Tragedy struck for Laine Ashker, formerly of 
Frodo was a 13 yr old Black NZ TB gelding who was born in New Zealand. Before Laine bought him, he had starred in the blockbuster "The Lord of the Rings" in the first film as one of the Dark Rider's mounts. In a feature interview, Ashker identified Frodo as the main Dark Rider’s horse in the first film of the trilogy. Only when he flew across the pond did he begin his eventing career with Laine. In 2007, Frodo's highlights were placing 7th internationally and 4th nationally at the prestigious Fairhill CCI***. Shortly thereafter, both he and Laine were named to the USEF shortlist for the 2008 Equestrian Olympics held in Hong Kong, China. Laine hoped to take Frodo to Rolex and finish in good standing to grasp a spot on the US Olympic Team.
She won the Markham Trophy for the highest placing young rider at the Fair Hill International CCI *** in October 2004 (at age 20) and placed 4th Nationally and 6th Internationally. 2006 point standings currently show Lainey ranked among the United States’ top twenty International riders. Lainey’s other accomplishments include: Deans List at University of Virginia where she’s scheduled to graduate in 2007 and… She and her mother have sung the National Anthem at a number of National Football League, National Basketball Association, and other professional sporting events. Lainey is herself a successful riding instructor and she has a wide array of students in all disciplines and levels.Reaction mixed to photo of eventing accident
My
inbox and voicemail have been full with comments from readers on the
publication of photos on the front page Tuesday of an accident at the
Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. (Here
is the story.)
On Saturday, the fall on the cross-country course at the Kentucky Horse Park left rider Laine Ashker in critical condition and resulted in the death of her horse, Frodo Baggins. The two photographs, at right, by freelance photographer Ron Curtis, showed the two just as they encountered the Flower Basket jump and then as they began to tumble over it.
Of the more than 70 responses to my editor's note with the photos requesting comments, more objected to than supported my decision to print them. Those who disagreed described them as in poor taste, too graphic, insensitive to the rider and her family, and insufficiently supportive of eventing and the horse industry.
Gwen Starstrom of Georgetown said such horrific photos should not be printed. "We can all well imagine what transpired from the descriptions in the newspaper. Shame on you," she wrote.
Ladd Bovey of Lexington agreed, writing: "Publishing a photo of horse and rider plunging to the death of the horse had all of the subtlety of showing a picture of someone's pet dog being run over."
On the other hand, Marsha Dance of Berry, Ky., wrote: "You were right in showing pictures of the horses falling at the Rolex cross-country....It is past time for everyone involved in horse competitions to wake up and quit making excuses and start thinking about safety first....They keep trying to make the jumps harder and harder all the time, with no thought to the fact that there are limits to what a horse can do. ...I think if all these riders, trainers and officials really, REALLY cared about horses as they should they would not push them into such dangers. I feel the cross-country event should be stopped or else taken back to what it was in the beginning."
Dan Weldy of Lexington, who witnessed the accident, wrote: "Laine Ashker lay motionless on the ground, and I believed at that moment that I just witnessed someone losing her life. Many of us at the scene were in tears. As Frodo Baggins struggled to get to his feet, I think we all knew that he would not survive this accident. This photo brings to light the incredible dangers inherent to the sport. Perhaps it will lead to changes that will make cross-country eventing safer for horse and rider and less frightening for spectators."
On Tuesday afternoon, two leaders of the eventing world called for a safety summit on the sport on June 7-8 in Lexington. You can read the letter from David O’Connor, president of the United States Equestrian Federation, and Kevin Baumgardner, president of the United States Eventing Association, here.
If you'd like to comment, please e-mail me or call 859-231-3221. Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your taking the time to share your views.
Linda Austin, Editor
I am proud of the news for doing it's job and putting this out there for the public.
As the owner of a picture stock agency, one of my photographers was at that jump. While I'm extremely sad about a horse being destroyed and a rider injured, I cannot turn away from the fact that my contributor was there to document the news. She did her job.
Charles Mann, a respected media photographer himself, was correct that if this had been any other sport, the images would have been on the web within seconds practically. But this is the world of equestrians who do tend to live in a bubble. It's a closed, select world that is use to doing things their own way.
Well, this is a new age and no one has the privacy that once was. Things don't get changed without being brought to light. So I say, good for these images because now the sport organizers have concrete data to review and perhaps will have the difficult task of either trying to find a way to make their sport safer or do away with it all together.
In closing, anyone who thinks getting on top of a one thousand pound animal with only small pieces of leather and metal for control is safe, is just fooling themselves. Dealing with horses in general will always have an element of danger to it.
Posted by: Sharon P. Fibelkorn | Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:41 AM
As an Equine Photographer for over 25 years I have witness and photographed all types of falls in all types of disciplines. I can relate to Linda’s dilemma on running the images of Laine’s fall. I receive a lot of grief from several people on my licensing of the Andreas Zehrer’s crash at the 2004 Olympics to the NY Times. In this case the image looks far worst then the actual out come.
I have Sarah Hansel’s fall and have selected several images to release, if I had Laine’s I would do the same thing. As a photo-journalist it is our job to document the good, the bad and the ugly of whatever event we are covering. The line here I do not think has been crossed. We do not see the rider or horse on the ground in distress. (I left those out of my selection of Sarah’s fall). So I applaud Linda’s choice of images and knowing that these images would elicit a wide variety feedback and she commented to that when she ran the photos.
I have read various comments on several bulletin boards about these photos, my photo and the YouTube videos, to which I keep hearing a double standard out there. It is ok to run a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot on the cover of almost every newspaper in the country, or the Viet Cong prisoner being shot in the head and the Marlborough Street Fire as a mother and daughter fall from a fire escape. But we can’t run a photo of a horses falling?
Someone made a comment about showing a pet being run over. I have a 9 year old Golden Retriever and would be devastated by his passing no matter how it happened. But I think most newspaper editors would show a closely edited image if they felt it necessary to do so. What if the image is of the owner embracing the wounded animal, or the moment just before impact? Would they be ok? Remember the examples I mentioned above are graphic moments just before or at the moment a HUMAN life is taken. They all must have had family and friends that loved them.
Just as we have an on-off switch on the TV and Radio, we have the same thing on our computers. If something disturbs you then don’t look at it, in addition don’t sensor the rest of us that think it is important to allow these types of images to run. I have covered many international events and the news agencies in other countries show much more graphic images every day and I am not talking just equine related.
I would like to end with a send out of major kudos to the all the veterinary staff, fence judges, stewards and volunteers whose quick reaction to these incidents, quite possibly preventing a much uglier scene from happening.
Charles Mann
Charles Mann Photography
Posted by: Charles Mann | Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 09:08 AM
It's funny the same people who allow their children to watch shows depicting sexual acts and using vulgar language and think that's ok, are ticked off at reality. Show the picture, it's better than the tv shows on tonight.