The past few months of my life has been spent planning an Equine Theft Prevention Clinic to offer local horse men & women the opportunity to have their horse(s) freeze branded or microchipped at a discounted price. We also offered equine chiropractics & acupuncture, farrier services, and horsemanship demonstrations for basic skills, performance training and trail safety. As a fundraiser for our graduate student association in the college of veterinary medicine we offered vendor booths and banner advertising in exchange for donations.
We were quite devastated by a freak accident occuring within the first hour--as a trainer scheduled to give the trail safety demonstration arrived his fiance exited the truck to stand behind the trailer and direct him as he backed the trailer loaded with 3 fully mature horses. Tragically, he accidentally backed over her with the trailer leading to massive internal injuries which shortly resulted in her death.
Please remind people not only to stand a good distance away from a trailer when directing someone, but PLEASE NEVER back your trailer while the person helping you is not visible in your side mirror. This was not some redneck idiot that did not have a clue about backing a horse trailer. This is a highly skilled, well respected professional that has been in the business for at least 35 years.
I feel awful-these people were there to volunteer their time and knowledge to help us learn & raise money for our organization--I hope that I can use how I feel to infuence others into being extremely careful and aware when backing their trailers, ESPECIALLY if a family member, friend, or anyone else for that matter is helping by standing back to direct them!!!
jlb6736
