Jennie Brannigan’s first appearance at Rolex Kentucky has just barely gotten underway, and she’s already endured a competitor’s nightmare. This morning at around 8:30 a.m. her horse Cambalda got loose and slipped and fell on concrete.
“My groom was lunging him, and he spun and got loose from her and ran off,” said Brannigan, who didn’t witness the accident herself but got a first-hand account from friend and fellow competitor Hawley Bennett-Awad.
“Ping” has been checked out by the FEI veterinary panel, led by Dr. Catherine Kohn, and the ground jury has given Brannigan, who was scheduled to ride today at 11:42 a.m., the option of performing her dressage test tomorrow afternoon. Her new time has not yet been determined.
Until then, Brannigan said she’ll be having every possible diagnostic test performed to make sure Ping is still fit to compete.
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“We’re hoping he’s just a bit shaken up and that once he calms down he’ll be fine,” she said. “Obviously I’m would never start him unless he’s 100 percent fine.”
Last year Mighty Nice, ridden by Brannigan’s boss, Phillip Dutton, slipped and fell on concrete during the first horse inspection and continued on to finish 10th in the event.
Read more comprehensive coverage of the situation in the Chronicle’s story on Day 1 of Rolex Kentucky dressage.
