There was a rider death at Rocking Horse today. Im not posting the riders info yet as don’t see an official statement from USEA but my coach was there. I’m SO [edit] ANGRY for so many reasons and I have to say that the fact that we let the show continue every time this happens is disgusting. This is a recreational pursuit and no one NEEDS to finish the event when a body is still warm. I love this sport and am involved in nearly every facet but I [edit] hate it tonight.
I feel exactly the same way right now. A colleague posted on Facebook who witnessed the fall and she is horribly shaken. Most of the comments were people who were horrified that the competition continued. This was my response:
I’m so sorry you witnessed it. I’m so sorry it happened at all. I’m so sorry for the horse, who was doing its job - that it most likely loved, because horses don’t get to that level if they don’t want to play the game - that had no idea of the consequences if something went wrong. I’m so sorry for the rider, because even though we know the risks, you don’t get to that level without a certain level of denial that it will ever happen to you. And I’m so sorry for the sport that I used to love and what it has come to. I’m nowhere near that level - I once went Training and had a vague goal of making it to Prelim, but no longer. The sport is fundamentally broken for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is the people who treat things like this as a “freak accident” and continue on like nothing ever happened. Yes, freak accidents happen, but the frequency of these events is unacceptable. I’ve been pretty disillusioned with the sport at the lower levels recently anyway but I’m getting really close to hanging up my vest…
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Devastating. Was this in the prelim division?
Oh no! 
Not again… I am so sorry for everyone affected.
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Intermediate table is what I was told.
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Intermediate
My colleague said the horse was also killed. Can anyone confirm?
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It’s on the USEA website now. How sad. 
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Horrible. I am so sorry,
Yes, that’s what I’ve heard too. 😢
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Here is a nice article from 2018, about Katharine and her horse, for those like me who didn’t know her.
I have no words. Heartbreaking. https://www.sherwoodparknews.com/spo…-in-the-saddle
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I’m super upset now as well. My heart is breaking for her family and all her friends. Enough already! I’ve been involved with this sport for close to 30 years and I just can’t fathom why and how this keeps happening.
Angry as ever.
Why are we still asking horses to jump solid tables? For as far back as I can remember, tables were identified as dangerous fences.
And when someone came up with a design for a collapsible table, TPTB wanted nothing to do with it.
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This is terrible. What is it going to take for this to stop :(.
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Devastating. Sounded like she had such a promising life and eventing career ahead of her. Too many tragic deaths in our sport. I recently moved up to novice with goals of hitting training in another couple years- but I am so much more nervous about it and may not even ‘make the jump’ to training…1 wrong move or step…ugh. my heart breaks for her family and connections. RIP.
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I don’t believe I’ve ever seen both the horse and rider killed. So incredibly devastating.
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She was a lovely girl. I owned and trained the mare in the incident today, when she ran. Kat had done such an amazing job on her.
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Did they give a logical explanation? An answer supported by actual reasoning involving the sciences of math and physics?
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I am so very sorry. Comforting wishes sent your way from Colorado.
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