Amy Kynaston died on Dec. 4 after sustaining injuries at the Ledges Winter Classic, held Dec. 1-4 in Roscoe, Ill.
“The horse jumped a fence, and then he bolted and swerved to avoid the rail, and she fell off,” said Leigh Anne Claywell, director of competition licensing, evaluation and safety at the U.S. Equestrian Federation. “From the steward’s report, she did not hit the rail or a jump. She just hit the ground.”
Kynaston, Chicago, Ill., walked out of the ring on her own before getting checked out by the EMT.
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“At that point she was complaining about her head hurting, and she started throwing up,” Claywell said. “They transported her to the hospital later in the day. The show was notified that she was pronounced brain dead by that evening.”
Further information was not available from USEF, and management at the Ledges Horse Show declined to return phone calls.
