#rideforolivia

[Shirrine]

Last weekend a talented much loved member of the Australian eventing community lost her life doing what she loved.
This has now become a world wide FB tribute to her. If you are on FB the post your favorite pic of you with your horse under the heading of #rideforoliver.

"a young girl of 17 lost her life in a tragic accident competing on her beloved horse who also did not survive the accident. In memory the family has asked riders to post favorite pictures with your horse in her honor."

Shirrine

[Racetrackreject]

And make sure you tag your photo with #rideforolivia. An artist is taking all of the photos with this tag and making a mosaic of Olivia and her horse out of them. It's going to be gorgeous.

Over 1.8 million photos have been submitted so far, as reported on various media outlets.

[TeresaA]

I saw this and at first thought it was just for Australians. But I realized that it wasn't and submitted my own photo.

It is a beautiful thing to do

[Shirrine]

Even Olympians got involved, was wonderful to see how the world of equestrians got involved. I hope it helped her family and friends.

Shirrine

[Chisamba]

They can only use about a hundred photos for the actual mosaic, they have not decided what they are going to do with the many thousands of other photos they got, ( last i read) but it has been interesting to look at all the photos

[Racetrackreject]

The mosaic has been completed and it is gorgeous. I would venture to say that they used quite a bit more than 100 photos, but definitely not all. Last count I saw was more than 22 million photos were tagged.

[Chisamba]

it is lovely, and yes it seems to be much more than a hundred used. i hope mine is somewhere in there, they probably started with aussies, and eventers and olympians, ( maybe) so mine might not be there but the thought is

[Racetrackreject]

Here is a better photo and wow, did they use a lot of photos. I bet you're in there Chisamba!

[Shirrine]

They used 200 photos, this is so clever. They will decide what to do with the rest.

Shirrine

[scruffy the cat]

While the outpouring of support for the family is truly wonderful, I cringe every time I see a #rideforolivia post. Why? Because in eventing I can no longer consider these tragedies "accidents". An accident is an unforeseen calamity. These frequent injuries and deaths are now only that- frequently occurring catastrophes whose occurrence can be minimized by changes in course and jump design. If there is a way to lessen the chance of just one more person getting injured or killed- why don't we do that? Because current eventing wouldn't be challenging enough? I challenge any modern eventer to get through an older-style event and say it wasn't a test of courage, conditioning, brains, and strength.

I am sorry for Olivia and her family's loss. I am also sorry for all of those others who have been devastatingly injured or killed, who didn't have a social media campaign to offer support to their families. They all deserve a thoughtful examination of why these injuries keep happening so frequently.

[Shirrine]

Sometimes these things take on a life of their own. To me this has been a tribute to all who lose their lives and to the horse world in general.

Shirrine

[Flight]

Scruffy, I feel the same way. So many people are saying it's an accident (true, these things do happen) but I want people to start questioning why is it happening, and how can it be prevented!! Not "Oh well, shit happens' in the true Aussie way.

However, I believe there is a committee forming to look into what happened. I hope for eventing's sake that people start wanting to look more at why it's happening.

[pawsplus]

I agree. The whole campaign makes me queasy. There are problems with the sport. One of them is permitting a child of 17 to compete at that level.

[Chisamba]

People who ride eventing, like football players, car drivers and let's say smokers, all know the risks when that choose to pursue their sport. So do downhill skiers and other xtreme sports.

I think it's so typical of modern helicopter society to act as though ask risk should be removed from life. That said, at seventeen I read of horses collapsing at an international event and stopped eventing because I knew that I would not be prepared to ride my horses to death for the sake of sport.

So I have no problem with humans doing risky things to themselves, but I do dislike sports that are life threatening to animals, but if we are going to be honest, a lot more horses die on the race tracks than in eventing. So the triple crown bothers me a lot more than eventing.

Jmpo