Leading dressage trainer injured
International dressage judge and trainer Gisela Holstein is recovering in hospital after a training accident at her daughter’s Heike’s home in Ireland
Gisela Holstein is making a good recovery after being injured in an accident at Sweep Stud, the Co Kildare home of her daughter Heike, an international dressage rider.
According to reports, the trainer was holding a horse during a break in training when it spooked and trampled her .
Gisela broke her left foot and sustained serious injuries to her lower right leg and knee.
She was taken to Navan hospital by her daughter international dressage rider Heike Holstein, where surgeons operated on her knee the following day.
Paul Nolan, press officer for Dressage Ireland, said: “The surgeons inserted a plate via keyhole surgery, a technique which is considered less invasive and traumatic than normal surgery.”
“According to her family, Gisela is pretty upbeat about it all, considering what has happened.”
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Gisela has started a course of physiotherapy and it is hoped that she will be out of hospital next week.
Her son Erik, an international show jumper, has arranged a golf buggy to ferry his mother around as soon as she returns home. At this stage it is unsure whether Gisela will accompany her daughter to the World Equestrian Games in Jerez in September.
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