold at a sale while Aced up within an inch of his life . . . and then nearly killed the purchaser when the sedative wore off. That was of course a claim for fraud etc. and the plaintiffs got a big judgment.
I know, I've been reading all the posts.
Becky
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