Mayor Bloomberg's daughter, Georgina,injured during fall from horse during show jumping tournament

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

Mayor Bloomberg's daughter Georgina was seriously hurt when she fell from her horse during a show jumping event in Syracuse.

The 27-year-old suffered a concussion and fractured her spine when she tumbled from her mount, Radio City, on Friday evening, according to her equestrian spokesman, Kenneth Kraus.

"Despite the injury, she is resting comfortably," he said. "She's going to have a full medical evaluation (Monday.) We'll know more then."

Bloomberg, considered one of the nation's top show jumpers, is no stranger to riding injuries: She has previously broken her back, her collarbone, two wrists and an ankle, and suffered at least three concussions.





Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/11/07/2010-11-07_mayor_bloombergs_daughter_georgina_injured_during_fall_from_horse_during_show_ju.html

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Wishing you well Georgina and a full recovery. After seeing what happened to Christopher Reeve I know these injuries can be dangerous and very serious.

[applegrove]

1. vibes.

[eleny]

5. +1

[JI7]

2. fractured her spine ? is there any way she can still be ok

or will she have permanent disability ?

[RamboLiberal]

4. Well she walked off after the fall

And only sought medical attention the next day. So that is good. Since she has taken several serious falls including one that had her six months in a back brace, IMHO it may be time for her to stop the show jumping & stick to pleasure riding.

I used to ride horses a bit but never had the money like Bloomberg to ever own my own horse or to get seriously into riding or jumping. I still have back pains from a fall I took when I was 15 and didn't get medical attention because I didn't want to tell my parents the pain I was in. My mom would've banned me from riding.

[northernlights]

6. you can have fractures to the bone without injury to the spinal cord

the bone is there to protect the cord. And the fractures could be hairline or microscopic.

I knew a 3-day event rider (long-listed for olympics) who walked around for years with a fractured neck and didn't know it...until he fractured his neck a second time. When they were x-raying the new injury they found the old injury. :shrug:

It's part of riding, especially with jumping. ::shrug:

[Crunchy Frog]

19. It is possible to fracture the spine without damaging the spinal cord.

Sounds like that was probably the case with her.

[aquart]

3. She has "previously broken her back" and she still rides?

If I were her grandmother the first word out of my mouth would be "idiot!"

[BillH76]

7. Horse jumping is an idiotic sport.

I used to do it when I was a kid, and an idiot. The judges keep raising the bar until the horse decides it's too high to jump over and skids to a stop. The rider keeps going forward at 40 mph and lands on his head. Result? Well, sometimes you end up like former horse-jumper Christopher Reeves--paralyzed from the neck down. And the point of this is...?

[Bigmack]

8. Hard on the horses, too, isn't it? They're not even volunteers. nt

[RamboLiberal]

10. Yep - it is hard on the horses

Especially those doing the cross country jumping. Many a horse is seriously injured or killed and some of those jumps in that type of jumping at international level are insane IMHO.

On edit I don't know how much they've cleaned up their act since some outrage 2 years ago. Much of the blame was laid at the feet of Capt Mark Phillips - Princess Anne's ex for deaths of both riders & horses since he is a big muckety muck in the cross country events.

Two more 4* horses killed over the weekend at the Ky Horse Park, it's absolutely sickening. We were standing right next to jump 13 when The Quiet Man crashed, critically injuring himself. Both wrecks were "rotational." It is very frustrating for me to see this time and time again, hearing only lame excuses from the sport's leaders. The courses leave no margin for error, and the penalty for mistakes is often either death or serious injury to horse and/or rider. No living thing is perfect, we have no right to put an animal in the position where one mistake of either itself or its rider will lead to death. The time has come for the eventing world to accept that the fences need to be able to come down. Ensuring that the fence can come down safely when necessary and not crush a downed rider/horse is a simple mechanical engineering problem, not exactly rocket science. There's no excuse for rotational falls, they CAN be avoided!

Now of course this will take money, just take it out of the flower budget... Along with building safer fences, they also need to reduce the max width allowed and the number of fences on the course. 20-25 should be sufficient. If the sport wants to test endurance more than this will allow, then require the riders to run a marathon after they finish their ride. that way, if anyone keels over with a heart attack, it will be the human, who has the free will, if not the intelligence, to decide what is appropriate risk.

This reader has it exactly right. The sport could easily be made much safer for horses in a variety of ways. One is that fixed fences could come apart when hit by horses, thereby lessening the impact. Rolex has proved that the people who govern the sport of eventing really don't care (rhetoric aside) how many horses die. If they did, they would put all future horse trials on hold, convene emergency meetings on course redesign, and take the artificially dangerous elements out of high-level courses.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/29/usnews/whispers/main4055168.shtml

[riderinthestorm]

14. We're eventers and I agree with all of that.

It can be extremely brutal on the horses and we won't go to any shows that don't already have fences that aren't constructed properly. If the conditions are unsafe, we leave. It can be that simple. We're lucky though in that we have enough money and go to enough shows that we can and do leave, but others take the chance, or don't want to lose out on the expensive entry/stabling/traveling fees they've already incurred.

FWIW, for the inevitable post to follow about how cruel we are, wild horses have a lifespan of 7 short, brutal years while show horses typically perform into their teens.

[riderinthestorm]

15. Contrary to popular opinion, it's pretty hard to "force" a horse to do something

Most people want their horses to be happy in their work so being cognizant of the willingness factor is important to have a harmonious relationship. We've had horses that obviously didn't want to jump and they became trail horses or dressage horses. "Beating" them over the fence just doesn't work contrary to what you may have heard.

I would stipulate that if you ever saw a high level competition, you'd see that the vast majority of those horses LOVE what they do - they are eager and fierce in their performance and will often "dance" to the music. Check out youtube to see some amazing cross country runs where you couldn't drag that horse off jumping that obstacle if you wanted to. Or some of the upper level dressage freestyles. Or the jumpers that are eye balling that fence and there's no way they aren't relishing the challenge ahead.

Our horses come galloping up to the gate when we come - jostling to get our attention and to be the first out. They are expensive, and we treat them like royalty. I know there are some who don't but they are pretty few and far between. You invest so much into them that to abuse them, or create an unhappy partnership is completely counterproductive. For us, they are part of the family and we keep them to the end of their days, even after we've stopped riding them.

[applegrove]

11. I used to watch it and found it very exciting till I realized how dangerous it was. The daughter

of a friend of my mother's was hurt really badly show jumping.

[riderinthestorm]

13. Christopher Reeves was paralyzed participating in the old military test called 3 day eventing

It's the sport my husband competes at the highest levels, we own and operate a boarding/training/sales/breeding farm and are highly involved in the sport.

Yes, it CAN be idiotic but most professionals aren't seriously injured on any kind of regular basis. My husband is 53 and (knock on wood) has never suffered a serious injury.

I would stipulate that the point of horse sports, or any horse activity is two fold. 1. Because it's fun and 2. because the preservation of these kinds of old skills has value.

[smirkymonkey]

20. My seven year old niece just won her 1st horse show, at first I

was really happy for her since she loves it so much, but now I am not so sure it's such a wise idea for her parents to let her pursue it. I worry that she may have a horrible accident and hurt herself or worse. Also, it's very expensive.

[MissDeeds]

9. I hope her injuries are minor

Sending good vibes and well wishes her way.

[Angry Dragon]

12. The concussion is the one she should worry about

With 4 concussion, that is not good

[checks-n-balances]

16. That's terrible

Godspeed & all good wishes to her & her family.

[keroro gunsou]

17. dang...

after all those injuries, you'd think she'd stay away from horses.... O_o...

in any case, hope all will be well for her.... :grouphug:

[Crunchy Frog]

18. Well, at least we can be pretty sure that she has sufficient health coverage.