August 2, 2016 
This May at Rolex, U.K.-based American eventer Liz Halliday-Sharp and her 12-year-old Irish Sporthorse, HHS Cooley, completed their first CCI****, finishing in 40th place with a clear cross-country round. The two planned to tackle their second at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials this fall, but sadly, it was not to be. On Sunday, Halliday-Sharp and “Cooley” suffered a fall on cross-country at the Burgham Horse Trials CIC*** in Northumberland. Halliday-Sharp was thrown clear of the jump and knocked unconscious, fracturing her C7 vertebra. Cooley broke his leg and was euthanized.
Halliday-Sharp, who calls the grey gelding “her best friend” and “the bravest horse in the world”, believes that Cooley misread a modestly tall but particularly wide oxer on course, assuming it was a bounce, and came down in the middle of the fence. Cooley was Halliday-Sharp’s second ride of the day, having already completed the course successfully on her first horse, Fernhill By Night (“Blackie”). The oxer had a frangible pin in place that was broken, but it is unclear at this point whether the pin released as intended or not.
Yesterday, Halliday-Sharp posted a response to the tragedy on her Facebook page, calling on the FEI to rethink the design and spread width of open rail oxers. You can read her post below.
(via Facebook.com/Liz Halliday)
“I’m sitting in hospital after my second night here and although I’m still so so sad, I am feeling amazed and overwhelmed by the incredible amount of love and support that I have received from everyone – thank you all so much and I’m so glad that Cooley was so well known and loved by many.
I’m looking forward to going home soon with Al who has been here supporting me, and to start repairing my body and soul, and while I am recovering I will of course be watching and cheering for everyone in Rio!
I have been thinking a lot while I have been here, and I want to put something out there about why this tragedy happened to my wonderful horse, and I’m hoping that it might trigger some consideration and maybe some change for the future from the FEI and National Federations. I also want to say that in no way at all am I blaming the Burgham Event itself as they have all been very helpful and supportive throughout this terrible situation.
Where we fell was at a very wide, but not very tall, open rail oxer off a turn. When I walked the course I remember thinking it was one of the widest I had seen in an advanced competition and that it would demand respect and proper riding, and I was concerned that a horse could possibly misread it as a bounce. I went out on Blackie first and he jumped it well, and when I went out on Cooley I planned to give it the same amount of respect. I arrived at the fence with the correct pace and a good shot (confirmed by people who saw) and plenty of leg on, and as Cooley jumped he must have suddenly thought it was a bounce, and he came down in the middle of the fence, just in front of the back rail. The fence was pinned, but I do not remember if it released and no one seems to be able to answer that – anyone I ask says they weren’t paying attending to the fence as they were all apparently attending to me since I had hit the ground so hard and was unconscious, and of course my horse was injured. Cooley was the bravest, best cross country horse I have ever had, with more scope and heart then any horse I have ever sat on, and there is no way that he would have jumped into that fence unless he thought that he was supposed to and had just misread it.
This is not the first time this year that an experienced, talented horse has misread and jumped into one of these open oxers and that the horse and rider have both been seriously injured. Sadly, on this occasion my wonderful Cooley had to pay the price with his life. I feel that perhaps the FEI and National federations need to think about how wide an open rail oxer can and should be, and perhaps beyond a certain width they should be made as a table or be ascending? Just because a fence is pinned does not mean that it should be pushing the boundaries of what horses can understand. Just one honest and experienced horse misunderstanding and losing his life is too many in my opinion.
I hope that I am not alone in feeling this way, and perhaps if anything can come of this horrible tragedy, it can been some change and some consideration of these particular fences. My broken heart hurts so much more then my broken neck and I cannot imagine going home and not seeing my gorgeous grey boy over the door.” #RIPCooley
