Horse rider 'lucky to walk away' after truck spooks horse

A horse rider has said she was "lucky to walk away" after the driver of a truck and trailer caused her to be thrown from the horse.

Becci, from Weston-super-Mare, was left with facial injuries while the horse, Barney, needed emergency surgery after the incident in Lympsham, Somerset, on 11 May.

They were riding down a country lane when a pick up truck, with a sheep trailer on the back, drove past them at speed, spooking Barney, and left them on the ground.

"A head injury is a head injury. I was lucky I walked away with just facial bruising and swelling. A bang to the head can be significant or fatal," Becci said.

"He [the driver] did stop further down the road, obviously looked at what had happened, I was on the floor and so was Barney, but he then drove off, he didn't stop and come back.

"For me people make mistakes... but to leave that scene knowing what he had done was very disappointing."

Becci is now appealing for motorists to take more care and adhere to the law, which says drivers should slow to 10mph and leave two metres of space between the vehicle and a horse.

She said that if one person drives more cautiously after hearing her story, it was "worth putting it out there".

Earlier this month a coroner referred the death of a woman who fell off her horse when it was spooked by a motorcyclist in Wiltshire to the Crown Prosecution Service.

"It's a real issue," Becci said. "Some people are very respectful and if you signal to them they will stop and obviously we're super grateful when that happens.

"It probably adds 10 to 15 seconds to somebody's journey to do that.

"Slowing down and giving people space isn't really that big of an inconvenience, but it could be the difference between somebody walking away from a nice ride in the countryside and not."

Becci said that the incident in Lympsham took place on a quiet Sunday, and she had been accompanied by a friend.

She said the truck and a sheep trailer had been "very bouncy" and loud.

"It was coming quite fast... we signalled for him to slow down," she said.

"I think he probably slowed down a little bit, but perhaps not as much as he should.

"As the trailer and car went passed us, the horse was spooked and I fell off onto the road onto my head.

"As the horse then spooked away, he fell over into the side and was then covered in grazes head to toe on one side."

In 2024, 58 horses were killed on the road and 97 injured, with 80 riders also injured, according to the British Horse Society (BHS).

The highway code was amended in 2022 to improve wording around horses, and other "vulnerable road users", assisted by BHS.

But Alan Hiscox, director of safety for BHS, said public awareness of these changes is "pretty low".

He advised people: "If you see a horse on the road, slow down to a maximum of 10 miles an hour.

"Don't sound your horn or rev your engine and then, when it's safe to do so, pass slow and wide at least two metres distance and drive slowly away."

Insp Matt Boiles, from Avon and Somerset Police, urged anyone who has experienced an incident like Becci's to report it to the police.

He said: "Our data shows that these incidents are not commonly reported to us.

"That's not to say they're not common out there on the roads, but for us to adapt our response and policing approach to these issues, we need to know about them."

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