Sentence for drink driver who killed two horses branded ‘pathetic’
A rider whose two horses were killed by a drink driver has branded the guilty man’s fine and driving disqualification as “pathetic”.
Hayley Gibbs and her 22-year-old daughter Lily had been hacking in Windsor Great Park on 8 December 2012, when both horses were hit by a car driven by 41-year-old Christian Myers of Winkfield, Berkshire, just yards from their stables in Hatchet Lane.
A third rider, showing producer Ian Smeeth, was thrown onto the road but was not badly injured.
Myers admitted being over the alcohol limit for driving when he appeared before magistrates on 22 February.
He was fined £870 with an £87 victim surcharge and banned from driving for 16 months.
“We were only about 500yd from the stables when he came up behind us, but did not see us,” said Mrs Gibbs.
“He hit my mare, Rosemoor, then carried on into my daughter and Tuppence. Lily was thrown clear and Tuppence was carried on the roof of his car until she fell into a ditch.
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“Both horses were seriously injured but alive and we had to wait for the vet to come. It’s bad enough losing one horse, but losing both is devastating.”
Mrs Gibbs was flown to hospital with facial fractures and a broken hand and wrist.
“The sentence is pathetic,” she told H&H. “He can be back on the road in a year if he goes on a rehabilitation course, but I have lost my horses and will not ride again.”
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (7 March 2013)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.