Eventing legend Lucinda Green says she and her “lovely” horse are recovering after a fall at Saracen Horse Feeds Houghton International Horse Trials.
Lucinda and Riddick VEH fell at fence 12b, a corner, of the CCI3*-L (formerly CCI2*) cross-country course on 25 May, and Lucinda told H&H she is “mystified” as to the cause.
“I have no idea what happened,” she said.
“I remember the last few strides thinking ‘this is great, just what I wanted’, the right stride, the right power, then I don’t remember anything for 15 minutes.
“I’ve watched it on video, again and again; I’m so glad I’ve been able to watch it as otherwise I’d have thought I’d done something wrong, or he did – but the poor little horse just went straight into it.
“I just can’t see what went wrong; I’ve sent the video to all sorts of people, and we were straight, everything in our favour, I’m completely mystified.
“I just felt so sorry for him, he’s such a sweet horse, who always tries his heart out.”
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Lucinda added that Riddick was well warmed up by fence 12 and had jumped other combinations on the course.
The 12-year-old gelding has developed a haematoma on a forearm but is “looking marvellous”, and expected to make a full recovery, while Lucinda was kept in hospital until Tuesday, so doctors could carry out “every test you can imagine”.
“I’m waddling around now!” she said. “I’m very lucky. I’m slightly suspicious as my hip is hurting, so I’ll have another X-ray on that to be sure.
“I don’t think I’ll be riding for a few weeks but then I had other plans so wasn’t intending to be riding much now anyway.”
Lucinda said she will see how fast she heals and take her plans for the rest of the season from that point.
“We were very lucky, we could have got thoroughly crunched,” she said. “This is the nature of the sport but it’s a big positive as we could have been hurt a lot worse than we were.
“I probably don’t bounce as well as I used to but it’s such a privilege to still be riding; I count every blessing.”
Read the full report from Houghton International in this week’s H&H magazine, out 30 May.
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
