Dutch young rider Stephanie Kooijman will be sidelined for quite a period as she fractured her shin bone in a stable accident on Monday 3 September 2012. The 19-year old is currently hospitalized and will be operated on by a special trauma surgeon on Thursday.
Kooijman works at Academy Bartels in Hooge Mierde, The Netherlands. On Monday a horse in the washing bay pushed Stephanie over and jumped on her, fracturing her shin bone. Kooijman, who had just returned from a summer holiday and was back for her first day at work, was immediately brough tto the hospital by her dad.
"I got a lot of painkillers there and they took a scan and X-rays," Kooijman told Eurodressage. "It showed that the socket of my knee got dislocated and my shine bone fractured."
Stephanie's knees was put in a brace for support and the young rider will have to undergo surgery not earlier than Wednesday as the swelling of her knee had to subside.
"After the operation I will have to go back into a brace because a cast might close off the wound and that's bad," Kooijman explained. "They told me on Monday this could take up to 8 to 10 weeks before a cast or breece can be taken off and then I'll have to do rehabilitation."
Aboard the Dutch warmblood gelding Winston (by OO Seven) Kooijman is one of The Netherlands' most successful young riders, having won the 2012 CHIO Cup Finals, 2012 Dutch Young Riders Championshops and she placed sixth in the Kur Finals at the 2012 European Young Riders Championships.
Photo © Astrid Appels
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