A HORSE rider was taken to hospital with serious back injuries after an accident on a 40-mile endurance ride, writes Laura Gilbert.

Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team were called out to Dunsdale, near Guisborough, to help a 34-year-old woman who fell from her horse just after midday yesterday, Sunday.

Emergency crews were called when family members became concerned after the woman, from the Midlands, failed to reach a check point.

Paramedics and mountain rescue volunteers found the woman on remote farmland.

She was treated at the scene then carried on a specialised mountain rescue stretcher, about 800m to the waiting ambulance which took her to James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough for treatment.

The incident lasted 90 minutes and 17 mountain rescue volunteers took part in assisting the injured woman.

She was talking part in the event for the Durham and Teesside Group of Endurance Great Britain, which organises competitive long distance riding events.