Rolex Cross Country Event 4/26/2008

Tipperary Liadhnan, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

This past Saturday, I took the family down to the Kentucky Horse Park and watched a little of the Cross Country Jumping event. I only got to see 4 horses before they paused the event because of an accident.

During the day, there were 2 accidents that resulted in the euthanization of the horses. One accident was pretty severe as the rider had the horse going too fast and it's front legs hit the jump, causing it to flip over and land on it's back, fracturing it's skull and causing damage to a lung. The rider was air lifted out but was in stable condition. She had severe rib injuries and punctured both lungs. It is very sad as the horse was Frodo Baggins and starred in The Lord of the Rings before his jumping career. He and his rider were on the short list for the Olympics.