Bolting tack check horses, overweight riders — and more of 2017’s most-read news stories

accident at tack check aachen 2017 buriel kh

(Image credit: Kim Lundin)

1. Olympic horse bolts after bridle accidentally removed at tack check

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A picture sequence showed that Aachen’s major international show turned into a hellish nightmare for one rider in July. Her horse’s bridle was accidentally removed during the post-test tack check and he bolted around the showground, injuring himself. The Swedish combination of Juliette Ramel and Buriel KH had finished their grand prix test and were having their tack checked by an FEI steward when the accident took place.

A proposed legal change aimed at stamping out the barbaric practice of “soring” Tennessee walking horses was put on hold by the Trump administration. The Horse Protection Act (HPA) amendment, which covered training and licensing of inspectors to enforce the law, and banned chains and large stacked shoes, was one of a number of rules put on hold by the White House on 20 January, Trump’s first day in office.

In a video which was widely shared online, a chestnut and a piebald were seen being ridden along a road in Cambridgeshire in March. As the riders, both wearing high-vis clothing, approached a bend in the road, a car was seen driving towards them from the opposite direction. The vehicle, on the wrong side of the road, collided with the pair. The piebald, who was slightly in front, was thrown into the air, while the chestnut was knocked sideways on to the verge. Both horses and riders miraculously escaped without serious injury.

The Great Yorkshire Show (GYS) said it was “frustrated” by the fact people had to be asked to dismount as they were too heavy for their rides – a year after it first took a stand on the issue. Of the 12 people asked to dismount during the 2017 show (11-13 July) four chose to be weighed, all of whom were found to be more than 25% of their ponies’ weight, let alone the 20% set as maximum by the show.

The owner of two horses kept with Louise Allan’s retired former racehorse Round The Bend had arranged for them both to be put to sleep on 13 September. But their owner’s mother was the one present at the yard, in Rutland, when the vet arrived, and she presented him with the wrong horse — Round The Bend instead of one of her daughter’s horses. The vet put the healthy horse to sleep, leaving the one who should have taken his place in the field the three had shared. Louise, who lives in Newmarket, found out two days later.

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Bolting tack check horses, overweight riders — and more of 2017’s most-read news stories

1. Olympic horse bolts after bridle accidentally removed at tack check

2. ‘A black day for horse sport’: showjumper banned after video goes viral

3. Trump stops rule to save Tennessee walking horses from soring

4. Horse thrown into the air in horror car collision caught on CCTV warning, distressing video

5. Great Yorkshire Show asks ‘too heavy’ riders to dismount — again

6. Owner’s devastation as wrong horse put down

7.‘Shine bright, my darling’: tributes paid to talented eventer

8. Rio gold medallist horse dies of bacterial infection

9. ‘Rest in peace, little man’: horse put down after injury at Badminton

10. ‘Over-rugging is a man-made welfare problem’ says vets