[JER]

A scary photo from a scary paper (the Daily Mail)

"For my next trick, a perfect head over hooves: Picture of terrifying fall of rider and horse at international show"


The horse is ok; the rider has neck and back injuries and the article says it's too early to say if she'll make a full recovery.

Let's hope she does.

The comments attached to this article are predominantly negative. And while we might object to making these sensational photos the public face of our sport, the sad truth is that these falls are horrifying and highly lethal.

[RAyers]

Uh, I may be off but it looks to me like she had one of those "Aerowear" vests (or whatever the air vests brands are) on. At least from the ones I saw at COHP the other week, it looks like she was wearing one.

Reed

[GotSpots]

Sweet Unprintable. Why doesn't the pole on the top of that fence have a frangible pin? The lower flower box might have caused the horse to fall, but not to flip like that, had the hanging rail been pinned (at least in my untrained view of this photo).

[joharavhf]

Ouch. Here's a full picture reel


The caption under this last photo says:

Faith lands and momentum rolls her away. As you can see from the picture, Sammi has landed on the right side of his head, and as he falls he lands to Faith's right hand side.

Faith's air jacket has inflated and protected her from futher injury. The air jacket works when the cord that is atttached to a gas canister at the bottom of her jacket and clips to the saddle, becomes detached when a rider falls, triggering the cannister and inflating the jacket.

Faith suffered 2 broken bones in her neck and back, but no spinal damage. Sammi was a bit sore, but both should have a full recovery.

[JER]

Ah yes, the Point Two Air Jacket. Yours for £400 ($650).

It can't do squat to protect your neck and spine from an axial-loading injury.

Or from the impact of the horse falling on you. But Ms. Cook was very fortunate that didn't happen to her.

[eventinglvr]

My thoughts exactly....just how EXACTLY do these fancy air vest protect you better than a normal xc vest?

[Jealoushe]

I feel sick....that girl was probably inches away from being dead.

ughhhhhhhhhhh I hate that.

[rabicon]

Looks like he got to deep. Thank God everyone is okay and not dead after that!! The vest is interesting, never seen one of those.

[Gnep]

take a real close look at that slide show, when she hits the ground with her head the vest is not jet completly filled with air, the vest is still inflating.
But this rotational could have been prevented by the pin, a perfect demonstration.

[Lori B]

Ditto GotSpots. RAYers, Gnep, other fence engineering types -- could that top rail have been pinned? Should it have been? Or is there a reason that it couldn't have been?

Ai yi yi.

[kookicat]

God, that's just chilling.

My thoughts exactly....just how EXACTLY do these fancy air vest protect you better than a normal xc vest?

My understanding is that they work like an airbag in a car- cushion the impact when you hit the deck. I could be wrong though. I think they have to be worn over a normal foam body protector in the UK.

[mvp]

"Rotation Fall"-- sounds almost good. The horse flipped the F over.

Not here to really start an "Eventing is inherently unsafe and therefore evil" type trainwreck, but I am cynical about wrapping plain ol' concepts in fancy terms.

On a biomechanical point. I think its amazing that a face-planted human-- short body and neck and I'm guessing the body comparatively light, fared better than the face-planting horse with that longer neck and proportionately heavier body. Perhaps the magic likes in the horse's longer neck?

[hamsterpoop]

Ah yes, the Point Two Air Jacket. Yours for £400 ($650).

It can't do squat to protect your neck and spine from an axial-loading injury.

Or from the impact of the horse falling on you. But Ms. Cook was very fortunate that didn't happen to her.

Good point, the soft ground (looks soft) probably helped also. I thought the airbag WOULD help if the horse fell on you. No?

[flyingchange]

where the *&^% is the frangible pen on that rail????!!!!

[purplnurpl]

Uh, I may be off but it looks to me like she had one of those "Aerowear" vests (or whatever the air vests brands are) on. At least from the ones I saw at COHP the other week, it looks like she was wearing one.

Reed

Negative. Aerowear is different from that air jacket vest (I have no idea what it is called).

Aerowear is a regular beta 3. I bought the Outlyne this year and I really like it.

[CookiePony]

So... last weekend international eventing at *** or above had two rotational falls out of three competitions.

[RAyers]

take a real close look at that slide show, when she hits the ground with her head the vest is not jet completly filled with air, the vest is still inflating.
But this rotational could have been prevented by the pin, a perfect demonstration.

I agree! Look at the photo in the first article. The vest is definitely NOT fully inflated during impact. There are still crinkles in it where her body is "folding."

In that type of hit, NO body protector was going to help. Most gear will protect against hyperextension but it looks like she was in full compression.

Yes, I am mistaken, it is a Point Two Air Jacket. I even misspelled Airowear which makes a "standard" flak jacket.

[Gnep]

LoriB, no problem to pin that fence, piece of cubcacke.

[Jealoushe]

where the *&^% is the frangible pen on that rail????!!!!

What difference does it make, not being snotty just actually curious. How would the horse have fallen if there was one. I'm still inclined to think the fall would be pretty nasty.

[JER]

I thought the airbag WOULD help if the horse fell on you. No?

No.

Horsey big, airbag little. That's the scientific explanation.

Also, the airbag starts to deflate after 18 seconds, so if you're trapped under your horse, it's toughen-up-cupcake time.

If the fence had been pinned, the rail would have given way and the horse's trajectory would have been changed. The horse would fall down rather than rotate over.