The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.
With Kim Tate (Claire King) lying seriously injured in hospital in Emmerdale in Monday’s episode, there were fears that she could lose her leg.
Kim fell from her horse, Ice, when she went to investigate reports of illegal shooting happening on her land. The horse’s leg got entangled by a snare and Kim fell to the ground, damaging her own leg as she did so.
By the time Dawn (Olivia Bromley), Lydia (Karen Blick) and Sam (James Hooton) found her the next day, Kim was in a very bad way and was rushed to hospital and taken for emergency surgery to save her leg.
Ice, meanwhile, had headed for home and Joe (Ned Porteous) found him at the stables. Like Kim, he was in a very bad way.
Vanessa (Michelle Hardwick) was called to look at the animal, and she gave Joe and Dawn the bad news that Ice’s injured leg would never heal properly. Kim would never be able to ride him again, and he’d be in constant pain which would only get worse. She recommended that he should be put to sleep.
Dawn wanted to wait until they’d had a chance to consult Kim, but Joe was confident that Kim wouldn’t want her horse to suffer and he told Vanessa to go ahead.
Later at the hospital there was good news about Kim’s leg and it looks like she’ll make a full recovery. But the only thing she was interested in was to know how Ice was.
Joe and Dawn broke the news, emphasising that they were with the horse when he died. Kim was devastated and wanted to know whether they’d explored the options.
Ice has been seen in some important moments during his time on Emmerdale, including carrying Kim to her wedding with Will Taylor (Dean Andrews). The horse has also been involved in some darker moments in the soap – and is, in fact, a killer.
When Kim was out riding Ice in November 2023, she encountered a character called Craig Reed (Ben Addis). He was a former friend of Lydia’s who’d wanted to have an affair with her. When she refused, he raped her.
Cain (Jeff Hordley) and Sam doled out some Dingle retribution and left Craig for dead, but they hadn’t finished the job. When Kim saw him he was badly wounded, but definitely still alive, but when he made a grab for Ice’s reins, the horse reared up and caught Craig with his hoof.
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Hi, I’m Maisie Spackman, a Soaps reporter at Metro. I cover all the latest spoilers and gossip from Weatherfield to Walford.
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The kick from the horse was the deadly blow that killed Craig, but neither he nor Kim faced any repercussions as Cain helped to cover the whole thing up.
While Ice was technically a killer, it’s particularly tragic that he’s ended his life this way. It’s a shock that Kim won’t easily recover from, and at the moment she’s blaming Joe for her loss, particularly as she overheard him apparently looking forward to taking over the running of Home Farm and Kim’s businesses permanently now she’s ‘not getting any younger.’
Meanwhile Sam and Lydia have been left feeling guilty that the whole incident happened during an illegal shoot that they arranged. Will Kim uncover the truth about their involvement?
