Surgery Survivor Horse Dies Competing on Cross-Country Course at New Jersey Event

In Memory of Tigger Too: 1991-2008, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

Tigger Too, owned by US Equestrian Federation President David O'Connor, died after a fall at the water jump on the cross-country course at the Jersey Fresh CCI*** at the New Jersey Horse Park yesterday. Tigger Too was ridden by Lauren Kieffer, according to the US Eventing Association. Kieffer was not injured.

USEA also reports that preliminary necropsy findings on Tigger Too, a seventeen-year-old gelding, showed that he passed away from an acute abdominal aortic rupture. Final necropsy results are pending.

From the archives: “Tigger Too was an interesting case,” Karen O'Connor said in a testimonial for the horse's successful use of the nutraceutical "Succeed". “This horse has had three colic surgeries and had much of its colon removed in the last one. All of this pressure of competition, training, shipping…it really takes its toll. Since his colic surgeries, Tigger Too has always been a poor doer. But with SUCCEED, the horse is really blossoming. He’s as big and beautiful as ever. And you can see the difference in his performance.”

David O'Connor has jumped Tigger Too without a bridle in his clinics.

The FEI investigative panel has been convened to review the facts surrounding the incident, and more information will be released once the investigation is through.

The three-day event was won by Amy Tryon.

Photo: Lauren and Tigger Too galloping off into cross-country yesterday, before the fall. Photo kindly loaned by Sarah K. Andrew, a.k.a. "Rock and Racehorses", who happened to be there and has some nice photos of Tigger Too in the last minutes of his life. Click on the link under the photo to see more photos.