Owners of horse who severed leg on arena mirror call for better safety standards
(Image credit: credit unknown)
The owners of a promising young horse who almost severed a leg when he kicked out at an arena mirror have called for better safety standards to prevent a similar accident.
Becky Bowman’s five-year-old gelding Tomato had to be put down early this year. His hindleg had gone through the mirror, and was attached only by “a few strands of connective tissue”.
“I’d had him since he was eight months old,” Becky told H&H. “I’d backed him, done it all; the week before he’d been to his first training show and was an absolute angel. I was just about to take him to his first proper show, then this happened. And my whole life has fallen apart.”
Becky was walking Tomato across her arena to turn him out when he went down to roll. As he got up, a pigeon spooked him and he got free, and kicked out at the mirror as Becky ran to close the gate.
“I heard it, it was like a gun going off,” she said. “As I turned round, he was trotting across the school with his foot hanging off.”
Becky and her husband John Stark have since found out that the applicable safety standard to which the glass in most arena mirrors complies, EN12600, covers a 45kg weight hitting the glass. They would like this changed, as horses, and riders, weigh far more.
Reputable arena mirror manufacturers and suppliers have echoed the calls for tighter regulation. Anyone is free to sell glass as “equestrian mirrors”, which without the right installation, can be very dangerous.
Andrea Bowen of Mirrors for Training told H&H she has been trying for 17 years to get across the message that glass on its own is “very dangerous for equestrian use”.
“There are people who sell ‘arena mirrors’ that are just sheets of glass,” she said. “Yes, they’re reflective, they’re mirrors, but they’re not safe, or fit for purpose.”
Ms Bowen explained that her company’s products are far more than just the glass. Each comes with an “impact core” of condensed foam-like material between the glass and the steel backing, giving an overall thickness of 23mm.
“Horses do kick mirrors, it happens,” she said. “If a horse kicks one of our mirrors, it will just break; it won’t let the leg go through. That’s the difference.
“Years ago, I was contacted by a girl whose hand was severed on a mirror and that’s what can happen if cheap sheets of glass are supplied as ‘equestrian mirrors’. I don’t know how people who do that can sleep at night.”
A spokesman for the Government department of business and trade told H&H: “This is clearly a distressing incident, and we thank H&H for bringing this to our attention. If anyone has concerns about one of these products, they should provide the relevant information and we will consider it.
“Manufacturers are obliged to provide clear instructions on how to use their product safely and we urge the public to always follow these instructions.”
Becky’s husband John told H&H his and his wife’s “heartfelt wish” is that Tomato need not have died in vain, and that no other owner has to experience what they did.
“We are asking the equestrian community to come together as one to lobby to change legislation to provide Trading Standards the authority to prevent the mis-selling of these mirrors and to initiate the requirement for an impact test specific to the use of mirrors in the equine industry,” he said. “Too many horses’ lives have already been lost because of these mirrors, how long before a human life is lost?”
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