Posted on 10/11/2004 1:42:46 AM PDT by daylate-dollarshort
Actor Christopher Reeve Dead at 52
Monday, October 11, 2004
BEDFORD, NY — Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.
Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs told The Associated Press by phone from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.
Reeve was being treated at Northern Westchester Hospital for a pressure wound, a common complication for people living with paralysis. In the past week, the wound had become severely infected, resulting in a serious systemic infection.
"On behalf of my entire family, I want to thank Northern Westchester Hospital for the excellent care they provided to my husband," Dana Reeve, Christopher's wife, said in a statement. "I also want to thank his personal staff of nurses and aides, as well as the millions of fans from around the world who have supported and loved my husband over the years."
Reeve broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The Horse that Christopher Reeve was riding was his own. He boarded the Horse in a stable in New York state, and I know the owner of the stable where the horse was kept. Small world.
Woops! My bad Yes, I meant the dad.
I agree...MSM/Liberals is desparate to "put down" the internet, esp. FR.
I always thought that competing in equestrian sports was something that someone could not begin after a certain age -- that it was best learned when one was a child or teenager. I am also under the impression that Reeve did not take up competitive equestrian sports until his late 20s or early 30s. If some one takes up these sports when they are very young, one's instincts would be more in tune with the horse and avoid the kind of accident that paralyzed Reeve. Is this a correct judgement? I for one -- well past the age of 30 -- would not take up equestrian contests or horse races of any time. Horse back riding would be quite another thing.
But you have to go cautiously, especially in cross country, because unlike the jumps in the ring those obstacles don't fall down when you hit them. I have no illusions about my ability - I'm a competent amateur - and I have a bomb-proof, reliable mare who is slow-and-steady rather than a top fuel dragster. We don't go out trying to set any speed records, and we compete one level below what I think we could do if pressed.
Having the money to afford Too Much Horse is probably the single most dangerous factor - the worst riding injury I ever saw was directly due to that. But it's also the accumulation of mistakes - attempting too much too fast, riding above your ability, and then making a mistake of judgment or inattention while on course. From what I hear from horse people, all those things were a factor in Mr. Reeve's injury. But I've never heard a complete account of exactly what happened from a first hand source.
And I don't care how much of a Kerry Kool-Aid Kchugger Reeve was; you don't spit on his grave while the body's still warm just because he was WRONG about this particular cause. Especially when you know absolutely zero, zip, nada about what life must have been like for him over the past nine years. I honestly don't know just how strong my convictions on stem-cell research would be were I in Reeve's place, and neither, I suspect, do most of those condemning him.
Most of us will be fortunate never to know what it's like to live like a quadriplegic. Still more of us, thrust into that situation, would not be able to muster Reeve's will to keep on living, much less find a way to keep on working at the things we love, as he did. It doesn't matter to me that he was wrong about stem-cell research. I won't think any less of him when the MSM and the Kerry Kampaign start capitalizing on his death. He was still one hell of a courageous man, and he gave a lot of us a lot of joy when we were kids. That's what I'll remember.
-Dan
AMEN!
I've gotten their names confused so many times, it now jumps off the page when I see either of them mentioned! Charlie is very funny in a wry way but his Dad wears his warped sense of "liberalism" on his sleeve and is tiresome.
As someone who has ridden my entire life, I agree with your comments about Reeve's riding ability. I saw the footage of the accident, and he made a common novice mistake called 'jumping up the horse's neck'. Instead of letting the horse's momentum lift him out of the saddle over the jump he anticipated the jump and got in position before the horse was ready. He was a big, heavy guy and the horse decided it couldn't get over the jump with its rider's weight off balance and slammed on the brakes.
Reeve was incredibly unlucky to have this accident result in a broken neck, however. I've had the same thing happen to me. I've fallen off in every way imaginable and have always walked away. If you ride horses you are going to part company every so often - that's just part of the sport.
In Chris Reeve's book, "Still Me" he says that he was coming up to a jump and the horse refused, sending Chris sailing over the jump and landing flat smack on his head.
You're right, people can learn to ride as an adult and do ok but I still think that if you are going to do a high powered sport like cross country, you'd better have been riding for a looong time. There's a world of difference between hunter and cross country.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything else you said, Too Much Horse, too much money and riding above your ability. I've seen it a million times, adult starts riding, gets way over-confident, has a small accident, horse is sold. Poor Chris Reeve wasn't lucky enough to have a small accident that would change his way of thinking. I was lucky enough to start riding at a very young age, I healed very quickly after accidents and got right back on. With that early experience, now at age 42 I'm well aware of what I should be doing and shouldn't be doing, to try and stay safe in a risky hobby. I don't heal fast anymore and accidents seem to hurt alot more now than they did when I was a kid.
I admire Dana Reeves. God Bless her, she stood by him through all this. It must have been so difficult, but she was faithful to her vows; in sickness and in health.
I've never seen the footage but I have seen people jumping ahead and not letting the horse's momentum lift them out of the saddle. A classic way of getting dumped, for sure.
You are absolutely right. I think of riding like gymnastics. An adult just learning wouldn't go to Bela Karolyi to learn the uneven bars, they would stick with something easy. Why would someone who had only been riding a couple of years do something as risky as cross country jumping? Over-confidence would be a major factor. There is something about the horse industry that makes people feel like experts with only a few years experience.
Since I switched to a combined training barn, I ride more in a "safety seat" and don't get hung out to dry when a horse refuses. On the other hand, I was out hunting last season and my 100 percent reliable bombproof mare actually FELL DOWN just cantering up a hill. We'd been out a couple of hours and had a couple of fast runs, so she was a little tired, and I think she hit a wet patch and her feet just shot out from under her. I rolled off her shoulder and was on my feet before she was. We both were fine, but the expression on her face was a study. She was highly embarassed.
I've been riding for 45 years - since I was 5 or 6 years old. I've accumulated a few injuries along the way - broken nose, torn ACL, bruised ribs . . . the only serious one in 45 years was a badly broken finger that basically had to be reassembled on the surgery table. It doesn't even ache when the weather changes, though, thanks to glucosamine/chondroitin tablets. And that didn't happen in the hunting field or on the cross-country course - I was working a big doofus of a Quarter Horse over a small grid and he tripped over his own feet and fell down.
I agree with you that Reeve was just incredibly unfortunate. I've shot off over the horse's head many, many times . . . about 20 years ago, riding somebody else's horse that was very heavy on the forehand, I came off four times in a one-hour lesson! (I didn't ride that horse any more.) It comes with the territory - but usually the consequences aren't that severe. On the other hand, I know somebody who sustained a severe head injury falling in the bathtub . . . there are no guarantees.
BTW, if you saw the film, is there any truth to the rumor I heard that he had his reins wrapped around his hands and so could not catch himself?
(Taking some instruction in aikido was a really good idea for me - IOW learning how to fall. It sure helped when my horse and I took a spill in the hunting field - my body just automatically tucked and rolled and I was on my feet before I knew it.)
I have always felt very bad about his accident and admired him for his strength in soldiering on all these years. God bless him.
Because there are risk-takers and risk avoiders in this life. Many people learn and become good riders in adulthood, and compete in equestrian sports. There are beginner levels in jumping, and they are full of adult riders. Any rider, experienced or not, can have a fall. Most don't get injured to the degree he was, but the possibility is always there. That possibility keeps some of us on the safe side, but the winners took the risk.
Hahahahha, yes, I do weigh considerably more now than I did at age 12. Wish I didn't. What is aikido? That sounds like something I should look into.
BTW, you're right about the difference between hunting and cross country. When you're hunting, there's always the option of going around the fence. Case in point: we were out on a hunter pace in September, came down a steep and heavily wooded hill (I had the mare back to a slow trot with her haunches under her, because the footing was loose, lots of gravel and good-sized rocks) and there was about a 3' coop sitting right at the base of the slope in the edge of the shade. Loose rocks had actually piled up against the takeoff side. I thought, "No momentum, bad footing, good size, jumping out into the light . . . nah" and pulled the mare around to the right.
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