Absolutely tragic.
https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article232558712.html
By no means a freak accident, but horrible nonetheless.
Thoughts are with her fmaily and friends
Sad,sad, sad!
She was riding at a level she entirely understood, on a rock solid horse, over a jump she’s jumped a zillion times… it was a freak accident.
Terrifically sad- I would hope neither she nor the horse suffered.
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It’s neither here nor there so soon after what is surely a tragic death…but I do agree with OP that it isn’t really a “freak” accident. Eventing is the most deadly Olympic sport (I read this recently and wasn’t surprised), so we can’t really be shocked when accidents result in serious injury or death. These accidents happen at the very highest levels to the most elite athletes. I think the reason OP specified that it was not a “freak” accident is not due to a lack of sensitivity, but due to the fact that she supports continuous investigation of these events and the pursuit of ways that safety in the sport can be improved.
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My heart breaks for her family and friends. 
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I think the OP’s reference to “freak” accident is based on the article headlines - since the story comes from a local news source rather than something like Eventing Nation or COTH. Very sad indeed. Evidently she was schooling. Gutwrenching.
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The “freak accident” headline came from a quote in the article by the owner of the venue she was training at; it didn’t originate with that news outlet.
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Release from USEA. https://useventing.com/news-media/news/usea-young-rider-passes-away-in-riding-accident
Just tragic.
This one hits particularly hard because she was of such tender age. My heart goes out especially to her parents and family. I remember the first time my daughter got a concussion (jumping in the arena, not eventing)-- it really brought home to me the difficult ethical decisions we parents must make when it comes to putting a child’s safety at risk for a sport they (and we) love. The title of Jealoushe’s thread, “What are we doing?” certainly came into my mind more than once as she recovered and went back to riding.
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I know this will get heated because its a death of a rider, and horse and even worse a very young and capable rider. However, it is absolutely wrong for the media to say this was a freak accident. This was a rotational fall at a cross country fence, which is common. So common we have multiple deaths a year because of it. Eventing will never be safer until we admit and accept that these things are more than just “freak accidents”
Most riders who are killed in these falls are capable riders who have jumped the style of fence countless times. There is nothing different here.
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article…oling-accident
CoTH should know better.
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I agree. I have 2 boys and while if they wanted to ride, I would support it – I’m perfectly happy they haven’t got the horse bug.
My heart goes out to her family and friends. What a horrible tragedy.
What is also gut wrenching is how talented and competent Ashley was. Her record with this horse was terrific:
" Stout joined the USEA in 2016 and had actively been eventing for the last three years. In 2017, she won the Junior Beginner Novice Under 14 division at the USEA American Eventing Championships riding Deo Volente. The pair finished on their dressage score of 19.8.
Stout began riding Avant Garde in the spring of 2018 and the pair had zero cross-country penalties in their 15 USEA starts together. Avant Garde was a 7-year-old Westphalian gelding (A la Carte x Mensa) who evented through the Training level with Holly Payne Caravella before Stout purchased him. Stout and Avant Garde won the Junior/Young Rider Open Training division at the NJ Region’s Horse Trial in June and most recently finished second in the Preliminary/Training division at the Bucks County Horse Park H.T."
Definitely not someone jumping above their pay grade. Just awful.
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Honest question: For those of you who say it wasn’t a freak accident, what do you think was the cause?
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OP, I am with you. Until we address the issue head on and call the thing what it is- we cannot begin to solve the problem. This is an al too common occurrence and it breaks my heart to have lost two more shining lights in our sport.
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See @Jealoushe 's post above.
I think people are making the distinction that it’s “not a freak accident” because rotational falls are a known risk of jumping solid fences over terrain. So while it was a horrific and sad accident, it’s not necessarily a “freak” event that no one could control… more of a hazard of the trade, so to speak.
Freak or not, it doesn’t make the accident any less terrible. No one expects this to happen and my heart breaks for her family and friends.
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A fatal fall, that without more information I can not say what the cause was. Do we ever truly know the cause? The horse rotated and thats what matters, it happens too often. Its not a freak accident.
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Inherent, known risk of riding a horse over solid jumps does not equate with “freak accident,”. It’s a calculated risk. Every. Single. Time. If you can read the long list of dead horses and riders on Jealousy’s main thread that catalogs such things, and not “get” that, then maybe take a physics course is in order. Every time you get on a horse, you take a calculated risk with your life. The calculation, the odds, change according to the activity. When you jump over solid obstacles, the calculated risk gives you much ruder odds.
Life is risk. And we weigh risks in most decisions we make. For some, the risk is acceptable. For others it’s not. I look at that long and constantly growing list of human and equine fatalities and it absolutely does not add up to freak accidents. It adds up to very high risk entertainment.
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I know at the upper levels rotational falls may be attributed to speed, course design (trying to make time on a technical course) or even fatigue. I don’t think these things would apply to schooling, although it’s hard to say since I wasn’t there.
I feel that we need to identify the cause before we demand change.
Just saying.
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Absolutely. In my mind, a “freak” accident is one which is unexpected or unusual, maybe even bizarre, in some way. Rotational fall at a cross country fence? Tragically, not at all uncommon or unexpected. And very typical of the type of fall that results in fatalities. Nothing “freak accident” about any of that.
Calling it “freak” deflects from facing the need to make xc safer, and contributes to making the assumption that there’s nothing that can be done to make it so.
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