A four-star event rider has warned of the dangers of jumping alone following a “nasty fall” in her sand school.
Former H&H blogger Alice Dunsdon was jumping one of her young horses (not pictured) at the weekend when he stumbled after a fence.
The four-year-old gelding rotated over the top of Alice, narrowly missing landing on her.
Although the pair both escaped injury, Alice has said she will now “think twice” about jumping if no one else is on the yard.
“Fortunately my mother and my head girl Jenny Mckibben were in the school with me — my mother said the horse was lucky not to break his neck as he came over on it,” said Alice.
“We were jumping no bigger than 1m, he landed beautifully, I was just about to say how well he had jumped when he took two strides, stumbled down on his knees, his head came down and he completely rotated over the top of me. Luckily I was flung to the right of him and he just missed me and squashed my legs.”
Alice, who says she has previously been happy to jump her horses without anyone there, described the incident as a “wake-up call”.
“The minutes after someone has an accident can be vital, especially if someone has been knocked unconscious and swallowed their tongue,” she said.
“There might be people on the yard but in a stable mucking out and it could be 10 minutes before they pop their head out and realise something has happened.
“Now I think I will always jump with someone else in the school with me,” she said. “One of my favourite sayings is that you can only control the controllable.
“You can’t control whether or not you have a fall, but you can control whether you are wearing a hat and whether or not someone is with you.
“I think sometimes pros and people who ride every day can get a bit casual with the safety side.”
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Alice added that the horse was a “bit sore” after the accident but had been checked over by a vet and given the OK.
“He’s having a week off and is out in the field now mooching about,” she said.
