Canadian rider Eric Lamaze won the Grand Prix at Aachen on the stallion Hickstead despite breaking his foot on the landing after the “C” element of the triple combination. He reportedly heard a crack and felt pain. Nonetheless, the Lamaze and Hickstead went through two more qualifying rounds before winning the €350,000 Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen on Sunday.
My first thought was that must have been a hell of a big jump to cause that kind of impact on his foot! Lamaze was scheduled for surgery earlier this week and will be out of commission for 2-3 weeks.
As for the size of the jumps, you can watch the final jump off below!
Whoa. I couldn’t wrap my mind around that…I kept looking for the fall or bang that broke his foot, NOT simply the landing impact. YOW. A lot of horse to manage, huge jumps, technical course, and a broken foot?
At times it kills me these sports are done in formal wear. 😉 It belies the difficulty and athleticism.
Actually, the video shows the jump off. My understanding is that he broke his foot on the FIRST round, which means this was the third time he’d jumped with a broken foot! My guess is that he didn’t take his boot off until the end of the day.