Owners of horse who severed leg on mirror call for more regulation

The promising young gelding had to be put down after he kicked out at the mirror in his owners' arena

- ELEANOR JONES, Eleanor Jones

THE owners of a promising young horse who severed a leg when he kicked out at an arena mirror have called for better safety standards to prevent similar accidents.

Becky Bowman’s five-year-old Tomato had to be put down early this year. His hindleg had gone through the mirror, and was attached only by “a few strands of tissue”.

“I’d had him since he was eight months old,” Becky told H&H. “I’d backed him, done it all; the week before he’d been to his first training show and was an absolute angel. I was just about to take him to his first proper show, then this happened. And my whole life has fallen apart.”

Becky was walking Tomato across her arena to turn him out when he went down to roll. As he got up, a pigeon spooked him and he pulled free, and kicked out at the mirror as Becky ran to close the gate.

“It was like a gun going off,” she said. “As I turned round, he

The promising young gelding had to be put down after he kicked out at the mirror in his owners’ arena was trotting across the school with his foot hanging off.”