I was surprised when attending the US racecourse Monmouth Park in New Jersey, that the programme showed that many of the horses were running on certain allowed medications, such as “Bute” and “Lasix”. As far as I’m aware racehorses are not allowed to run on medication in the UK.

I was familiar with Bute as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory, but not with Lasix so I did some research and found out that Lasix is used to reduce problems with broken blood vessels. Apparently most racehorses have some blood vessel damage due to the force of the internal organs being propelled forward as the horse strides forward.

One of my favourite UK showjumpers of the 70s and 80s was Ryan’s Son who was ridden by John Whitaker. He was the top national prize money winner for four years and won over £250,000 in a long career. He was inducted to The British Horse Society Equestrian Hall of Fame in January 2007.

This was before Warmbloods became the most popular breed for showjumping and when many showjumpers in the UK came from Ireland. He was an Irish Draft cross with a big white blaze.

He looked quite slow and unathletic compared to the usual thoroughbreds, but he was great in jumpoffs as he was both fast and agile. He would often buck after the last fence and always appeared to be enjoying himself. I found out firsthand that Irish Draft Horses could be great fun to ride too. I always expected them to be quite slow and unresponsive. However I used to compete in inter-university horseriding events and in one competition drew an Irish Draft cross for the showjumping competition. He was a fantastic ride and totally changed by opinion of the breed.

We have always insured our horses but I’ve been unable to find any statistics on the percentage of horse owners who have equestrian insurance. Given the costs of horses, tack and increased litigation, there are more reasons than ever to have insurance but carefully reviews the costs versus benefits as I’m sceptical whether all options represent good value for money.

I’ve always believed that the liability options are a must, given the potential for horse to escape or be let out from fields and potentially causing an accident on the road. My horses once escaped from their field from a broken fence during the night and wandered the roads for several hours until someone let them into a field several miles away. We were very lucky to come through this incident without injury to the horses or drivers.

We have also always insured for theft and accidental death options. Again I was unable to find any statistics for horse theft but prior to freeze branding it was quite common. I certainly recommend freeze branding and my preference is on the top of the back in the saddle area rather than the shoulder or hindquarter.

We also used to have the loss of use option for the competition ponies and horses. One horse developed navicular disease and could not longer be competed. However it was quite difficult to prove this to the insurance company so this took many months to be resolved. Following this experience, we stopped this option as we felt it significantly increased the premium but the chances of a successful claim were quite low.

We have never taken up the vet bill option as again it can significantly increase the premium but there are always a number of restrictions on what can or can’t be claimed and excesses etc. However I do know a number of people who always have this option. Even when my horse had a serious foot injury we did not feel that we would have recovered much of the veterinary costs on the insurance. When we came to renew our insurance policy, the injured foot was excluded from cover on the policy as a ‘pre-existing condition’.

The company had not paid out against the injury but were not prepared to accept any additional liability. Fortunately we did not have further problems with the foot.

We have never insured tack either. I recently did have some tack stolen and did look into this option. Neither house or horse insurance were practical solutions. House insurance covered the tack only if it was stolen from my house or car. My horse spends the summer and winter in two different locations and both had different levels of security which did not meet the requirements of my horse insurance.

Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, won the 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award with a third of the public vote. I thought that this was a well deserved award as she is only the third eventing rider to hold both World and European titles at the same time. However there was some criticism of the award as this is a minority sport and she is a member of the Royal family. Her mother won the same award in 1971 after becoming European champion.

Days before the World Equestrian Games, a friend had died from an eventing fall and it was reported that Zara had promised to win gold as a tribute to her friend.

The risk of three day eventing was highlighted with the death of a South Korean rider in the Asian Games in Qatar in late 2006. Both horse and rider were experienced, winning silver at the last Asian Games.

There are also risks with showjumping. Professional UK showjumper Nick Charles is recovering from a broken neck after a recent fall at a show. He was operated on by a top spinal injuries surgeon and should make a full recovery. I remember watching a TV program about Stoke Mandeville Hospital which has a major spinal unit and the three major causes of serious spinal injury were from diving into shallow swimming pools, horse riding accidents and rugby injuries.

I found this on YouTube and it’s amazing. Women pull together and rescue over 100 horses and saved them from drowning in the Netherlands.

Just shows you the natural herding instinct of the horse.

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