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.
No, he's treated as a star athlete. He gets the best money can buy for as long as he stays sound. If he doesn't, he gets sold down the river.
That's not a value judgment, really, just the truth. Horses of that caliber aren't pets, they're a means to an end, and that end is sport. If they don't match the pace needed, a horse will be found that will.
Becky gave two opinions... one... that she doesn't get the mindset of those who would want to do it. So what? And jumping does break down horses before they would if they weren't jumping. I don't know anyone in the sport who wouldn't acknowledge it carries quite a bit of risk of injury, both short and long term. Any hard athletic endeavor does.
I think you've been designated as the go between:) I guess she can't/won't post to me directly:)
Becky
I guess so. :~)
If I didn't ride alone, I'd never ride. Down at our cabin I have no one to ride with and I always ride alone. I carry a walkie talkie with me (no cell phone service down there) and if anything happens my husband would come and get me.
I'm so glad someone understands:)
I've told my husband if I'm not back by such and such time just look for the buzzards circling and come get me:)
You know, I know it's not a laughing matter or the safest thing, but what else can you do.
Becky
You might have good luck and good range with some of the walkie talkies that are out now... we have a set. It would be good to carry somethin' with ya.
Would they work if I was down in a valley between two hills? I don't think as the crow flies I'm ever more then 3-4 miles from home, it's just it's all hills and thick woods.
Becky
They're line of sight, but it'd be worth a shot to know where you can get signal and where you can't. At least you're better off for part of the time.
One of the funniest was when Waylon dumped me (my fault) and I called him on the walkies and he said "where are you?" I answered by the food plot ( we have 8 food plots over 83 acres) and he said duh? It took him a while to find me. In the meantime Waylon was running back and forth in the field like a horse in a shooting gallery having the time of his life. When hubby finally found me Waylon walked right up to his four wheeler and I haltered him......maybe you had to be there , but it was funny.
It helps if you're in horse country. Of course, the big horse lawyering area is Kentucky (and I used to consult with a Kentucky attorney when I had a big case) but there was plenty of horse-related stuff in Georgia. Still is, so far as I know.
It's funny because you weren't hurt :~) I bet you were madder than a hornet till he was caught :~)
I think both sides here have a point.
It's a little unfair to condemn all showjumping as very bad for horses' legs . . . that's a bit of an overstatement. Out of condition horses get injured, and sometimes one just has bad luck (vide Barbaro). But a sensible conditioning program and good preventive vet care, shoeing, etc. prevent a lot of injuries, and many show horses have long careers quite sound.
Another overstatement was the idea that show horses are kept confined and not worked sufficiently to avoid injury. Reputable show horse owners and riders DO take excellent care of their horses. They do turn them out (properly protected with UV sheets) and make sure they're in shape for their work.
And most do NOT just discard them if they're past work. Sometimes they're perfectly useful for ponying, hacking, or as a school horse. I was lucky enough to ride a couple of Earl "Red" Fraser's retired show horses back in the day, wow was that amazing. A savvy old show hunter or jumper can teach you a lot!
Of course there are bad owners who treat their horses like inanimate objects, who make them stand in stalls all day long, don't condition them, etc. But we don't judge the entire group by the bad apples. . . we'd all be in trouble if everybody did that.
Woodbutcher's response was a bit strong, but on the other hand if you substitute "racehorse" for "showhorse", the complaint sounded a lot like "all racing is bad, all racehorses are abused, Barbaro should never have been raced" and so forth. We went through all that when Barbaro was hurt, and while there are racehorse owners who don't treat their animals right, Barbaro's owners are not in that category. So it may have been a natural reaction to fly off the handle a little at what seemed like a blanket condemnation of all hunter/jumper owners.
(Don't ask me about rodeo . . . I only worked one summer on a ranch out West!)
I agree I was generalizing.
In my mind I was thinking of the average horse owners that I've run into at the stables around here. not the high dollar professionals. OK. IMO, there are more average horse owners vs. the pros.
And I agree that most injuries come from out of condition horses. BUT, around here, I just never get the impression that these average horse owners condition enough, hence so many lame jumping horses, endurance horses, barrel horses, etc...
I think the type of jumping you do, cross country, makes more sense then just going around an arena jumping for the sake of jumping. JMO. But then I don't care for much arena work. But I also think any jumping even for a conditioned horse is high impact, and will wear a horses joints down quicker, but there is no way for either side to prove either way. That's going to be all opinion.
After my initial response, I was just responding in kind to what IMO, was way overboard reaction...:)
I hope I did not offend you AAM...I didn't mean to offend anyone...just stating my opinion. But I will say to you, I have no doubt that your horse is one of the ones that is most likely properly conditioned, or you wouldn't jump her till she was.
Peace:)
Becky
I hate horse racing too. Between the accidents and the ex-racers that I've worked with, bah!
I think that the worst problems come from average horse owners who don't know what they're doing - they jump their horses too high, on poorly prepared ground, don't condition, and don't understand how to rate a horse between the jumps (that's the number one skill you have to learn). They ride their horses in a couple of shows, enter all the big fence classes, and then wonder why the poor critter pulls up lame. And folks who aren't in that sport think that's a "typical" show jumper.
The real pros aren't that careless. When you spend 100 grand or up on a good show jumper or hunter, you DON'T want him carelessly injured or chronicly lame. If you've put that sort of money into a horse, you hire a professional trainer who sets detailed conditioning and training schedules and watches the horses like a hawk. Horse training has gone high tech, just like track and field or baseball or anything else for humans . . .
My trainer is somewhere on the middle ground. She's got a couple of high dollar horses, a daughter of *Abdullah and two very nice registered Trakehners, but most of her school horses are middle of the road types although they are very good at what they do. She is famous for finding bargains, making the most of her horses and keeping them in splendid shape. Any one of her school horses or ponies can go out for a day with the hounds, keep up reasonably well, and not be completely blown out and soaked with sweat at the end of the day.
I disagree with you about arena versus cross country -- for every hour you're on a cross country course, you had better spend a couple of hours in the ring. The arena is where you hone your technique, make sure you and your horse understand each other, and practice pacing and turning techniques in a controlled environment. You practice there because when you hit an arena jump, it falls down! Most obstacles on a cross country course are built of telephone poles and dirt, and when you hit them they DON'T move.
Also, a good arena is well drained, tilled, and groomed to provide the best possible footing. . . . the ground is softer and more stable than most footing cross country. The worst fall I have taken on Gracie involved an unexpected muddy patch while cantering up a slope out hunting -- her legs shot out from under her and we BOTH went down in a heap! Just had the breath knocked out of us, nobody was hurt, but she's never lost her footing in the ring, even when her toes were a little long.
One thing I've noticed about Western riders is that a lot of the arenas that they use are way smaller than ours -- wouldn't be room for us to negotiate jumping turns at speed in a ring as small as some people use. And tight turns do put a lot of stress on a horse's legs . . .
I worked one summer on a dairy farm, another on a cattle ranch. The whole idea with the beef cattle was to leave them alone to graze and get fat, so I didn't have much contact with them, I just rode and mended fence on a cute little QH roping horse (who got a snaffle bit and dressage training that summer - even though the cowboys laughed at me!) But I did not like the Holstein dairy cows and they did not like me . . . they struck me as both malevolent and stupid. OTOH, I loved the Jerseys, they were very sweet tempered and affectionate and we got along just fine. I never did work with Galloways - aren't they a Lowland Scots breed?
I should have made the point that the belted Galloway is a strain within the breed. Not all are belted, far from it.
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