British event rider air-lifted to hospital after schooling fall
British event rider Louise Harwood has broken her pelvis in a fall.
Herefordshire-based Louise was riding a youngster at home yesterday (8 December) when the accident happened.
She was taken to Hereford Hospital by air ambulance where x-rays showed she had broken her pelvis in two places.
“I was riding a three-year-old who had been a complete star until then,” she told H&H.
“For some reason he bucked and then spooked and bucked again. He then swerved when he decided jumping out over the rails wasn’t such a good plan and lost me in the process.
“I didn’t think it was that bad [the injury] so waited half an hour before calling emergency services. In the end I couldn’t get up so eventually they called an air ambulance.”
Tomorrow (Thursday 10 December) Louise will find out if she will need to have an operation.
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Hundreds of well wishes have sent their support to the rider on Facebook.
This is the second accident Louise has been involved in this year, having broken her shoulder in a fall on 18 October.
She had been planning to compete in the four-star at Pau but was instead out of action for five weeks.
Fundraising plans
16 years ago Louise was in a serious car accident and was taken to hospital by Air Ambulance. She completed a marathon following the accident and raised £4,000 for the charity, as well as £1,000 for Spinal Research.
Louise is already planning to hold another fundraiser for the Air Ambulance to thank them for their help.
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Rachael joined Horse & Hound in 2014, initially as a digital sub editor then became part of the news team as a writer in 2015. The philosophy graduate studied journalism at the Press Association before working as a local reporter at the Brentwood Gazette. Rachael is now a mum of two and still loves all things equestrian, including hacking, dressage and jumping with her cob Bert. Rachael left the H&H staff to go freelance in June 2019, but still contributes to our magazine and website, as well as our sister magazine Country Life, among others.