Kentucky First Lady and UK HealthCare Promote Horse Rider Safety

First Lady Jane Beshear joined UK HealthCare and the UK Colleges of Agriculture and Public Health on October 13 in launching a new campaign to raise the awareness of horseback rider safety. UK HealthCare's marketing team and our partners in UK Public Relations helped set up this excellent kick-off event which was hosted at the Kentucky Horse Park.  There were great speakers at this event as well as a very informative horse safety demonstration which was conducted by the staff of the Kentucky Horse Park.

As you might imagine, it's no coincidence that this five-year campaign comes as our state prepares for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. As a major sponsor, and the Official Medical Provider for WEG, we are excited about the opportunity to "celebrate the joy of horsemanship and to help make it safer." That's a great quote I wrote down from my long time colleague, Nancy Cox, UK College of Agriculture's associate dean for research. I wanted to note that this is also the second time in a week we at UK HealthCare have partnered with Agriculture and Public Health on public awareness events (see posting last week regarding Second Sunday).

UK HealthCare has posted great information on horseback riding safety, and the rollout of this campaign on the following Web site: http://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/saddleup/

Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear welcomed everyone.

Dr. Roger Humphries is the chair of the UK Department of Emergency Medicine. He stated that 50% of the horse riding injuries he sees are preventable.

John Nicholson, the executive director of the Kentucky Horse Park, hosted the event.

 A rider demonstration was given by Cathy Wieschhoff and the Mustang Troop.

Nancy Cox is the UK College of Agriculture Associate Dean for Research.