Who survived IRA bomb
Horses of the Household Cavalry lie butchered among the mangled wreckage of the awful terrorist attack SEFTON served with the Army for 17 years from 1967 to 1984 before he was eventually retired.
He rose to prominence after being critically injured in the Hyde Park bombing in July 1982.
Sefton recovered from the IRA’s car- mounted nail bomb attack and returned to service before winning the Horse of the Year award.
He became one of the first horses to be placed in the British Horse Society’s equestrian Hall of Fame and has an annual prize named after him.
After joining the Army he became a riding school horse before joining the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
Although the regiment only allowed black horses, Sefton who had a white blaze and white socks, was allowed in.
He was on his way to the Changing the Guard ceremony, with 15 other horses from his regiment at the time of the attack.
The bomb had been planted by the terrorists on South Carriage Drive in Hyde Park.
Besides the three soldiers and seven horses of the Blues and Royals who died instantly, another soldier was fatally injured and Sefton and eight of his stablemates were also badly hurt.
A second blast two hours later in Regents Park killed another seven soldiers.
Sefton’s injuries were serious. They included a severed jugular vein, wounded left eye and 34 wounds all over his body.
Sergeant Michael Pedersen, who was riding him, noted that Sefton responded so competently that when the bomb exploded there was no chance of him being thrown off.
But Sgt Pedersen, who was in full state uniform and in severe shock, could do little to help Sefton.
Another soldier, one of many who had run down from the barracks after hearing the huge explosion, took off his shirt and used it to apply pressure to Sefton’s severe neck wound.
Sefton went through eight hours of surgery. Each of his 34 wounds were potentially life- threatening, and in some cases shrapnel had to be taken out of his bones.
Veterinary surgeons gave him a 50/ 50 chance of surviving the shock and extreme blood loss.
Yet over the coming months he made good progress and his nurse was quoted as saying: “He took everything in his stride.”
During his time in the hospital he received lots of cards and mints. Donations amounting to almost £ 620,000 were collected to build a new surgical wing at the Royal Veterinary College at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. It was named the Sefton Surgical Wing.
In August 1984 he retired from the Household Cavalry, and moved to the Home of Rest For Horses in Speen, Buckinghamshire where he lived until the age of 30.
He finally had to be put down on July 9, 1993, due to lameness – a complication of the injuries he suffered during the bombing.
According to novelist Jilly Cooper, who took a keen interest in Sefton, when the horse died Michael Pedersen was left in floods of tears and uttered the immortal line: “St Peter won’t need to open the pearly gates, because old Sefton will fly over them.”
The burnt out shell of a car used by the IRA in the blast at Hyde Park, London, in 1982