Three injuries were reported at this year’s Escalante Days, including one involving a horse with the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol.
About 11:30 a.m., a 4-year-old was kicked by the patrol horse near Flanders Park, and was transported to Southwest Memorial Hospital for stitches, Sheriff Steve Nowlin said. The child was flown to a Denver hospital for observation, was released and is expected to be OK, he said.
The child wasn’t identified.
The case is under investigation, Nowlin said, and witnesses were being interviewed.
Horses in the sheriff’s mounted patrol go through sensitivity training so they become accustomed to a variety of circumstances, people and crowds. Nowlin said the horse previously has been calm when around adults and children.
Mounted patrol procedures will be reviewed and changed, he said, and the horses will avoid the park unless there is a call.
A few hours later, during the water fight event, a child fell and hit his head, Nowlin said, adding that he was transported to a hospital, treated and released.
According to his mother, Rachel Robson, the boy was taken to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora. “He was looked over by a pediatric neurologist,” Robson said in a message to The Journal. “We are all home now, and he will recover to his normal state.”
He suffered two fractures and a concussion, Robson said.
Earlier in the day, a mountain biker on the Sage Hen trail prior to the bike race crashed and broke an arm.
The race was moved to Sage Hen from the Boggy Draw area, which had been closed because of the Plateau Fire.