US dressage rider Courtney King-Dye is back on horseback after suffering a serious brain injury when she fell while schooling at home in Florida on 3 March 2010.
She suffered a fractured skull and small brain bleeds from the fall and fell into a coma.
Courtney has ridden a horse twice during therapy since being released from Kessler Institute to outpatient care on 25 June.
In a blog on her website Mrs King-Dye wrote: “The first time, I was more nervous than before I rode in the Olympic Games”.
“They told me it was OK to cry — they were great — but once I was on it was like [being] home. I didn’t know if I’d be able to do what I knew I must, but I did.
“I knew, for me, I had to separate the riding as a therapy, from the love of the horse. Even though I was working on very different things, it was still work. And once I was off, I let myself love him to pieces.
“He was great. His name is ‘Dude’ and he was great. I rode so ugly I thank God that it wasn’t on one of my horses… both for me, and for him!
“But you can’t take the trainer out of the girl. It was a very hot day, so Dude kept stopping by the door. Instinct took over, and by the third time I shocked everyone (including me!) by kicking poor Dude.
“He, who is trained to ignore everything the person on his back may do, very obediently ignored my pathetic one-legged kick. I was mortified, but it caused a good laugh.”
The Queen of the Kur, Anky van Grunsven, has announced that she will not be competing in the dressage phase of the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this year.
Anky’s number one horse, Salinero, has been injured for two months after bruising his withers in his stall. The healing process is taking much longer than expected and will take at least one more month.
Anky has also decided not to try her second mount, the Painted Black, because of inconsistent performances of late and a small injury.
Anky estimates her chance to finish in the top five as very small.
Her withdrawal should not affect the Dutch WEG team, which is still expected to be very strong.
It is not known whether Anky will aim to compete in the reining phase instead.
The FEI Bureau today gave its unanimous approval to new Stewards’ guidelines on warm-up techniques produced by the Working Group formed after the round-table conference held in Lausanne on 9 February 2010.
US International dressage rider Courtney King Dye has awoken after nearly a month in a coma.
Courtney was taken to hospital on 3 March 2010 after the horse she was schooling slipped and fell at home in Loxahatchee, Florida. She suffered a fractured skull and small brain bleeds and was airlifted to hospital in North Palm Beach.
Last week she was transferred to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, New Jersey.
An update on her website on Monday night (29 March) read: “While Courtney is no longer in a coma she still needs more time to fully emerge. The head of the brain injury department has described her current phase as being at the higher end of a ‘minimally conscious state’.
“She has some awareness of her surroundings and responds inconsistently to requests.
“The recovery from a brain injury is much like training a top-level dressage horse — both take patience, determination, a highly-skilled team of people and time.”
The silver anniversary FEI World Cup™ Dressage final begins tomorrow at s’Hertogenbosch.
The full list of starters is now as follows:
The Netherlands - Edward Gal, Adelinde Cornelissen and Imke Schellekens-Bartels
Germany - Isabell Werth, Matthias Alexander Rath and Carola Koppelmann
Sweden - Patrick Kittel and Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven
Poland - Michal Rapcewicz and Katarzyna Milczarek
Australia - Brett Parbery
Belgium - Jeroen Devroe
Austria - Peter Gmoser
Denmark - Nathalie Zu Sayn Wittgenstein
Brazil - Luiza Tavares de Almeida
FEI TV will be covering the event live from the Brabanthalle Arena. FEI TV can be accessed at: www.feitv.org.
The action begins at 5:30am Friday with the qualifying Grand Prix, and the title-holder will be decided by the Kur will be televised from 1:30am on Sunday.
The line-up for the final of the 2009/2010 FEI World Cup™ Dressage series which will take place at ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands from 25-27 March 2010 has been revised.
The USA and Canadian Federations have confirmed that, due to health issues for either horses or riders, there will be no representatives from the North American League, so the two available slots will now be taken by reserve riders Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven from Sweden and Poland’s Katarzyna Milczarek who previously applied for any available extra starting places.
Both of these riders became eligible through meeting the criteria laid down for participation at the final which includes the necessity to have competed in at least three qualifiers and the achievement of a score of at least 68.0% on each occasion.
As the reigning Olympic and nine-time World Cup title-holder Anky van Grunsven from The Netherlands has not qualified this year and the 2008/2009 FEI World Cup™ Dressage series winner Steffen Peters of the USA has decided not to defend his title, a new champion will be crowned in the Brabanthallen at ’s-Hertogenbosch in two weeks time.
The full list of participants is now as follows:
The Netherlands - Edward Gal, Adelinde Cornelissen and Imke Schellekens-Bartels
Germany - Isabell Werth, Matthias Alexander Rath and Carola Koppelmann
Sweden - Patrick Kittel and Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven
Poland - Michal Rapcewicz and Katarzyna Milczarek
Australia - Brett Parbery
Belgium - Jeroen Devroe
Hungary - Acs Robert
Denmark - Nathalie Zu Sayn Wittgenstein
Brazil - Luiza Tavares de Almeida
USA Dressage Olympian Courtney King-Dye suffered a skull fracture and is in a coma following a fall last week. The fall left Courtney in a coma.
Courtney was injured while schooling a horse in Loxahatchee, prior to the Palm Beach Dressage Derby that was being held last weekend. It is understood that one of the horse’s hind feet stepped on the other and then he sat down and tipped over sidewards. Courtney ended under him, still in her tack.
It is unknown when Courtney might awake from her coma.
Courtney often wears a helmet, but she was not in this instance.
As a result, Grand Prix rider Heather Blitz has started a campaign that urges dressage riders to wear helmets, as she requires her students to do.
Courtney’s tragic accident has also lead to a push for safety helmets to be compulsory in dressage competition. Many dressage riders at the weekend’s Derby event wore helmets.
FEI has announced the launch of its first ever official mobile application.
“FEI EquiTests”, developed in close cooperation with Canada-based e-learning and visual communication design specialists Numen Communications Inc., is a mobile application designed to help riders learn, reference and practice FEI Dressage tests.
“FEI EquiTests”is available worldwide through the Apple iTunes store under FEI license.
For each test, the application allows iPhone and iPod users to:
-read the test instructions along with the marking criteria;
-view dressage animation diagrams that outline the movements of the test;
-record and play readings of the test that re perfectly timed to match the user’s individual horses and the arena in which they are practising;
-reference the official dressage test score sheet to see where the judges’ emphasis is;
-get better understanding of the FEI Rules as PDFs of the rulebooks on topics such as movement definitions, competition rules, dress code, judging and veterinary inspection are available;
-keep up to date with the latest dressage news through the FEI news feed.
FEI EquiTests 1 is available for free, so that riders and coaches may evaluate the features available. This application includes all features related to one sample test: the globally used FEI Young Riders Individual Competition Test.
FEI Equitests 2 includes all the most recent 2009 FEI Eventing Dressage Tests and is available for only USD 9.99.
Additional versions of FEI EquiTests featuring FEI Dressage and FEI Para-Equestrian Dressage tests will be launched later this year.
The composition of the FEI working group tasked with expanding current guidelines for Stewards to facilitate clear implementation of the policy on warm-up techniques following on from last week’s round-table conference on hyperflexion/Rolkur has been finalised today.
As announced after last week’s conference in Lausanne, the working group will be chaired by Dressage Committee Chair Frank Kemperman. Group members are Richard Davison (GBR), Rider/Trainer; John P. Roche (IRL), FEI Director Jumping/Stewarding; Jacques Van Daele (BEL), FEI Honorary Dressage Steward General/Judge; Wolfram Wittig (GER), Trainer; and Trond Asmyr (NOR), FEI Dressage Director/Judge. The working group will also draw on the expertise of a number of other specialists, including but not limited to the participants of the round-table conference. The working group aims to have the guidelines completed by the end of March 2010.
The guidelines produced by the group will be communicated directly to Stewards and also to riders and trainers. The working group is expected to put forward further proposals for the education of Stewards to ensure that FEI rules are strictly adhered to and that the welfare of the horse is maintained at all times.
Guidelines for Stewards will incorporate the use of a range of sanctions, including verbal warnings and yellow cards for riders who transgress. Stewards will also be readvised to watch out for signs of distress in the horse, which may include but are not limited to obvious fatigue, profound or inappropriate sweating, persistent rough use of aids (i.e. bits, spurs or whip) and over-repetition of exercises.
The FEI Management is also currently studying a range of additional measures, including the use of closed circuit television for warm-up arenas at selected shows so that potential abuse accusations can be more readily identified and recorded.
The FEI will ensure that all findings produced by the working group are communicated on an ongoing basis.
The FEI has advised that following constructive debate at the FEI round-table conference at the IOC Headquarters in Lausanne on 9 February 2010, the consensus of the group was that any head and neck position of the horse achieved through aggressive force is not acceptable. The group redefined hyperflexion/Rollkur as flexion of the horse’s neck achieved through aggressive force, which is therefore unacceptable. The technique known as Long, Deep and Round (LDR), which achieves flexion without undue force, is acceptable.
The group unanimously agreed that any form of aggressive riding must be sanctioned. The FEI will establish a working group, headed by Dressage Committee Chair Frank Kemperman, to expand the current guidelines for stewards to facilitate the implementation of this policy. The group agreed that no changes are required to the current FEI Rules.
The FEI Management is currently studying a range of additional measures, including the use of closed circuit television for warm-up arenas at selected shows.
The group also emphasised that the main responsibility for the welfare of the horse rests with the rider.
The FEI President HRH Princess Haya accepted a petition of 41,000 signatories against Rollkur presented by Dr Gerd Heuschman.
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