A 59-year-old woman died in hospital six weeks after being dragged along a country lane by a horse that bolted when it was spooked by barking dogs, an inquest has heard. Ewa Larsson, a dog breeder from Chilham, Kent, suffered catastrophic injuries while walking a cob called Davy back to a riding school in Sutton, near Deal, on August 27 last year.
The inquest at County Hall in Maidstone heard that Ms Larsson had been riding with instructor Sally Deverill from Cornilo Riding School when she fell from the horse in a field. After moving onto the road, she tried unsuccessfully to remount and decided to walk the cob back. As Ms Deverill prepared to mount her own horse, dogs barking from a nearby garden in Beacon Hill caused panic.
“The horses shot off down the road to escape the dogs,” Ms Deverill told the court. “As I got back on, I could see Ewa and Davy were moving sort of sideways down the road. The horse was trotting, and she was pulling strong enough that Davy’s head was coming round. Then she tripped and fell. It looked like he cantered a few strides, then he cantered down the road and off the road. I think she did get dragged.”
Ms Larsson was airlifted to Kings College Hospital in London with massive internal injuries. Her partner, Nigel Anderson, said she suffered a cardiac arrest during the flight and was placed in a coma. She briefly showed signs of recovery but later developed organ failure and an infection, dying on October 13. The cob, described by Mr Anderson as “unpredictable”, had thrown Ms Larsson weeks before the incident.
Coroner Katrina Hepburn is overseeing the inquest, which continues.
