who's at fault.

I want to say first of all. I am not in Florida at the quarter horse show. But you know bad news travels fast. I understand that we had a tragic event this morning during the select pleasure driving. Basically a horse went batshit, had a wreck and injured an exhibitor, not to mention the trauma inflicted on the innocent bystanders, judges, and other exhibitors and thier horses.
Who's at fault. Well ultimately the trainer for not paying attention to the signs of a horse not wanting to drive today. And the other exhibitors for letting the class go on anyway, the judges, ring stewards and AQHA itself. We as exhibitors, trainers, professionals, and horsemen, should know better that to put an amature exhibitor in harms way. It's our responsibility. Period. The AQHA has treated driving for years as the stepchild class. No seminars, no safety concerns, no guidance whatsoever from any qualified individuals. This is a direct result of what I talked about in one of my earlier blogs. Horses are not driven enough so as to keep this sort of embarrassment from happening. They need to be driven around the grounds, in the warm up pen, in traffic, with hunters, pleasure horses reiners etc. When you are prepared this sort of thing is less likely to happen. I sincerely hope that there were not any serious injuries inflicted today, and if their were I hope that the next ones inflicted will be on the trainer who is responsible for taking an unprepared driver to the arena in the first place.