It has been a tough start to the day so far at Poplar Place. Dekorum, a lovely promising young mare ridden by Michael Pollard in the advanced division was put down on scene after breaking her hing leg at the first water, the Mulberry Pond. Michael was uninjured, and the medical/veterinary team responded quickly and dealt with the situation as appropriately as possible. Michael and his family are close friends of mine, as is Dekorum’s owner, and I saw Dekorum at their farm just last week. I can’t even begin to express my sadness and sympathies for their loss. All of Eventing Nation will keep Dekorum in our thoughts and prayers today.
There have been numerous other falls, stoppages, and mishaps on the course from veteran and younger pairs alike at Poplar. They removed a jump in the middle of the second water after the first few horses had issues at it. The advanced horses are still on course at Poplar and hopefully we will get through the day with better news to report later.
Update: I just spoke briefly with Michael who told me that he had had a chance to see video of the incident and Dekorum jumped the bounce combination before the first water successfully. As she was descending 5 strides down the hill to the actual jump into the water, her leg visibly broke from an explosion fracture between the fences, before the jump into the water. It doesn’t make it any easier to deal with but it’s important to note that this wasn’t connected with footing or course design or the actual jump.
