PDA

View Full Version : Scary Night at a Horseshow


MokeyBird
07-11-07, 08:30 PM 07-11-07
I went to the Lexington Junior League Horse Show last night with my dad, sister, sisters fiancee. WHAT A NIGHT!

At the end of the show ring there is a humongous television screen that basically televises the show as it is going on twenty feet in front of it...There were so many horses that buzzed out because of it, it was scary.

In one class, the horse decided he wasn't going anywhere near the thing and dumped his rider. She walked out of the class, but apparently had to be taken to the hospital for xrays. I think she ended up with a broken rib or two.

In EVERY harness class, one horse or another buzzed out and took off jumping through the ring.

In the line up of the ney Pony Pairs Driving Class, one team stood up, knocking the header over and ended up running him over with the Viceroy. The guy was okay. He got up and walked off without a limp. The wheels ran straight over his legs. Either way.

And in the Three Gaited Junior Horse class, there was one FANTASTIC horse who was spooked by the Ego-tron from the very beginning. He came in looking alright, came around the turn, saw himself on TV, and spooked so badly that the rider completely lost one of his stirrups. (If I looked like that and saw myself for the first time, I'd be scared too.)

Right after the lineup, when they retired down to the scary end of the ring to wait for the results, the horse "came untrained". He jumped the rail and ended up in the Announcer's box! The room was roughly 8'x12' with quite a few people inside. The horse went right through the door. The rider bailed before he went in and is okay, but one of the girls in the box ended up with a broken nose and it looked like a broken ankle.

I was standing RIGHT next to the box and got this picture literally about FOUR SECONDS before he bailed. I barely had time to look at the picture before he ended up in the building. See how close I was? It was WILD! That is a great picture. I hope it isn't his last... http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/MokeyBird/Horses/Lex24.jpg

It was scary. One big dude jumped in the box right after the horse and held his head down while the vet came and tranqued him. They tried tearing apart the building, but it was freaking the horse out too badly that they ended up having to physically drag him out on a tarp. The vet checked him out when he was out and said that there were no visible broken legs/bones. They managed to get him to his feet and walked him out and back to the barns supported by about fifteen people.

Here he was when he first came in. Looks pretty good here.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/MokeyBird/Horses/Lex19.jpg

Putting the stirrup back on.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/MokeyBird/Horses/Lex21.jpg

Here was right after his first "close encounter" with the Death-o-tron. http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/MokeyBird/Horses/Lex20.jpg

Another "OMG!" shot.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/MokeyBird/Horses/Lex22.jpg

One of the theories was that he headed for the box, because it looked like a stall. Now that makes sense.

Someone mentioned how some people need to desensitize our horses to things like that...But how many peopl have forty foot televisions lying around.

Aye aye aye!!! What a messed up night! At every show this year it seems like some horse or person has either died or ended up seriously injured. I am now a bit hesitant to take my Tonykins to Harrodsburg for fear he will get hurt. I just pray I can hang on to the hot little sucker. We didn't name him Hot Tony for nothing.

I'll put the rest of my pictures in my picture thread.

S t e p h
07-12-07, 12:01 AM 07-12-07
Beautiful Horses!

MokeyBird
07-12-07, 12:55 AM 07-12-07
He's not so pretty now, let me tell you. I saw him when they finally got him out of the box. One of his feet fell through the floor(probably part of what saved him). He was covered in scratches up and down his legs. They tried to find a trailer to haul him out on, but ended up practically carrying him out.

It was awful. The mic was left on to all that was happening inside the box was amplified to the entire arena.

BeetleBunny
07-12-07, 06:49 AM 07-12-07
That's awful. Why would they leave something like that on when more than one horse reacts to it that way? Why take the chance with both horses and riders?

daddysgurl9245
07-13-07, 10:46 AM 07-13-07
That really is awful!

MokeyBird
07-15-07, 08:04 PM 07-15-07
Yeah it sucked pretty bad. I don't think they had to put him down though.

And they did turn it off after that...kind of. They still ran it during the harness classes and during the lineup/victory pass, but during the riding classes they kept the screen blank except for the class number/title and the sponsor... It was an awesome show the rest of the week. Thursday was my FAVORITE NIGHT though. There wasn't a bad horse there that night.

Runky
07-17-07, 11:53 AM 07-17-07
Wow. That's crazy. Poor horse.

Stupid people and their large tvs!

m0usey
07-25-07, 12:34 PM 07-25-07
That's awful!

I hope the horse ended up all right...no breaks, pulls, nothing...

What are they thinking? Don't they figure after the third or so horse spooks that that TV isn't so great? Do they really have to wait until people and horses both are in real danger?

I hope they don't plan to use that TV anymore.

DragonSpirit
08-01-07, 06:55 PM 08-01-07
Whoa thats crazy....

I love the pictures though. Its so cool how they can teach horses to walk like that.

MokeyBird
08-03-07, 11:32 PM 08-03-07
Actually they do it naturally. You should see some of my kids out in the field when they get excited. Yeah boy! We just teach them timing, for the most part and strengthen thier legs, so that they can do it "all the time".

They did turn the "megatron" off, kind of during the rest of the classes. They just had the class name up after that and played ads during the lineup.