A rider involved in a serious fall after her horse was spooked by balloons is appealing to the public to stop the practice.
Tricia Phillips had been working towards returning to British Eventing for four years but her comeback was derailed just two days before her first competition of the season.
She was riding her horse Capote (pictured) when he spotted the balloons, spun and galloped along a concrete track.
“I hung on without stirrups, futilely trying to stop him going ballistic,” she said, adding that she feared her horse would break a leg falling on the concrete, or crush her, so she chose to jump off.
Tricia broke seven ribs in multiple places and a partially-collapsed lung. Her friend called an ambulance and she was treated at The James Cook University Hospital and stayed there for six days.
Thankfully her horse was not injured in the ordeal.
“It’s irrelevant that I got hurt,” Tricia said. “If anything happened to him I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”
Tricia believes the balloons were released in memory of someone, and she is now calling for the practice to stop.
“Don’t commemorate someone’s life by releasing balloons,” she said. “You are likely to kill someone or something.”
She added that as well as risking spooking horses and causing serious accidents like her own, the balloons are damaging to wildlife and nature when they land across the countryside.
The former teacher runs Morndyke, a farm with luxury shepherds’ huts and a holiday cottage. Finnish five-star eventer and trainer Pauliina Swindells is also based at the site in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
Tricia told Your Horse she has decided to give up eventing, but will be back in the saddle as soon as she is able to.
