Lord of the Rings Horse Star "Frodo Baggins" Euthanized After Rolex 3-Day Cross-Country Injury
What could have been the great sports-meets-entertainment story of the 2008 Olympic equestrian games was cut short today when a horse stared at by millions of moviegoers and thousands of eventing fans was euthanized.If you saw the movie "Lord of the Rings", you may remember fleeting glimpses of the galloping dark horse now known as "Frodo Baggins" on the U.S. eventing scene. He was in the first film in the series, shot in his native New Zealand.
Frodo Baggins crossed the Pacific and became one of the United States Olympic Team's short-listed horses for the Hong Kong events coming up this summer.
Frodo Baggins was euthanised today at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Kentucky. He was transferred to the clinic after sustaining multiple injuries on course in the cross-country phase of the Rolex (Kentucky) Three-Day Event at the Kentucky Horse Park on Saturday afternoon.
Ridden by Laine Ashker, Frodo Baggins fell at the fifth fence, known as the Flower Basket. Lexington's daily newspaper, the Herald-Leader, described the fall this way: "Jumping at a high speed, her horse, Frodo Baggins, apparently caught his front feet on the fence, causing it to flip over, slamming himself and his rider on the ground."
According to US Equestrian Federation's Joanie Morris, Ashker was conscious, talking and moving her extremities when she was transported by helicopter from the Horse Park to the University of Kentucky Hospital, where she is currently under the care of the emergency and trauma services staff.
Frodo Baggins was attended to immediately by a team of veterinarians. He was stabilized, sedated and transported to the Hagyard clinic, which is across Iron Works Parkway from the Horse Park.
According to Joanie, further tests at Hagyard showed that Frodo Baggins had sustained a fracture at the base of his skull as well as a serious lung injury. The prognosis was very poor. A representative for the Ashker family concurred that euthanasia was the most humane option for the horse.
Frodo Baggins was a black New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred; web site records tell us that he was either 10 or 13 years old. He was owned by his rider, who had placed with him at two horse trials this spring in Florida.
Laine and Frodo were named to the 2008 USEF Winter Training List for special sessions in Ocala, where they trained in dressage with Captain Mark Phillips and show jumpers Laura Kraut and Lauren Hough.
I had anticipated Frodo's return to Hong Kong, where he would compete against New Zealander Mark Todd and his horse, Gandalf. Laine had written of her horse on the Rolex web site, "In addition to filming the movie over a course of eight months, he also paraded around New Zealand for fans, met the prime minister of New Zealand, and even walked down the red carpet at the premiere of the film with Elijah Woods himself!"
Ashker was a featured rider on the 2008 web site of the Rolex event, and she also publishes a blog (similar to this one) chronicling her training and competition progress in 2007 and 2008.
Frodo's death is the second tragedy for Laine is less than a year. A s reported in this blog in June 2007, Laine's former eventing star, Eight Saint James Place, collapsed and died at the finish line of the 2007 Jersey Fresh*** Horse Trials. A tree and gravestone have been planted at the Horse Park of New Jersey, overlooking the water fence, in his memory. Autopsy reports revealed that the horse suffered an aneurysm, also called "equine pulmonary hemorrhage". Two horses died of pulmonary hemorrhaging last month at the Red Hills Horse Trials in Florida, as reported in this blog on March 19.
Earlier today, Laine Ashker competed at Rolex riding Mazetto, a Cleveland Bay/New Zealand Thoroughbred who was owned and ridden by her friend, Eleanor Brennan, who died this last year while competing in Florida.
The Rolex web site reports that Laine is ranked as the third leading rider in the US, and the top lady rider. She represented the United States in the 2007 "test event" in Hong Kong, which monitored the effects of heat and stress on the international horses, as well as the functioning of the new facilities. This was her fourth year of competition at Rolex
posted by Fran Jurga @ 4/26/2008
20 comments
20 Comments:
How sad.
I was following the careers of the Lord of the Rings horses closely for a while but had lost touch with what they were up to. Thanks for the update, even if it's unfortunate news.
i was there and saw the whole thing happen.
it was so horrible.
I saw the whole thing happen also it was something I wish I wouldn't have seen. This is a horrible loss to Laine and my prayers are with her.
I was also there, along with my best friend and two sisters. We have been going to Rolex for years, and are also avid Lord Of The Rings fans. We were so excited to see Frodo go, and are still in shock over what we witnessed at the Flower Basket jump yesterday. We have been praying for Laine, and are heart-broken for Frodo. Does anywone know where to find a pic of Frodo (horse) with Elijah Woods on the Red Carpet?
Hi Ottergirl,
Thanks for your post. I am so sorry that three of our readers witnessed Frodo Baggins' fall.
I looked for a photo of him at the movie premiere but I did not find one. I remember there were some web sites about the LOTR horses when I wrote about one of them having colic surgery a year or so ago.
If you find the photo, please email me! (Franjurga@earthlink.net)
Thanks!
What terrible news.
Just what is going on with eventing these days?
The list of horses and riders being horrifically injured and killed is sobering.
I used to event at a very low level as a teenager and thought it was fantastic, but I don't remember hearing about all these deaths and injuries as we do these days.
This is really upsetting. What steps are the leaders of the eventing world taking to put an end to this extreme waste of lives?
What's going on with eventing is the qualification standards. A rider is not required to master the previous level before moving up to the next. Rolex was Laine's first four-star...ditto for Sarah Hansel (The Quiet Man, may he RIP) and Dornin Anne North, who lost her reins and her composure and was lucky not to be killed after falling with her horse.
I pray Laine recovers from her injuries to ride again. Sad to say, she was going way, way too fast at the jump and you could see it was going to happen moments before it did. RIP Frodo, you were one in a million.
I am a reiner.
I've often thought,
How much can we push our horses/to beyond their limit?
Wasting many of them, in all disciplines, to the power and glory of winning?
For us, certainly , not them.
The competion goes up, but does the horse ability go too?
The loss of Frodo Baggins - and for that matter the loss of any horse in pursuit of rider glory - it truly a pathetic waste. As horse people, we should be embarrased for the sport. We are the horse's caretaker. They put their trust in us to NOT put them in situations that are dangerous. Eventing is no less cruel to horses than racing. You shouldn't feel sorry for the riders. They make a CONSCIOUS decision to put themselves in these dangerous events. You should feel incrediby sorry for the horses, who put their heart and soul on the line for the riders only to have their lives cut short in the name of competition. It's truly pathetic and I cannot believe the riding world does not rise up against such cruelty. How many horse need to die before these courses are organized to be safer for rider and horse??????!!!!!
My prayers go out to BOTH riders AND both horses that were lost.
The previous poster's comments are a little out of place on this blog. It's cruel to ignore the pain and the loss the riders of these two horses are suffering - just because they choose to compete in the sport does not mean they love their horses less.
In order for horses to compete at that level most also find enjoyment in the sport. They have to, to do it and win. The riders are not evil people beating their horses into submission forcing them to do something they hate and are terrified of.
A true horseman/woman would've never made such hurtful comments on any blog.
Wait a minute. The blogger who asks us to look at what we demand from our horses is absolutely on target. Our horse do not care about ribbons, awards, accolades of human makings, fame and glory. They care about shelter, food, safety, and love from their caretakers. I think all of us need to check our true "goals" for our horses.
In response to Anonymous, this was not Laine's 1st 4-star; she's competed at Rolex for 3 or 4 years and had run the course on another horse earlier in the day.
USEA and USEF are indeed investigating lots of options to make eventing safer, including mandating the use of frangible pin technology. That however, doesn't work on a jump like the flower box. Maybe the course designers should move away from designing obstacles of a non-natural nature and go back to eventing as it was meant to be (encountering natural obstacles that you would expect to find in fields, pastures, etc.)
Thanks, Nancy, for your post. I was about to go and look up Laine's record, which is very impressive and includes repping the USA in the Olympic test event.
To the comment above..
These two accidents at rolex can not be just because of the jumps. Eventing is not about winning, its about the love of the sport. Riders don't try to hurt their horses purposly, if they knew this was going to happen they wouldnt have been competing at such a high level. What happened at rolex (which i witnessed) could not be called anything except for a terrible accident. Laine AND Sarah, my hearts out to you two for your losses.
It's easy to sit in judgment of a sport that you know nothing about. If you have never ridden on an upper level event horse then you know nothing about their desire to be right there jumping those jumps just as much as their rider. And eventers are some of the best horse people I have ever known. Our horses lack for nothing in their everyday care and they are fitter and last longer than most other horses. Because we ride and interact with our horses on an everyday basis we know them on a level few honestly ever know their horses. Accidents happen, plain and simple. Frodo and The Quiet Man died doing what they love. Believe me you can't force a horse to jump something they don't want to jump and those horses loved what they were doing.
There is a beautiful portrait of Frodo Baggins painted by Shawn Faust. He was featured in the Blood-Horse mag this week and I checked out his site. Excellent work! Check it out www.shawnfaust.com
Hindsight is 20/20. But after witnessing Laine fly around the Rolex 2008 course on Mazetto, I can understand some of the less than plesant comments that have been posted. Though I feel horribly for both Sarah Hansel and Laine, I believe that the speed at which Laine rode Mazetto at was inappropriate for the course. Luckily, with the immense experience that horse has, he was able to keep his legs out of his way. Unfourtunatly, Frodo was not. Also, notice that Laine had the fastest time on the day, next to Becky Holder, who had a watch malfunction.An honorable mention should go to Emilee Libby, who in my opinion was the star of the show and a amazing role model to all young riders and the general eventing public. Being a young rider at the Rolex 3 day and being 6 after dressage is unheard of. If any one should have been FLYING around that course it should have been her. But what was she doing? She was retiring at fence 7. Why? Because she had 2 run outs that were not dangerous in the least but realized that this was not thier day. That is amazing horsemanship. Also, recently posted on Laine's blog was if her coach [Buck Davidson] told her that she couldn't make the optimum time, she would just run faster. Isn't that the problem? In the race for glory, riders, and especially young rider's lose thier sense of safety and consideration for thier horses. Unfortunatly, no matter how fast you go, your horse is still a horse, not a immortal machine. You may want to run faster, but last time you looked down it was your horse pouring all of his effort to make that time happen for you. And on his occasional off-day you can't realize that it is a struggle for him for whatever reason and do the right thing? Congratulations to Emilee Libby for the best run at Rolex I saw that weekend.
I was standing right next to the jump with my aunt. Frodo wasn't all too excited to go over the jump, but Laine pushed him on. It was not at all Laine's fault, he had to go over the jump or the would get deductions. Frodo tried to adjust his stride to late and didn't realize how wide the jump was from the angle he was at. He jumped the jump and caught his front two ankles on the back of the jump. (Or the front depending on how you see it. It was the last few feet of the jump before he cleared it.) He was flipped completely over, landing on his back, on top of Laine. Frodo bounced off of her to about five feet away, rolling for about 15 more feet. Frodo stood up completely in shock for about two minutes. You could see the whites of his eyes, looking around wanting to know if Laine was alright. Then his muscles tensed, and he keeled over in a seizure. Laine was lying on her stomach, the doctors came and rolled her over. Also taking off her vest and outer equipment. She was having trouble breathing, and the vets were huddled around Frodo. By this time the crowds were massive. Everyone was there, from judges and doctors, to pedestrians and photographers. There were screams, cries, sighs but the loudest thing was the silence. Then the ever so famous blue tarp went up. One around Frodo, the other around Laine. It took a horrible hour and a half just to get them both off of the course. Laine was first to get off. She was air lifted off to the nearest hospital. Frodo never stood up again. He was moved from the coarse to a trailer. The whole thing was dreadful. If you weren't there, or didn't catch it, you can email me and I'll send you the phenomenal pictures I caught. My email is starbeyg@yahoo.com. My prayers are with them both.
As someone who spent years involved with 3 Day Eventing, I must wonder what has happened to the sport? We all love our horses and know horses are not expendable. Right? But really what are we as riders doing, knowing the risks and riding the difficult, fast courses anyway? At what point, at what level do we stop and think about the risks we are exposing our horses to? Perhaps its time to take a breath, stand back and look at the reality of what keeps happening in the horse world these days both on the track and at 3 Day Events. No amount of thrill, skill or challenge is worth the lives being destroyed by our passion to go faster, jump higher, wider etc. What a terrible tragedy for these horses. When will we realize its time to stop enjoying ourselves at the expense of our equine family? Its so hard to see this when we are in the middle of exciting hypnotic training and competition, our passion tells us our actions are reasonable, but look at the results? Yet another extraordinary horse is destroyed by our passion. Please, stop and think about it when you can. Our horses wait for us to acknowledge their danger. Will we hear them or will we continue to place them in harms way, all for the glory of the race or event course? What are we thinkng, or are we thinking at all?
i was also there and it was a horrible thing to see. i really wish they would make rolex a little safer for eventing. :(
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