A train wreck and the aftermath

The picture on the left is Laine Ashker and Frodo Baggins, and this entry is not for sissies. This article contains graphic photos/video. Consider yourself warned. I'm posting it on the weekend for a reason -- according to my blog stats, no one reads on weekends. This is just something I want to write about after watching some post-Rolex interviews with Laine Ashker, the rider who fell with her horse at the fifth fence. Frodo died, and she nearly did. If you follow eventing, you probably already know where this is going...

I have the official video footage of Frodo's fall at Rolex -- it was on YouTube briefly. Ashker and Frodo are jumping toward the camera and the the rotational fall is depicted in awful clarity. I watched it many times, because I wanted to understand what happened. The footage followed a horse and rider in a perfect somersault, hooves pointing at the sky, and falling in a graceful arc. We see only the tragic consequences of the approach -- it was not at a useful angle for analysis.



Bob had seen Quiet Man's fatal fall hours earlier. He and I returned from Rolex in a somber mood, and Bob stating flatly that he would not go to events where horses die "for our entertainment." My reaction was not so easy to characterize. I sent Laine Ashker money and a card that I had been saving to have framed -- the haystack rock on Cannon Beach, Oregon with a kite flying in the foreground. My heart broke for her and everyone who loved Frodo. I read everything I could about their fall, other falls and eventing safety.

There has been a lot of buzz about Laine Ashker since Rolex. If you can believe comments from the eventing community made in hindsight, it was common knowledge that she rode recklessly. One of her previous horses also died in competition, from an aneurysm. She has broken her neck twice. She has survived a previous rotational fall (30% of rotational falls result in fatality). But she was also enjoying success and had a shot at going to the Olympics. I reserved judgement: Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. It's easy to kick someone when they're down.




I followed her blog. She and her mom are from California, and sometimes Californians are a bit too sunny for their own good. But Laine seemed to be recovering a little too easily, and too fast, psychologically. While the eventing community ground itself into a fine dust trying to understand what was going on, Laine was doing great, making plans, moving ahead as if nothing had happened. She seemed not to "get it."



Now, months later, Ashker has been appearing on TV and in interviews. Laine's TV interview baffled me. All smiles and optimism, she relates her memories of what happened at Rolex. If the loss of Frodo haunts her, it isn't evident. She is bothered that the fall happened at an Olympic qualifier, and she was made a "scapegoat" by critics of the sport. When asked to analyze what happened, she breezily answered that the fall occurred because "it was fate and Frodo didn't pick up his legs." How's that for a post-game analysis? "Coach, I struck out because the bat wasn't doing its job." No reflection, no remorse, no accounting, but the big, excited smile of a young girl basking in media attention. In a transcript of another interview she stated she never watched the video of her fall, and she has no plans to.

She hasn't looked at it. How ironic that I can't stop looking at it.

So I watched these feel-good interviews and wonder where this girl's head is. Thank God no one ever put a microphone in my face at age 24 -- but I'm baffled at the demeanor of this young woman who has had two horses die in her her pursuit of a sport. Instead of taking time to review her program, she is ready to get another horse and have another go.

And don't get me started on her mom. Laine was barely out of the helicopter that flew her to the hospital, and mom was in the media proclaiming that of course Laine would ride again. We later learn that the doctors attending to her didn't expect her to survive. She didn't regain consciousness for days. But there's mom, who is so clearly living life through her daughter she cannot face the reality of the fall. Then or now. "Mom tells me don't look back," Laine says.

There is now another video, this one showing the approach to the fence. I don't know how long it will be up. Well, if Laine isn't going to watch it and learn, at least we can. If you have the stomach for it, and want to see the approach to the flower basket, you might be able to draw some of your own conclusions. I also happen to think it honors Frodo's memory to show what really went down. Didn't pick up his feet? See for yourself.