Roxana Graman and Forever during the dressage at Boekelo
Dutch rider Roxana Graman has returned home from hospital after her fall at the last fence on cross country at Military Boekelo on Saturday
The 36-year-old suffered severe concussion, which has left her with partial vision in one eye and muscle soreness from the fall, which saw her horse Forever land on top of her, but the prognosis is good.
Serita Vossen, Roxana Graman's personal assistant, says they have been told that the vision problem is not uncommon phenomenon with a severe concussion
“However, we are hopeful that there will be no permanent damage. And we have to be very happy with that, because of course it could have ended much worse. We are also very satisfied with the quick help and good care after the fall from the organisation."
Roxana’s horse Forever returned home straight after the accident, having incurred no injury
Serita Vossen says that Roxana’s memory of the event is that "In cross-country, everything went completely according to plan. She had prepared for a long time towards her first performance in Boekelo and could have just been second in the National Championships. So, it was such a shame that it went wrong on the last jump."
"Roxana is very sad that this had to happen to her. Flip (nickname for Forever) did everything for her and was not physically tired at all. Roxana still doesn't understand how it could have happened. She has trained Flip, the fittest eventing horse in the Netherlands, herself. She saw the distance to the jump well and something like Saturday had never happened to her. Pretty soon after the cross Flip had a heart rate of eighty. Maybe he was a bit tired psychologically."
Boekelo chairman Robert Zandstra commented that the organising committee has been playing a pioneering role for many years to optimise safety in eventing and action was taken to remove the fence from the competition “After all, we have no interest whatsoever in incidents where horses and riders are at risk. The FEI technical delegate has looked at it very closely and acted accordingly.”
Roxana back home and reunited with her son Kai
