As a show jumping horse, Grace is used to leaping over bars. But, after she attempted to jump the breast bar in her trailer, the fragile creature landed upside down on her head, her back feet dangling over the other side of the bar.
Grace narrowly escaped without a scratch–the stunt could have resulted in a broken neck or back–and after the terrifying incident, her owner is urging horse people to use a safety feature that saved the life of the beautiful mare.
On August 4, Britain’s Lorna Madden loaded her “well-traveled and well competed” broodmare Grace into the trailer, taking her to new grass on the field. After shutting the trailer, she got into the car and started driving when she heard Grace whinnying and stamping in the back.
“She was calling out and stomping (nothing unexpected when leaving a buddy),” Madden said, explaining that Grace had been in the trailer with a two-year-old filly (a female horse too young to be called a mare), who was earlier removed.
But then Grace went silent.
“Next thing [Grace] was perfectly quiet but I could hear her breathing had changed (I was out of the car and ready to open the gate leaving the field). I looked in through the window to see she had jumped the breast bar and tipped herself up, hanging by her quick release bungee,” Madden said.
The terrifying scene had Grace lying “upside down,” the weight of her large body supported only by her neck and the side of her head.
Grace had tried to jump the breast bar, where she was attached with a bungee, and tipped up over it. An accident like this could have resulted in a broken neck or back, ultimately killing the 21-year-old mare.
“It was really strange,” Madden told Horse and Hound magazine. “I’d seen something about it on TikTok that morning and thought I’d better check mine, and one was the wrong way round. It was like fate; it could have been a different story.”
Madden freed Grace from the quick-release bungee that secured her in the trailer, then she and her partner unscrewed the pins holding the breast bar, so it dropped, allowing the beautiful mare out.
Madden said, “The L-shaped hook with the pin going through it has to be attached to the outer wall. If it’s the curved end on the wall, it won’t let the bar drop. [Because it was the right way round] it dropped and she was free, she stood up and was fine, not bothered, casual as anything. She was so good.”
Since the accident, Madden is urging others to checks the bolts to make sure they can be released quickly when needed.
“It’s a safety feature and you wouldn’t know until you needed it,” Madden writes on Facebook. “Please please make sure your breast bars are on the same that mine are as it’s a mistake I see so often, and you wouldn’t believe how quickly I was able to free my old girl today thanks to everything being on the correct way! Thank you someone for watching over us today.”
After a successful British show jumping career, Grace, who’s bred four foals, also competed at the Horse of the Year Show as a working hunter and is deserving of a full retirement.
“CRAZY GRACE BY NAME AND NATURE sadly I think it’s time she’s retired from anything other than being a field ornament so no more babies for her as her little crazy brain seems to have started her [riding] habits on the ground/trailer now,” Madden shared on Facebook.
We are so happy Crazy Grace is okay and we wish her a happy retirement! She will make a stunning a “field ornament.”
Please share this story so other horse lovers will be aware of the important safety feature!
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