Woman impaled when pony drags cart into crowd watching SLO County Fourth of July parade
A woman watching the Fourth of July parade in Templeton on Tuesday was impaled by a piece of a horse-drawn cart when the pony pulling it spooked and ran into the crowd.
The pony was pulling two people in the cart on Crocker Street at about 11 a.m., according to a news release from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
Atascadero resident Jodi Bloom, who witnessed the incident, said the pony was walking in the parade with a group of other miniature horses.
“This one was particularly tiny and young,” Bloom said of the pony.
The crowd seemed to agitate the pony, Bloom said.
When a dog lunged forward to bark at the pony, the pony broke free from the parade and bolted into the crowd, she said.
“When the pony entered the crowd, the shaft that attaches the cart to the pony’s harness struck a 61-year-old woman in the leg, impaling the shaft in her thigh,” the release said.
According to Bloom, the woman was holding a baby when the horse knocked her down. She held the baby out to be rescued, which meant the woman was fully exposed to the horse, Bloom said.
“She was screaming and crying,” Bloom said. “It was very traumatic.”
A group of people corralled the horse to calm it down, while another group tended to the woman while she waited for medical attention.
“The crowd there was a bunch of locals,” Bloom said. “They rallied around this lady and her baby and they ... elevated her legs, they surrounded her to keep her in the shade and keep her still until the EMTs arrived.”
“The people in the cart were not injured,” the release said. “The parade was then diverted to another street while the woman was being treated.”
The woman was transported to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo and was in stable condition, according to Templeton Fire and Emergency Services.
“We’ve been going for 20 years or more and never has there been a thing (like this),” Bloom said. “Just one of those perfect storm of things that go awry.”
This story was originally published July 4, 2023 at 3:27 PM.
