"For the first 60 percent of the parade, it went off flawlessly.  Perfect.  Then we had the one woman whose horse fell on her so we had to insert a delay for the ambulance and medical workers and that brought a chain reaction.  People thought the parade was over and started crossing the street and people poured out of the bars and into the streets." say Cas Stimson, the Fiesta Vice Presidente.

 

The original incident appears to have caused the problems.  The first incident could not have been prevented.  The horse was skittish and kept rearing up, and it finally fell over near Carrillo and State street on top of the woman. "I think she has a broken leg" said Stimson.  When the gap was ordered to allow for medical personnel that meant that horses had to stay in one spot and they tend to get restless.

 

Then there was the runaway carriage.  Stimson: "We know that was caused by a broken bridle that was being worked on just before the incident.  The carriage ran onto the sidewalk, and then came up behind a group of  other horses and stopped because other horses tend to calm each other."   There was apparently one injury from that - lucky in that incident as it is equivalent to a car jumping the road and clearing the sidewalk.

 

The final incident was caused by one of the groups from Mexico.  "They had a carriage that had a band with a big tuba and when the horses heard that tuba playing, they know it's time to do their thing and they start dancing.  One of the riders came over to the edge of the street to entertain and engage the crowd, except the people on the sidewalk were extended into the street and when the horse turned around he stepped on somebody's foot.  The horse doesn't know the difference, if there is someone back there." said Stimson in an interview yesterday at the after party in the Carriage Museum held for the benefit of the Parade Marshall's.

 

"I was riding up and down the street [in my golf cart] asking loudly for people to get off the street - that the parade is not over!" said Stimson