There are few moments more frightening for a rider than a horse who stumbles suddenly in the course of normal business and threatens to go down. The fact that horses trip is a part of riding life—whether due to inattention on the horse’s part or the rider’s, a footing or soundness issue, or pure bad luck.

A new video making the rounds on the internet this morning, though, demonstrates what many feel is an overreaction to just such a trip on the part of French rider Pénélope Leprévost. In the video, Leprévost’s stallion, Vagabond de la Pomme, stumbles badly in the schooling ring at the Gothenburg World Cup Finals in Sweden. Leprévost’s handling of the incident has sparked a social media firestorm and now an FEI investigation, and could result in serious consequences for the world’s #5-ranked show jumper.

We’ll let you take a look and will have more after the jump…

According to The Irish Fieldan FEI representative has confirmed that an investigation is underway in Leprévost’s case and that the organization released the following statement:

“The FEI is looking into the full circumstances of the incident in which the French horse Vagabond de la Pomme stumbled very badly prior to the first round of Monday’s competition and the rider, Penelope Leprevost, reacted very roughly. The FEI Steward on duty in the warm-up reported the incident to the FEI and also to the FEI Chief Steward.”

“The French team vet Jérôme Thévenot also saw the horse stumbling, but felt that the horse was fine to go into the arena. Vagabond de la Pomme was clear in the first round, and was given a thorough check over in the stables afterwards by Jérôme Thévenot, who reported that the horse was perfectly fine.”

“Horse welfare is central to everything the FEI does, and is also a priority for both the Swedish National Federation and the organising committee of the Gothenburg Horse Show. The FEI’s Code of Conduct for the Welfare of the Horse is in place to ensure that horse welfare is protected at all FEI events.”

Getty Images

Getty Images

For her part, Leprévost—who finished 8th in the event with Vagabond de la Pomme—took to Facebook this morning to apologize for her behavior, saying that she was afraid after the stumble and overreacted. Here is the message translated from French via Facebook:

“My horse was trotting, very relaxed and with his head down, when he stumbled. It was actually quite frightening and I really thought that both of us were going to fall down. I immediately checked that he was not injured. I then wanted him to pull himself together. My goal was to wake him up but not to push him too hard. The French team’s vet also checked that he was fine and had no problems.

I am deeply sorry that I over-reacted and was too strong with my horse and I want to express my sincere apologies.
I place great importance on the trust and cooperation between myself and my horses. I also have the greatest respect for their state of mind and their physical well-being.”

One of the questions here, of course, is what is the proper reaction for dealing with a trip? Plenty of trainers would argue that if the error was due purely to inattention on the part of the horse—especially a horse who is about to enter the arena to compete in a 1.50-1.60-meter jumping class—that some form correction or “wake up” would be warranted. On the other hand, is a correction even fair when the rider is (seemingly) encouraging the horse to lower his head and stretch on a long rein, and more importantly, how much “correction” is too much?

What do you think? Let’s discuss in the comments section.