A increasing young star of Irish equestrian sport experienced a deadly personal injury at a horse-using centre in Dublin following her horse landed on her after stumbling at a h2o leap impediment, an inquest has listened to.
Allegra “Tiggy” Hancock (15) was pronounced dead at Children’s Wellbeing Eire at Crumlin on June 16th, 2021 – where she experienced been rushed by ambulance immediately after sustaining really serious injuries while driving at the Greenogue Equestrian Centre in Rathcoole, Co Dublin.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Monday listened to article-mortem effects on the overall body of the gifted function rider uncovered she had experienced catastrophic blunt trauma injuries to her stomach and liver.
Tiggy, a student at Kilkenny School who arrived from Corries, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow experienced been attending the riding centre in Dublin as a member of Horse Sport Ireland’s superior efficiency eventing programme.
Her mom, Jane Hancock, instructed the inquest that her daughter experienced been schooling at the centre since 8.45am and had by now completed classes in showjumping prior to the incident took place shortly right after 1.30pm.
Ms Hancock, who witnessed the incident, explained Tiggy’s horse experienced strike a roller on the water-leap on a cross-country program and each rider and animal “just went over it.”
The inquest heard that Tiggy was an achieved and knowledgeable rider who experienced gained a bronze medal representing Eire at the Below-16 European Eventing Championships in Poland at the age of 13.
In reply to inquiries from the coroner, Aisling Gannon, Ms Hancock claimed she experienced no problems about the teaching her daughter was involved in on the day.
“It was just a tragic incident,” Ms Hancock remarked.
A coach with Horse Sport Eire, Becky Cullen, who also witnessed the slide, mentioned it appeared like Tiggy’s horse experienced not registered the obstacle.
Remarkable little one
Ms Cullen explained the deceased as “an extraordinary child who was able of driving outside of her a long time and as fantastic as several senior riders.”
The cross-place riding coach reported the jumps on the course were being reasonably effortless for a person of Tiggy’s functionality and experienced been jumped by a team of a lot less skilled riders before that working day.
She claimed the horse remaining ridden by Tiggy was also “very capable and expert.”
Ms Cullen mentioned the system was not significantly tough on the day as she had made the decision that the education would be kept straightforward and applied for “confidence-making.”
The trainer reported one particular of the positive developments to occur out of Tiggy’s loss of life was higher awareness within just the activity about the security of jumps on cross-country classes.
Tiggy’s Have faith in, a foundation which was founded in the teenager’s memory by her family members, is utilizing any funding lifted to provide coaching and education for young children in equestrian athletics as perfectly as furnishing psychological wellbeing help to youthful folks.
The rely on has also made a collection of video clips to help riders fully grasp extra about cross-nation fences and how they can be created safer.
Ms Cullen stated these hurdles were now being viewed from how they were being observed by horses with people recognising the have to have for contrasting colours to be utilised in their design and style.
She famous the obstacle wherever Tiggy fell on the working day was “brown h2o with a brown soar and brown sand.”
H2o leap
A previous advisor to the higher overall performance eventing team, Ken Mahon, who also witnessed the accident, claimed the horse had “flipped” immediately after hanging the water bounce.
He reported he experienced hit the floor first prior to the animal landed on best of her.
Mr Mahon reported she experienced sat up slightly and complained about not getting equipped to breathe prior to slumping back down on the floor.
He mentioned Ms Cullen experienced unzipped her body protector prior to crisis companies arrived on the scene.
The inquests read paramedics attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate her immediately after she went into cardiac arrest and suffered a collapsed lung.
A further eyewitness, Sarah Really like, explained she had seen the horse landing “full force” on the rider, and it was apparent that Tiggy was poorly wounded.
Garda Michael Noctor explained to the inquest that there was nothing at all suspicious in relation to the teenager’s dying.
“It was an incredibly tragic incident. She was a gifted young female who must have been capable to do it blindfolded. It was a freak incident,” said Garda Noctor.
The inquest heard that Tiggy had attended her community GP in 2018 and 2020 immediately after suffering other falls from horses, but there was no challenge of concern about them.
The coroner mentioned she would ask for Horse Activity Ireland to give nationwide steerage on cross-place jumps and the need to have to regard them from the vision of horses.
“That is pretty valuable. That would be quite constructive,” replied Ms Hancock.
Eire
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She noticed that Horse Sport Ireland experienced taken on board some issues, but improvements were being going on bit by bit and that it was “a finding out process” for the organisation.
Ms Gannon claimed the dying experienced also been referred to the Wellbeing and Protection Authority, but it experienced no remit as Tiggy was not an staff of the driving centre.
Returning a verdict of accidental dying, the coroner provided her condolences to Tiggy’s household for what she explained as “a extremely tragic accident.”
