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.

I was pleased to read that the British team won the European Eventing Championship at the weekend in Italy. Unfortunately, as usual, I did not find any US TV coverage of the event so did not see any of the competition.

Burghley Horse Trials was won this year by William Fox-Pitt on the younger and less experienced of his two horses Parkmore Ed. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see any TV coverage again this year, but I’m sure it was as exciting as ever to watch.

I was surprised to read that this was William’s fourth win at Burghley. I knew he was an experienced and successful rider but did not realise how successful. Last year was his sixth successive year as top UK event rider and he was ranked second in the world. With this win, I expect he is well on the way to a seventh successive title.

Lucinda Fredericks on her small mare Headley Britannia recently won the 2007 Badminton Horse Trials event. In September 2006, they also won at the Burghley Horse Trials. I can’t remember the last time this happened.

While reading up about Lucinda, I came across some information about another one of her horses called Bally Leck Boy who has had leg and foot problems. Apparently each set of shoes costs 200 pounds - I thought the shoeing costs for my horse were bad enough at around 50 pounds per set!

Yet another experienced eventing rider has died in recent months in an eventing competition fall. I don’t know what can be done to prevent such fatal accidents but am always very saddened by them.

I recently saw a horrendous high speed racing car accident at the Canadian Grand Prix and was sure the driver would be seriously injured but thankfully he has fully recovered within a couple of weeks. This is another very dangerous sport but one where there have been great strides forward in terms of driver safety in recent years. I know there are many differences between the two sports but believe there must be a way to reduce the risks to eventing riders. I hope that someone comes up with a solution soon.