Rider injured after dogs spook horse wins £500k

Telegraph

3 days ago

An international dressage rider left seriously injured after a pack of dogs spooked her horse has won £500,000 in damages.
Melissa Smith was left with multiple fractures when her horse reared up and threw her to the ground after being chased by two loose dogs taken off the lead by a professional dog walker.
Ms Smith was airlifted to St George's Hospital in Tooting, south-London, with life-threatening injuries including a broken pelvis, broken back and a head injury after the accident on a bridlepath in Surrey, in December 2018.
The former international grand prix rider, who spent months in a wheelchair and required multiple surgeries following the accident, has since learnt to walk again and managed to get back in the saddle.
She is now hoping to return to dressage competition as a para rider.
Following the accident, Ms Smith sued dog walker Diane Worth for damages for negligence. The case went to court in 2023 after the dog walker's insurance company contested the case.
Judge Jonathan Simpkiss found in Ms Smith's favour and the case was finally settled out of court last month.
The judgment is thought to have important implications in laying out the responsibilities for dog walkers exercising their animals on public rights of way.
The accident happened when Ms Smith, who ran a livery yard and trained dressage horses, was riding her eight-year-old mare Lorentina, known as Loti, and met Ms Worth walking four dogs on Crooksbury Common, Surrey.
The High Court heard that Ms Smith called out a warning to Ms Worth, who managed to put two of the dogs back on their leads.
But the court heard that she was unable to catch black cockapoo Buddy and Harley, a white cavapoochon.
Ignoring Ms Worth's calls, Buddy and Harley ran around, prompting Ms Smith to call out that although her horse was good with dogs, their walker should not let them get behind her horse in case it kicked out.
In court, Ms Worth agreed she had lost control of the two dogs.
As the dogs raced around, Lorentina became spooked and suddenly reared up, throwing Ms Smith to the ground.
Speaking to The Telegraph this week, Ms Smith told of the devastating impact of the accident: 'The horse I was riding was badly frightened by the loose dogs and she fell on top of me, crushing me, becoming stuck with her legs up in the air.
'She managed to get up but I knew I was very seriously injured. I was taken by air ambulance to St George's where I was told I had life-threatening injuries, needed emergency surgery and would need two years' rehabilitation to recover.'
In his ruling, Judge Simpkiss said: 'Something out of the ordinary must have happened to cause Loti to rear and this can only have been the dogs' behaviour.
'With the benefit of hindsight, one can easily see that if all four dogs had been on leads, this accident would probably not have happened.'
Harley's owners had filled in a form for Ms Worth saying that he would walk off the lead 'but may chase other wildlife' and this, said the judge, must include horses unless they had indicated it was used to horses.
Judge Simpkiss found that it was foreseeable that if any of the dogs ran out of control near a horse, it might 'spook' the animal.
He added that there was a significant risk of the horse responding in a way which might cause horse and rider to fall and for the rider to be seriously injured.
Judge Simpkiss ruled that Ms Worth knew horses were ridden on the common and should have anticipated she might come into contact with a horse and rider while walking dogs, with an out-of-control dog causing a horse to respond violently by kicking, rearing or bolting.
He found Ms Worth liable for the accident, and ruled that her breach of duty of care in failing to take reasonable steps to prevent the risk caused the accident.
Ms Worth's solicitors had argued that Ms Smith was partly to blame for the accident, saying she had failed to control her horse, which was 'pawing' the ground and snorting.
An allegation that she should not have been riding in an area where dogs walked – although she was on a bridlepath – was withdrawn.
Judge Simpkiss found that Ms Smith was an experienced and highly competent rider, who was in control of the horse until she reared, and the allegation that she negligently fell off the horse could not be taken seriously.
Mary Ann Charles, Ms Smith's solicitor of Shaw & Co, who is herself a rider and specialises in equestrian personal injury claims, said: 'It's not an accident that should have happened. There's a lack of understanding that this risk exists.
'The person on the horse usually understands but the person with the dog doesn't necessarily. They're concerned about the welfare of the dog, not really thinking about the welfare of the people they're encountering.'
Following her accident, Ms Smith endured a painful road to recovery, but she remained determined throughout to fight compensation and for dog walkers to be made aware of their responsibility to remain in control of their animals at all times.