A Deschutes County man is suing the organizers of a 2018 Bend horse show for serious injuries suffered when high winds lifted the portable stall he and his horse were inside and carried them 40 feet away.

Jeffrey Ruthhardt filed a $800,000 premises liability claim this week against Allied Show Services and the High Desert Hunter Jumper Association in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

According to the lawsuit, Allied Show Services was responsible for installing the portable horse stalls at the Horse Butte Equestrian Center for the association’s first show of the 2018 season. The stalls were rented by the show’s participants.

The suit describes the stalls as “tent-like structures with metal poles attached together making a frame, and a system of metal fence grates cabled together inside to make individual horse stalls.”

The overall metal structure was covered with a piece of canvas and the sides were anchored by stakes and cables. It was more than 100 feet long and 20 feet wide in total and contained stalls for 20 horses, the lawsuit states.

The day of the event, April 7, featured strong winds. Numerous participants watched the horse stalls buck up and down off the ground throughout the morning, the lawsuit states.

Ruthardt attended the show with his daughter, a participant who had rented one of the horse stalls.

At one point, Ruthardt led his daughter’s horse, Indigo, to their stall and was still inside when a sudden gust of wind tore it from the ground. Ruthardt, Indigo, and all 20 stalls flew through the air and over a fence, crashing down about 40 feet away.

While being carried through the air, Ruthardt was violently tossed around and struck by metal poles and grating, according to the lawsuit.

He suffered four rib fractures, three fractures to his spine, a broken leg and a broken scapula and a concussion that aggravated a previous traumatic brain injury, the lawsuit states.

Ruthhardt declined to comment through his Redmond-based lawyer, Daniel Spencer.

Indigo survived the flight but hasn’t jumped since, Spencer said.

“He still gets spooked in confined spaces.”

Emails and calls to reach the High Desert Hunter Jumper Association and the Horse Butte Equestrian Center were unsuccessful.