An eventer who was stuck with a horse and three dogs on a dual carriageway after a collision said they “all got away incredibly lightly” – and that the horsebox safety gear she had on board in case of an emergency played an important role in keeping them safe.
Sorrel Porteous was on her way to arena eventing last Saturday (7 February) when it is thought another driver had a medical episode at the wheel, and the car hit Sorrel’s lorry.
Sorrel, her friend Joe Osborne who was driving, her three great Danes and horse Bluewater, had to wait on the A23 while emergency services arrived at the scene. Sorrel used the emergency triangles, warning lights, high-vis tabards and other equipment she had stored in the lorry for just such an occasion, bought after the collision in which eventer Nick Gauntlett’s stallion Party Trick was killed.
“I’d bought loads of stuff [see horsebox safety gear below], put it in waterproof bags behind the seats, thinking you never know, one day we might need to use something like this,” she said. “And I cannot explain to you how much that came into play on Saturday, we had everything out.”
Sorrel had not had a straightforward journey anyway; there had been a major accident on the M25 and she had been stuck for hours in the resulting traffic. She had rung the venue Pyecombe to let them know what had happened and was not far away when the accident happened.
“I remember Joe saying ‘My God, who’s this, flying down the central reservation?’” Sorrel said. “The next thing was this almighty bang. She’d clipped the central reservation, spun off, smashed into the side of my lorry, then spun off again.”
An off-duty paramedic and off-duty police officer were among those passing by who stopped to help, while Sorrel called the emergency services. She said she was very worried about Blue and the dogs as the lorry was not even on the hard shoulder. In summer 2021, four horses were killed when Nick Gauntlett’s lorry broke down on the way to Blair and was hit by another vehicle.
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“My biggest worry was what happened to Nick, and similar to another event rider who lost two horses,” she said. “We weren’t even on the side in the carriageway, it’s quite a fast road, at dusk, we’d just witnessed a major accident on the M25 and then this.
“I don’t know Nick personally, but when Party Trick died, and I saw this, I said ‘I’m going to buy everything I can for the lorry’. So I went on a shopping spree on Amazon, and anybody who stabled with me that year, for Farley and Wellington, I gave them big warning triangles that you can put in the road behind your lorries, loads of stuff, in memory of Party Trick.
“I could only move the partitions so much but I got Blue as far forward as I could and we put the stuff out. We had triangles, big luminous ones on stands, flare sticks on tripods, we had luminous tabards on. I also had rolls of luminous tape and magnetic lights that go on the back and side of the lorry. I was just pulling everything out, and Joe was running down the carriageway, putting it all out to guide the traffic round and past us, just like they do with roadworks. I feel it really did the job.”
Sorrel said when the emergency services arrived, they said it was the right thing to do, to have the equipment on board, and use it as they did..
“You’re stopping on a fast road at dusk, you’ve got a horse on board who means everything to you, dogs on board who mean everything to you,” she said. “You prioritise making the horses and the dog safe enough so you can help the people in the car while waiting for the emergency services. They took 12-15 minutes to get here and there’s a lot that can go wrong in that time.
“Once they got there, they were amazing but it made me realise about the time between you slamming the brakes on and getting the help that’s required. Once they start coning everything out, you’re safe, but it’s about the time up to that point.”
Blue and the dogs were all unharmed – although Sorrel said her youngest great Dane, Aspen, was “traumatised, and needs counselling!” – but she and Blue did not get to their competition.
“To start with, I was almost thinking ‘I can’t believe we didn’t jump, what a wasted day’,” she said. “But then I thought ‘My horse, my dogs, us, we’re all in one piece. We’re all safe. There were people seriously injured, the poor lady had that terrible accident in her car, but we walked away completely unscathed; two people, three great Danes and a horse.
“We got off incredibly lightly, considering we went through two accidents, and I would say everything that we had on board made a fundamental difference.
Horsebox safety gear overhaul
“People don’t think about this sort of thing; I never did but now I have fire extinguishers on board, I overhauled everything after what happened to Party Trick. There’s so much available on Amazon and it’s not expensive; I’ve dragged mine round from truck to truck – and I was so relieved I had it all the other day. It was quick to get out and quick to put up, and it made the difference, for the horse and other drivers.”
Sorrel tagged Nick in her Facebook post; he shared it, saying: “So many things still bring memories we don’t want back to the front of my mind but nice to hear that maybe our accident helped the outcome of this.”
“All these years later, the only reason I have all those things in my lorry was because of Party Trick,” Sorrel said. “It was so awful that he died but maybe he’s helped a lot of other horses.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
