Horse riding fatality

I got a phone call from Mum last night, my cousins son (in his 30's) was fatally injured on Sunday, the news is sketchy owing to the amount of grief being poured out over the phone from my Aunt to my Mum but it was someone elses horse. He has been on life support since Sunday and life support was turned off today. He received extensive brain injuries.

He owned his own horses and was a skilled rider.

Rest in Peace Andrew.

Yakut

good lord.. i am soo sorry.. always a real shock when it is sudden and unexpected..

Heart felt sympathy to you and your family Yakut ....as a rider with a grown up daughter who is very much into riding as well, it is always a worry as horses are a big, powerful and unpredictable (at times) animal but such a passion to those of us involved with them ...at least your family can take a little comfort knowing he was doing what he obviously loved.
God Bless you all.

Deepest sympathies. We all know it can happen & as Terrallee says they are such big animals. Best wishes & thoughts.

I'm so sorry...that is tragic news

Thoughts and sympathies go out to the family
I agree with what Terralee said .. your family can be happy he went out doing what he loved doing ... no better way to go than doing what you really love

Shocking when it happens.....sympathy to all concerned.

So sorry Yakut, what sad news. Take care of yourself.

hugs yakut to you and all your family

I have immeasurable respect for the skilled riders out there who are asked to ride a horse that has been ruined by it's owner, rider or in temperament alone. My best friend is a horse trainer and I die inside at some of the horses he takes on because he knows if he can't do it, the horse is dog tucker. I don't know that this was the case here, but believe it was not a horse he wanted to ride for whatever reason.

I totally respect and applaud the commiserations of those who thought he was riding a horse of his choice and responded accordingly, so from me too, hugs Yakut for your hurt and all the other pain you have been experiencing lately. I hope that Andrew is now riding bare back on a beautiful horse at a full gallop with the biggest grin on his face. That would be heaven for him no doubt. RIP Andrew

Thanks all, yeah, today has been a bitch, yesterday wasn't much fun either. Yakira is really sick so I've been tending to her all yesterday and overnight last night, I got some sleep this morning but not much. I've been to the vet and picked up some drugs for her which she has been given, she's at least willing to stand up. It looks like it's pneumonia.... I have been so strung out today with grieving over my familys loss and Yakira being so sick plus I discovered another leaking pipe in the toilet wall. Another hole will have to be made so I can get to the join where the cistern pipe is....
Sometimes things just dump on you from a great height, one at a time is bad enough but three in 24 hours has me totally fractured, especially with a lack of sleep weighing heavily on me and now I think I'm at the point where I'm over tired.

I spent the afternoon of the Chch Earthquake not knowing if my parents were ok, Mum had been in hospital the day before and I wasn't sure if she was home or if Dad was going in to visit her, was visiting her or was on his way home, my sister works in a big warehouse that supplies nuts and bolts and in the last quake, all the employees legged it out but all those high shelves and heavy crates.... I couldn't get any reply to the texts I sent and of course the phones were out. Not knowing was crippling. My home town is a mess, all the places I was taken to as a child are now gone, then I find Yakira in the paddock yesterday, gums, tongue and eye membranes white. My guess is that she has had Barbers Pole (she's been drenched since obviously) and the Pneumonia if that's what she has, has taken advantage of her weak immune system.
She's had all the treatment I can give her and the vets as well, so it's just a matter of waiting. She's had Vigest and Ketol and offerings of food, her usual feed, a wheat bix which she just turned her head away from. Last night she was at least drinking but now she won't even drink. She just stands grunting a little with each breath. Hopefully the jabs the vet gave me for her will help her improve.

I haven't seen Andrew since he was a toddler with brilliant white/blonde hair. My Aunt phoned Mum but was sobbing so hard Mum said it was hard to understand what actually happened. She did understand that it wasn't his horse..... and she thinks he may have been a little reserved about riding it. My sister is still recovering from an accident last year when someone elses horse reared up all of a sudden and came down, striking her arm and back with it's front hooves. Her arm was badly broken and she is still having problems with ligaments etc, this horse was owned by two girls who, it turns out, didn't have a clue, they hadn't handled the horse much at all, probably because they were scared of it.... In the end, not long after the first earthquake, stock owners were directed to clean out the troughs because of the unsafe water in the main pipes..... these two owners possibly didn't heed the warning, the horse was found dead in the paddock and had been dead for three days according to the vet. It's hooves were so overgrown and there was evidence that the poor animal had been neglected. It had been bleeding from both ends....... I hope these two dreamers never ever own another horse again. They were scared of it and didn't seem to be too worried if someone else lead the horse to it's new paddock.... it had basically reverted back to being a wild horse. If you knowingly let someone tend to a horse like this with no prior warnings of it's tendencies.. wouldn't there be some legal obligations in there? I mean, that's just being sneaky and if the woman who owned the horse Andrew was being encouraged to get on, knew it was dodgy and not to be trusted, shouldn't she face some sort of legal action? There are liars out there who can get you killed.

Yakut

I"m so sorry to hear of your loss Yakut.

I hope things calm down for you soon, you sound like you need a break

Blessings

T

Unfortunately lying about bad horses has gone on for centuries. No matter how many questions you ask & research you do somehow the info doesn't come your way.

Anyway, best wishes. Thinking of you.

So sorry about Andrew & for your family's loss. I didn't know him but knew of him & had heard about his accident.

As for people lying about unsafe horses; that would be very difficult prove I would think as horses react in very different ways to different people.

I have a client's horse here at the moment who has kicked 8 of his handler's teeth out, has chased people out of yards & had to be darted (from outside the yard) 9 x times by the vet just to geld him! He also has a reputation for going awol out of yards & over fences when put under pressure.

He's been here for just over 3 months now & not once has he shown any inclination to either 'leave' anywhere or be aggressive despite being pushed out of his comfort zone. If I didn't know his previous history, I wouldn't for one second, consider that this horse might be dangerous.

As tragic as Andrew's accident is, I don't think blame can really be directed at anyone. That's horses unfortunately.

I should imagine the horse owner is already going through her own hell at the moment over the whole ordeal. Just AWFUL for all concerned!

Yeah, I understand where you are coming from Glopony. As I said, details were very sketchy. I haven't heard from Mum and Dad since so they may be up in Wellington for the funeral.

In my sisters case, her arm was very badly broken and the two girls who owned the horse were incompetent to say the least. Their stepfather had no idea about the accident involving my sister, all this came out when the horse died and a vet was called.... 3 days later, too late to do a PM. It was then that their Stepfather saw the damage and scars on Nicks arm. The horse died of neglect. It hadn't been handled or ridden because the two girls were scared of it. These were not young girls, I suspect in their late teens early 20's? They had asked Nick to help them lead the horse to another paddock down the road. All went well until they reached the new grazing and another horse called out to it, it reared up and went nuts coming down with it's front hooves on Nicks arm and back and slammed into a fencepost. Nick has been involved with horses since she was about 7 or 8 and very serious about horsemanship.
Mum and Dad found her one night around 9pm, well after she'd gone to bed, she was around 8 or 9 years old, fast asleep and trying to get her clothes on muttering about going horse riding. She is now 46 and has her own farm and horses and has had horses since she was old enough to work to feed them and man she really did the hard yards, biking about 4kms with a big pot of boiled grain to feed out until she moved them to another property with tack sheds etc. I can't remember all the ins and outs of the hard yards but she looked after those horses, they were handled, ridden, schooled and has done Pirelli with her current horse.
It scares me to think that someone else could be so silent about the nature of their horse.

Yakut