The first Fair horse event I've ever attended turned out to be even more exciting than I thought! Rather harrowing, actually.

I went to the event yesterday evening -- the event was for Paso Finos and Draft Horses. More about them in the next post. After a few events from each kind of horse, there came the first half of the Draft Ladies Cart. These were single-person carts being drawn by large draft horses. As the horses were lining up for the final judging something happened with the cart driven by Sally Moore of Ferrum, Virginia. The cart tipped up on one wheel, spilling her to the floor of the arena.

The horse careened around, smashing the cart into the arena's walls. A chorus of "Whoa!"s filled the air as the audience tried to calm the horse down. The announcer stayed calm, encouraging the other contestants to move to the center of the arena and let the runaway horse have his way. Finally a very brave man caught the horse up and got him calm(er).

Ms. Moore was still for a few scary minutes until the EMT in attendance got her sitting up. Shortly after that two EMTs on bicycles arrived, and about ten minutes after that an ambulance. She was strapped onto a gurney and taken away to lots of cheering. Shortly after that, competition resumed. Horse attendants were much more in evidence at this point.

As scary as the gurney looked, horse show manager Glenn Petty had good news after the show. "She was taken to the hospital as a precaution," he told me. "Her concern right now is with the horses she's going to show in the morning. She's going to be pretty sore."

I'm just glad it wasn't worse! Best wishes to Ms. Moore for a speedy recovery.