The Secretary of Fermanagh Harriers, which organised the Point to Point event at Necarne over the weekend, has responded to criticism over the destruction of a horse at the event.
A spectator contacted the 'Herald' to raise his concerns over an incident on the course. He explained: "Not a betting man myself, I decided to put a £5 bet on the second race picking the horse who had the prettiest name, 'Misty Burn'.
"On the last jump, the horse and jockey were doing well, but 50 yards from the finishing line, tragedy happened and both fell. After a few minutes, the jockey got up and, thankfully seemed to be fine. The horse wasn't moving. A sense of panic came. People started to run.
"A man was shouting, get the screen, where is the b.....y screen. Then, out of the blue, 10 minutes after the fall, the horse got up. What a relief, people were clapping. He seemed to be in pain, probably had a broken front leg, but he was up," the spectator continued.
"Then a 4x4 with a horse trailer arrived. He parked on the right side of the horse, slightly hiding the view from people on the right but not us and others, we were on the left, then, a man took a gun and shot it between the two eyes.
"After that incident, we left. My partner was crying and I was very upset," he added.
"We do understand if the animal was suffering and nothing was possible, the best thing was to stop his misery, but not in front of us and others. No. They should have taken the animal away."
Richard Trimble, secretary of Fermanagh Harriers answered the criticisms.
"There was no issue over it. It is a fact of life. It is inevitable at every event a horse may become injured and has to be put down. It happens in racing, point-to-point, show-jumping, all equestrian sports, it is not uncommon."
He explained the event is well organised to deal with any injuries: "We have two veterinary surgeons on duty and a horse ambulance on stand-by, and if anything happens it is dealt with within minutes. Our priority is to get it deal with quickly and not prolong the suffering of the animal."
Aside from this incident, Mr Trimble explains the Necarne event was a success: "On the Friday the numbers were so large in three of the races we had to divide those and instead of six races we had nine races, and then six more races on the Saturday," he added.
"The Clerk of the Course put in an awful lot of time to try and make sure the ground wasn't too firm. We had tankers out watering the ground so it would be in the best condition it could be for racing, and it wasn't too hard for the horses jumping. We try and make the ground as suitable as possible for racing."
