Sad one
I wonder how often this happens?
I had a dear friend who got tossed off her mount when the horse balked in front a jump. The rider landed on her head, suffered a serious concussion and broker an ankle. She was lucky.
Oh yeah, she's not riding anymore.
How horrible! No parent should ever have to bury a child.
We need horse registration, mandatory saddle locks, and "assault horse" bans now! We also need laws that mandate storage of horses and food in separate, locked areas that are inaccessible to children. /'rat mindset
This was a tragic accident. However, there was an accident in Tucson recently where a 5 year old girl was killed in a parade accident, though it was forbidden for children that young to be riding.
SOMETIMES, a horse rearing straight back over itself is a heart problem with the horse.
Could also be a young horse.
The secret to riding a horse "safely" is to be prepared to jump off it at any moment while convincing the horse that you're not going anywhere.
Some years ago I was in the emergency room after having an accident with a oyster shucking knife. I had a nasty gash and it hurt like hell as an ER nurse was cleaning it out. I was in a room with other people being taken care of and one of the patients was this brave little girl who had been kicked in the head by her horse during a competition. Her face was horribly mangled but she was being so brave about it. Needless to say I felt like a whiner even thinking I had any real pain.
Ouch...sad story
I have owned horses most of my adult life. Crap happens when around animals. I do not wear a helmet. I wear strictly western hats. When people say you need to wear a helmet I simply ask "Do you wear a neck brace, back brace, knee brace, elbow brace? You might as well wear an armored suit."
Things like this are sad but it happens. My daughter started riding 16hand horses at the age of seven and did great.
At the stable where I learned to ride and hunt, there was a huge bay stallion named Junior who was the meanest SOB ever born. All the students were taught to give Junior a wide berth; he'd even lean out of his stall to bite if you got close enough.
Only two people could ride him - the stable boss Dan, and a guy named Patrick.
One day, not long before I got there, Patrick was taking Junior around the ring, over some basic jumps. They approached the Wall, which was a bricky-looking jump about three feet high.
Junior decided at the last minute that he didn't want to clear the Wall, so he stopped short and let Patrick go over without him. After Patrick landed, then Junior decided to jump after all.
He landed on Patrick, and after that there was only one man who could ride him. Ugh.
Mother says teen died doing what she loved
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pb...ING20/70321014
By GINNY LAROE
ginny.laroe@heraldtribune.com
VENICE – It seemed like Mary Angela Jaquith was born to ride horses.
By the time she was 4, Mary was riding regularly. Through her childhood, when she wasn’t riding a horse she was talking about how she wanted to become a veterinarian.
Mary, 13, died Saturday as she and fellow Pony Club members were practicing for an upcoming jumping competition at the Jaquith family’s East Venice farm.
When a younger rider had problems with one of the family’s horses, Mary, who was more experienced, hopped saddled up to see if she could help.
Unknown to the nine riders, two instructors and parents who were there, the horse was likely back sore. When Mary mounted the horse it reared back, throwing her to the ground. Then it rolled over her.
Mary’s mother, Debra Jaquith, rushed to her side and tried to care for her. But Mary was unconscious and bleeding heavily.
Despite the riding helmet, she suffered a fracture to the base of her skull.
On Sunday, the blue-eyed girl died in her mother’s arms at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she was airlifted after the accident.
Jaquith, who rode horses with her home-schooled daughter four days a week, said she isn’t angry about the way her daughter died. Instead, she is comforted by the fact that she was doing what she loved.
“God wants us to live in the moment more than he wants us to dwell in the past,” Jaquith said. “That’s what he’s really teaching me.
“The day He created her, He knew He was going to take her back. You can’t second guess that. You accept it.”
If it wasn’t a horseback riding accident, it could have been a car wreck or something worse, Jaquith said.
On Wednesday, family and friends gathered at the Farley Funeral Home in Venice to grieve for the girl who wanted to become a veterinarian and a mother.
Friend Molly Martin, 13, one of the Pony Club members who was at the farm Saturday, remembered the way Mary was unafraid to be herself.
“She never cared what people thought of her,” Molly said.
Michael Jaquith,a local orthopedic surgeon, said his daughter had a strong faith in God and she showed it in the way she treated people.
While always mature beyond her years, he said he had noticed a change in her over the last year.
“She just became increasingly virtuous, avoiding arguments and not having to get her own way,” Jaquith said while surrounded by his wife and some of his surviving seven children.
Mass of Christian Burial will is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday at Epiphany Cathedral in Venice.
Awful! Just like that scene from Gone With the Wind that always makes me cry.
God be with the child's relatives and friends.