Another young eventing rider died in a fall when competing in Florida on 17th November. Again another female advanced level rider has been fatally injured after her horse hit a fence and fell on her causing head and chest injuries. The horse died instantly after falling on its neck. Apparently another woman was killed on the same course in 2006.

I have written a number of posts on this same subject but continue to be shocked at the slow response from the eventing world. Apparently there was a review of eventing deaths and dangers a few days before this latest death but I’m still waiting to see some concrete actions be taken to reduce the risk of the sport to the rider and the horse.

Despite his fifth place in the recent Breeders cup, Dylan Thomas was still voted Racehorse of the Year at the 2007 Cartier Racing Awards. Based on his many wins in the UK and Europe, this was well deserved. He was due to have a final run in Japan before going to stud but this is not going to be allowed due to some vaccination record error.

Kauto Star returned to winning ways for the 2007-8 season at the weekend. In his initial race of the season, he was beaten into second place but was giving a lot of weight to the winner. I expect his next big race will be the King George Chase on Boxing Day and he will be the favourite to win.

My horse has had thrush problems with his feet on and off for the last few years. It has recently come back quite severely with part of his frog on one foot sloughing off.

The advice has been to remove his shoes in attempt to get some compression into his frogs to aid recovery. If anyone has found any effective treatment for horses with thrush, I would be very interested in the details.

My initial idea was to write about my general preference for snaffle bits and my general dislike for the stronger curb-type bits and gags. The only time I have not used a snaffle bit was for a temperamental jumping mare who I found competed best in a hackamore or bitless bridle.

When checking how to spell hackamore, I came across a range of articles about different types of bitless bridles. I had no idea there were so many different types - bosal, mechanical and sidepull. It sounds like the hackamore I used was a Jumping or English Hackamore. It basically was a thick, fleece-padded noseband with some short metal levers to which the reins attached.

It looks like hackamores may be more used in America than the UK and Europe. Certainly I’m not a fan of the long curbs often seen on Western movies and I am still surprised when I see cowboy movies with the horses in snaffle bits. I expect it is just the horse owners who spot this sort of detail.