A horse collapsed and died during beach ride at the weekend (Saturday 27 February), leaving the teenage girl who was riding it with shoulder injuries.
The unnamed 17-year-old girl from the Salturn area of North Yorkshire was taken to James Cooke University Hospital in Middlesbrough by the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).
Mike Lincoln, a member of the Cleveland Mountain Rescue team who was walking on the beach, called the ambulance.
There were fears the girl may have sustained spinal injuries.
“We were called out at 1pm to Saltburn beach with reports of a young women who had fallen from a horse. It transpired the patient, a 17-year-old women had injured her shoulder,” said a spokesman for the GNAAS.
The doctor and rescue team were dropped off at the beach where the accident happened, and the helicopter landed nearby to pick up the rider.
“The accident was not as serious as it could have been. We hope the patient makes a full recovery and is back riding soon,” said a spokesman for GNAAS.
The owner of the horse, which was not the rider, is “very upset” by the horse’s death.
In the last financial year from end of March 2014 to April 2015 GNAAS treated 52 equestrian related injuries.
The air ambulance’s area extends from York in the south to Berwick in the north, from Tyneside in the east to Whitehaven in the West.
