A 75-year-old rider whose stirrup broke during a race at an Easter point-to-point said it was ironic that his first visit to an Injured Jockeys Fund centre was a result of his fundraising for the charity.
Mark Smith joked that “you couldn’t make it up” after his fall from Shot Tower (Bob) in the hunt race at the Old Berks Hunt meeting at Lockinge on Easter Monday (6 April). But he is concerned about the safety of his stirrups, which he bought two weeks before the race. One of them broke with four fences to go, as Mark and Bob came round the corner into the back straight.
“If you come off at a fence, it’s because you’ve come to it wrong or something and you’re prepared, but to hit the ground at 30mph going round the corner, it came out of the bloody blue,” he told H&H.
Mark and Bob had been leading the field, but Mark said his plan was to get a lead from one of the others for a couple of fences, and then pass them on the run-in.
“We came into the back straight – and then we didn’t,” he said. “I’d been unseated, is what the commentator said, but it wasn’t quite as simple as that.
“I suppose it’s far more dramatic if it’s one stirrup than both; you see riders sometimes kick both feet out as you’re better off with none than one. But at least at a fence you’re almost expecting something, not when you’re just coming round a corner.
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“When you’ve been falling off horses for 70 years, instinctively you tend to do the right thing and once you feel you’re going, you don’t fight it. I daresay 40 years ago, my reactions might have been quicker but I might have tried to hang on round his neck, dropped off and he’d have gone over the top of me.”
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Mark said he thought it must have been the leather that gave way, but then saw the stirrup had broken at the thinnest point, on the top. A picture of the other stirrup shows a crack in the same place.
“They’re brightly coloured, so they’re aimed at a child’s market – but they’re dangerous to children,” he said. “I want them off the market.”
The seller of the stirrups told H&H they are unbranded and were only for sale via his platform.
He added: “We were really shocked to see the stirrup had cracked.
“For Mark’s peace of mind, we won’t be selling that item any more until further testing has been done. We have also donated £500 to the charity Mark was racing for, plus gift aid – the amount Mark would have won if he won the race.
“We will ask that the manufacturer do more rigorous tests going forward when making products like this.”
Mark said the seller, as his only point of contact for the product, had done all he could. He would now like a blanket ban on this type of stirrup unless manufacturers can prove products are safe, as there is no safety standard to which stirrups must adhere – which he would like to see changed.
“I can’t let this lie as if it happened to anyone else, I’d never forgive myself,” he said.
Mark said the race, and the winter’s training beforehand, was worth it; it gave him something to aim for as well as raising an estimated total of over £5,000 for the IJF including donations at the meeting.
“It kept me out of mischief – and that old horse was magic,” he said. “Apparently when he stopped, he looked back and said ‘Oh s***, where’s the old man gone? He was there a minute ago’!”
“I’m a bit sore but I’ve ridden five this morning,” he added, the day after the race. “It’s ironic that the first time I’ve had to go to Oaksey House [to be checked over] was when I was fundraising for the IJF – you couldn’t make it up.
“They’d done a brilliant job of the ground [at Lockinge] – and I said that even before I hit it! – but the more I thought about it, I thought supposing I’d been a kid; there could have been a fatality.”
Mark’s fundraising page for the IJF is still open, and on Friday (10 April) Mark confirmed that he and Bob and going to try again, at the Wales Area Club point-to-point meeting, at Lower Machen, Newport on 19 April, as he said he would rather “finish on a satisfactory note”.
Asked if he was looking forward to it, he said: “Bob is! And in my experience, happy, confident horses make happy, confident riders.”
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.
