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Horse rider seriously injured on busy road

12:35pm Friday 3rd September 2010 in


A WOMAN has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after she was thrown from her horse while riding along a busy road.

The 54-year-old woman was riding along the A684, between Northallerton and Bedale, near Ainderby Steeple, when her large, black horse spooked and threw her off.

The woman, who is thought to be from the local area, was on her own at the time of the incident, which happened at about 10.40am.

She was taken by road ambulance to James Cook Hospital with serious injuries.

The A684 was closed after the incident and will remain closed while police carry out their enquiries.

Comments(7)

billysaid says...
1:29pm Fri 3 Sep 10

yes,,if the horse is not safe to be riden on the roads,then why take it on them. hope she is ok too.

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grandmab says...
8:17pm Fri 3 Sep 10

There is no information in the story as to why the horse spooked. They are funny creatures and sometimes a blowing leaf or a shadow will spook them. She could just as easily been on a bridle path and if no cell phone was available she could have lain injured for a long time. At least on the main road she got help quickly. Best wishes for her recovery and the well being of the horse.

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grandmab says...
10:36pm Fri 3 Sep 10

Nick you are forgetting that in Britain horses are legally allowed on the road as are cycles. Both should be given the respect they deserve by motorists. Whether you and I agree with these laws is irrelevant. I was only trying to be fair and present a different point of view. The first two comments seemed to make assumptions for which there were no facts presented.

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Copley23 says...
8:48am Sat 4 Sep 10

Nick Scott wrote:
grandmab, you are correct, horses are allowed on British roads apart from motorways. . The point I was getting at was that it is REALLY dangerous to ride a horse on the road, legal or not. It is dangerous for both the rider and any other road traffic. As horses are merely for receration these days why do people ride on the roads? I view it as not a very sensible thing to do due to the risks. On this basis it is also selfish or stupid on the part of the rider. Why put yourself and others at risk? . I've nothing against horses or their riders, indeed I am an animal lover, however it just seems really selfish for this group of people to impose their hobby on others when there are so many safe places they could ride. . Another point I would make is that there has to be better and more interesting places to ride than on the roads. I reckon a lot of riders do so just to make the point they can. . As for the first two comments, we both want the lady to get better quickly. I hope she does.
Agreed entirely.

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melwilson says...
3:32pm Wed 8 Sep 10

hang on Nick, are you honestly trying to say that horse riders would put themselves at risk, on a busy road, just to make a point??

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melwilson says...
5:23pm Thu 9 Sep 10

That's preposterous.
So horse riders (and indeed anybody "vulnerable") on a busy road deliberately go out trying to kill themselves just to make a point? Who are they making this point to? I mean you're kind of putting them in the same pigeon hole as suicide bombers there!
Nobody deliberately goes out to harm themselves just to prove a point.
Everybody needs to learn to share the roads and treat everybody else with respect

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mrsp_2009 says...
10:38am Fri 10 Sep 10

Just to point out to some of you,

A - i know this lady and this horse and the horse is very quiet old gentleman and he also did not "throw" his rider off, he did indeed spook but actually fell onto the road, injuring himself quite badly in the process!!

B- the lady in question is still very poorly in hospital and would be mortified to read some of the comments on here,

C- the road in question whilst very busy is actually a country village not exactly the A19 and as it happens you need to go onto this road for a short amount of time to reach the connecting back road possibly 150m, whilst we would all love to ride on bridleways all the time there simply are not a vast amount of bridleways to actually ride on!

Lastly the family of the person concerned have read your comments and i expect are quite upset by some of the suggestions you make, might i suggest that unless you were there or know anything of the incident you keep your thoughts and comments to yourself and do not provide this family with further distress,

Perhaps those of you who have strong feelings about horses on the road could better use there time petitioning for further bridleways rather than leaving hurtful comments on here that we would all rather ride on!

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