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Injuries from Rollover Accident Cause Death of Pollard Eventing's New Stallion plus Advanced Stars Icarus and Jude's Law
May 25, 2012
Michael Pollard shown recently at a vet check with Schoengreen Hanni and Icarus, two of the horses involved in today's trailer wreck. Photo © Chris Stafford, used with permission.
Update: Since this story was posted, two more horses–Icarus and Jude’s Law–were euthanized as a result of their injuries in the trailer accident. Read more about this tragic accident here and on The Jurga Report.
A news flash tells us that Pan American Games Eventing Team Gold Medalist Michael Pollard‘s international event horses were involved in a road traffic accident just five miles from his training center in Dalton, Georgia, this morning.
According to a press release sent on behalf of the rider, the horse trailer in which they were riding turned over, trapping all six horses on board.
Five horses were cut free and survived with lacerations but tragically Michael’s new stallion, VDL Ulando H, died at the scene. Icarus, Schoensgreen Hanni, Jude’s Law, Raphael and Little Star sustained minor lacerations.
No humans were injured in the accident which was caused by the driver of another vehicle pulling out in front of them without seeing the trailer.
They are all at home and in a comfortable condition. Michael was not at home at the time. The horses were being driven by his groom, and according to police at the scene, there was nothing that could have been done to avoid the oncoming vehicle.
Pollard had just acquired the ride on the stallion that was killed. He has enjoyed great success this spring at the advanced level.
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Fran Jurga is a freelance writer and editor from Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her blogs include The Jurga Report for EQUUS Magazine and War Horse News on the 2011 Steven Spielberg film. Fran is the founder of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal and writes a specialist Hoof Blog. You can follow Fran on Facebook and Twitter for more news about the horse world. In 2008, Fran wrote the WorldRides blog for the Hong Kong equestrian events of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the Discover WEG blog for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010.
What a tragedy. We all worry about the safety of horses and riders in competition, and it is sadly ironic that a wonderful horse is lost this way.