A rider who was knocked off her horse when a vehicle ploughed into her from behind and was left lying in the road wants to share her story in hopes of catching the driver responsible.
Both Lydia and her part-bred Welsh mare Jess escaped serious injury in the collision, on Saturday (4 December), but Lydia is still unable to drive owing to the extent of the bruising she sustained, and her 11-year-old mare was due to be seen again by the vet today (7 December).
“She’s not lame but I’m terrified we’re going to find something more serious,” Lydia told H&H. “I loved her so much anyway but I feel I love her so much more now.”
Lydia and Jess were hacking out early on Saturday morning, on a straight road in Warboys, Cambridgeshire.
“It was quite quiet and all the cars were being really good as they passed us; it’s quite a wide road so there’s plenty of room,” she said. “Then I thought I could hear something coming quite quickly behind. I looked over my shoulder, and I saw the car go into the back of my horse.
“The next thing I knew, I was on the road. I managed to hold Jess for a bit but then she went, and all I could think was that she was going to be hit by a car.”
As Lydia lay on the road, in pain, she saw the car slow slightly.
“I thought maybe they’d pull over or come back but they didn’t bother,” she said. “I was screaming in pain and Jess obviously didn’t know what happened. Someone ran out of a house, and I don’t know if that was the final straw for Jess but that’s when she went, and all I could see was my horse running down the middle of the road but I couldn’t get up.”
Lydia said she is grateful to those living nearby; one non-horsey woman went after Jess, in her pyjamas, and managed to catch the mare, who had made her way almost back to her yard.
But she cannot understand why the incident happened.
“It was a straight bit of road, with a 30mph limit,” she said. “We were head to toe in high-vis so the driver couldn’t not have seen us, and they must have known they’d hit us as the people living there heard the bang from inside the house, but they just carried on driving.”
The incident has been reported to police, who are investigating, and Lydia has been looking at locals’ CCTV to try to identify the car responsible.
“I’d just like to ask the driver why,” she said. “Why didn’t they see us? I can’t comprehend how they didn’t see us on a straight road, and why didn’t they stop? They didn’t know if I was dead, they could have killed Jess; they could have put other people at risk too, as she could have caused lots of accidents. I don’t know how they can live with that.”
Lydia added that she thinks it will help her get over the incident if the driver is found.
“I want to tell as many people as possible and hopefully find this person,” she said. “At the moment, I’m looking at every dark car, thinking ‘Was it you?’ and I’m paranoid, what if they pass me again, or hit me again? There are lots of horses in this village and they might hit someone else.
“People have said there must have been someone looking out for me and I’ve said not very well, as I got hit by a car; they must have been drunk on the job! You have to joke but it was the most scary thing I’ve ever been through; I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Anyone with information on or dashcam footage relating to the incident, which took place in Ramsey Road at about 9.15am on 4 December, is asked to call police on 101, or report online, quoting reference 137 of 4 December.
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