What a sad, sad day

[Minimor]

What terrible news from Verona today!

Press release - Jumping Verona - 06/11/2011

HICKSTEAD

Today at 15.25, as he was leaving the arena after his successful jumping round Hickstead, the horse ridden by Canadian Eric Lamaze, suddenly collapsed. The veterinary services were immediately in attendance, but unfortunately the horse was already dead.

An autopsy to determine the cause of death is scheduled in the coming days.

Veronafiere, Organising Committee, were fully supportive of the request of the riders not to continue the competition and would like to express their affection and love towards one of the greatest horses in the history of the sport and his rider Eric Lamaze.

A minute's silence was held in the arena out of respect.

Press Office Jumping Verona International Horse Show Rolex FEI WORLD CUP™

EquiEquipe

Caterina Vagnozzi

Press & P.R. Consulting

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

Very sad- I did go to the WEG where he competed and watched his rounds from the screens around the park. Beautiful horse--RIP

 

[anoki]

Read about this earlier this morning

Sad day for the equestrian world

~kathryn

 

[Connie P]

Oh my goodness. How horrible! Many prayers being said for all.

 

[Matt73]

Horribly heartbreaking for Eric, Canada, and the world....

 

[Taylor Richelle]

A very terrible loss, he was such a beautiful horse. They were an amazing team

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Such a shame. Prayers for all concerned.

 

[SHANA]

video of footage of what happened, do not watch if you do not want to see it. Was a heart attack. Such a shame, he was a amazing horse.

 

[Lizzie]

Incredibly sad news. A beautiful and talented horse gone. RIP Hickstead.

Lizzie

 

[Margo_C-T]

How very sad; RIP to a great performing equine, and condolences to his rider, who must be bereaved....

A horse dying of a heart attack while being ridden is a very scary thing! A good friend and I gave riding lessons years back when we lived south of here near Socorro, NM. She brought their big Appendix-registered, Oklahoma Star-bred QH gelding down from town, left him at my place to save the haul back and forth, for a few weeks. My mother was dying; I was in Carlsbad staying w/ her; Pat came down, gave the weekly lesson; my then-11 YO daughter and a friend of hers were riding 'PIE EATER' and one of our horses, bareback, in our arena later that day...(PIE EATER had been a BEAST when young, shattering Pat's ankle among other things...and was STILL a challenge to ride for an adult, but you could put the smallest child on him, with the shortest legs, and the old horse was as solid as a rock!!! He suffered a heart attack under Lisa, abruptly collapsing. I always felt it was LUCKY that they were bareback...nothing to get 'hung up' on...but even so, Lisa's collarbone was broken in the fall. (Just what a mother wants to hear when she is miles away, don't you know!!?) It was a sad day all around, though...PIE EATER was dead where he fell; a neighbor who was Pat's good friend took the body away, and by the time I was able to get home, all was pretty well back to normal, except for the cast on my daughter....

Margo

 

[txminipinto]

What a horrific tragedy for his owners, rider, trainer, and everyone who loved him. I just can not imagine. But what's equally horrific is how they showed the horse collapsing twice and continued to broadcast while they removed the horse's body from the ring. If you've never had to remove a dead horse before and you do not have a fork lift, it is not graceful or diginified. Ropes and wrenches are used to drag them on to a trailer. They should have immediately cut to commercial or some other shot than to continue to replay the death and film the removal. Very much in poor taste.

 

[anoki]

I was appalled to watch the news on tv a few minutes ago, only to see them showing the clip of Hickstead collapsing.

What happened to tact these days??

~kathryn

 

[Tab]

This is very sad to watch having seen horses go down before. It is never "just a horse" no matter if the horse is famous or not.

 

[heartkranch]

Anyone know what those people were yelling at the very end? Like 5 seconds before the end?

 

[tagalong]

Apparently some twit yelled (loose translation) - You are ruining the lives of these horses!!! An animal rights protest of some kind.

They did not show Hickstead being placed in the trailer - which seemed far too small to accomodate a collapsed warmblood, even though he was not huge.

Ropes and wrenches are used to drag them on to a trailer.

Don't you mean winches? That little trailer did not look as if it was equipped the same way the horse ambulances at the tracks are. It must have been a long and horrific thing to get accomplished.

I have no issues with the brief footage of him first going down being shown on TV news - it just helped illustrate how sad and tragic and unexpected this was. They did not show the convulsions and thrashing that came later. Fortunately Hickstead was probably in shock and unaware of what was going on... and sadly, beyond help. Shame on people on assorted forums and comment pages saying that Eric did not care or should have jumped in there and been hugging him or some such nonsense. They make my blood boil...

 

[txminipinto]

Apparently some twit yelled (loose translation) - You are ruining the lives of these horses!!! An animal rights protest of some kind.

They did not show Hickstead being placed in the trailer - which seemed far too small to accomodate a collapsed warmblood, even though he was not huge.

Don't you mean winches? That little trailer did not look as if it was equipped the same way the horse ambulances at the tracks are. It must have been a long and horrific thing to get accomplished.

I have no issues with the brief footage of him first going down being shown on TV news - it just helped illustrate how sad and tragic and unexpected this was. They did not show the convulsions and thrashing that came later. Fortunately Hickstead was probably in shock and unaware of what was going on... and sadly, beyond help. Shame on people on assorted forums and comment pages saying that Eric did not care or should have jumped in there and been hugging him or some such nonsense. They make my blood boil...

Yes, I meant winches. Mind thinks it but fingers type it.

I would bet that the trailer has a winch on the floor up at the nose of the trailer. Or, they hand drug him in. Either way, not something that anyone should really have to see. They did show his convulsions and thrashing as the life left him. And I'm not totally convinced he wasn't aware. I've seen it too many times in my line of work at the university and there is just no need to continue to film it at a competition that is broadcast.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

So sad, such a loss of a great horse!

I guess we should be thankful, also, that he did not go down during his round. Surely his rider would have been killed....

 

[Kendra]

The screen at the International Ring at Spruce Meadows.

Such a loss, Hickstead was truly exceptional. My heart goes out to all those who loved him.

 

[SHANA]

Eric Lamaze rode a horse tonight at the Toronto Royal Horse Show. He placed 10th. He had a standing ovation and it looked like he had tears in his eyes. If I remember right tommorow night they will be doing a memorial for Hickstead televised (royalfair.org).