Woman in ICU after horses startled by unleashed dogs
A woman is in intensive care after being flung from her horse when it was startled by an off-lead dog on a popular Canterbury riding track.
Barbara Coates suffered serious spinal injuries and a broken neck at Waimakariri’s Baynons Brake horse park, north of Christchurch, earlier this month.
Her friend Ros Lugg, a qualified riding instructor, has urged Environment Canterbury (ECan), which is responsible for the track, to clamp down on dogs in the park and wants owners to be forced to leash their pets.
Lugg said she and Coates, both accomplished riders, were riding together along the horse track when a medium-sized dog jumped out of the undergrowth directly ahead and started sprinting towards them.
‘‘We were between the dog and his owners [a couple walking on the path running parallel to the horse track], so as far as the horses were concerned, it was running straight for them.’’
The startled horses ‘‘whipped straight round and bolted’’, she said. Lugg fell off quickly, cracking her ribs, and Coates was thrown off 50 metres later down the track. Her extensive injuries include serious spinal damage and Lugg said ‘‘she may never walk again’’. Her horse also received minor injuries.
The dog owners called an ambulance but told Lugg they ‘‘had every right to be there’’, refused to apologise and failed to leave their contact details.
On its website, ECan advised visitors that ‘‘dogs must be kept under effective control at all times’’.
ECan parks and forests team leader David Owen defined ‘‘under control’’ as not causing a nuisance or danger, and said the person in charge of the dog must ‘‘be able to obtain an immediate and desired response from the dog by use of a leash, voice commands, hand signals, whistles or other effective means’’. He said ECan rangers were working with Waimakariri District Council’s dog control officer ‘‘for further advice on how we can best enforce this rule within our park areas’’.
Baynons Brake is a section of the Waimakariri River Regional Park, covering about five kilometres between the Eyre Diversion River and Kaiapoi Island. It provides about 10km of marked horse trail.
ECan planned to install further warning signs and would consult riders on whether dogs should be permitted.
‘‘Once we have had these conversations . . . we will be able to make a decision about the next steps. While it is a distressing accident that occurred, we do not consider any rules were broken.’’