O’Malley

[Ten Plus]

Sadly another fatality at a water jump – this time at Perth. Dropped his hind legs in the water, the "lip" caught them and in his successful efforts to keep upright he broke his fore-leg. ATR did a brief piece about water jumps – I didn’t appreciate Luke Harvey’s "jokes" and him going on about the water being so shallow – it’s the "lip" that does the damage. I started a thread on this forum last year following an awful water jump fatality at Ludlow and I firmly disagree with LH and the Scottish ATR chap – it’s not a fair "ask" and would be safer as a water splash. In the previous and following hunter chase 2 other horses made similar errors – they thankfully live to fight another day but probably will have a back problem to be sorted out…
RIP O’Malley

[tbracing]

First I’ve seen that he had to be put down, a real shame. I was watching it and saw him trying to carrying on on 3 legs . . Never nice to see.

I recall the Ludlow incident and it was very horrible. Would be good to see if there are any stats about the fatality rate at water jumps. I must agree I’m not overly fond of water jumps and hardly see the point of them, it’s hard enough for most of them to negotiate regular fences.

R.I.P O`Malley

[Ten Plus]

I’m sure Luke Harvey said they only jump it once in a race – but they jumped it twice in that particular race that cost O’Maley his life on the first circuit. It was obvious that the poor horse had a fracture so LH and co should have known what his fate would be and should have been taking the piece about the water jump more seriously.

[Arabesque]

I’m not very knowledgable about hunt racing fences- do all water jumps have the defined lip whereas splashes would have a gradient getting shallower… seems a no brainer to me that the latter would be preferable!

[Ten Plus]

Yes – so a water splash would have nothing to trip them – I can’t see WHY any current water jump is OK to carry on with – it seems obvious to me too. I suppose the only way for change to come about is if connections refused to run on courses with water jumps … I actually thought the lips had been changed and was very upset about the Ludlow water jump (where there was a most horrendous injury a year ago) which certianly does have a lip.

[Jings Crivens]

I agree they should be done away with.
I believe a study was done in which the fatalities at water jumps were statisitcally no greater than at other fences. However, the type of injury sustained is to my mind worse.
The horses often don’t make a large enough error to ‘fall’ as such, but the nature of the fence allows them to drop their back legs in and catch on the lip which does the damage. I’ve watched too many pull up after with a pelvic/back injury.
Either have the water wide enough that they

have

to land in it, as they do in some French racing or eventing, or get rid of them entirely.
I’d favour the latter.

[yeats]

To all those opposed to water jumps ask yourselves this :
Why are the RSPCA in favour of them lip or no lip as opposed to other types of fence?
Do we get posts calling for open ditches to be removed when a horse loses it’s life at one similar to the rare occasion when one does at a water jump?
Really on the evidence people should be campaigning for water jumps to be re-instated at the tracks which have removed them.
But that support of the RSPCA is key to me, not sure some posters know better than them.

[Jings Crivens]

To all those opposed to water jumps ask yourselves this :
Why are the RSPCA in favour of them lip or no lip as opposed to other types of fence?
Do we get posts calling for open ditches to be removed when a horse loses it’s life at one similar to the rare occasion when one does at a water jump?
Really on the evidence people should be campaigning for water jumps to be re-instated at the tracks which have removed them.
But that support of the RSPCA is key to me, not sure some posters know better than them.

The RSPCA don’t know their **** from their elbow, IMO. If they are in favour, which I will take your word for, they are going on stats, not what happens. They have not considered the manner of how horses jump.

I don’t know the statisitics for fatalities at open ditches. Are there any? It would be interesting to see.

That aside, horse suffer fatal injuries at water jumps for leaving one or both back legs. If a horse did that at a conventional fence or an open ditch, it may halt his momentum, he may bank it, and if leaving both legs badly may unseat the jockey, but it is rarely fatal.

The water jump fence height is lower, therefor the arc of the jump is smaller, and the horse is more likely to land short enough to catch a leg in the water. Many of the water jump injuries are when a horse has jumped the adequate height for the brush section, realised in the air that he has to stretch in front to avoid landing in the water, throw his forelimbs forward and then pulls his back legs through together to try and clear the water behind, and that is when they clip the lip.
The horses don’t see the water until they have already formed their jump, and react accordingly in the air, whereas with an open ditch they see it as they approach the fence before they leave the ground.

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