Hunt rider sues after ‘naughty’ horse crushes her
A RIDER crushed by a ‘naughty’ horse during a fox hunt run by one of the country’s wealthiest landowners is suing for £100,000 over her injuries.
Lisa Ford suffered multiple fractures, a smashed pelvis and internal injuries when her horse reared while riding with the Beaufort Hunt.
Miss Ford, 41, a groom, is suing her former employer Jonathan Seymour-Williams, 65, the keeper of the experienced hunter horse she was riding at the time of the accident.
She claimed Tommy, who she rode regularly and cared for, reared up because he was a ‘hot horse’ and ‘being naughty’.
Miss Ford said she had been riding Tommy as part of her job to prepare him for Mr Seymour-Williams’s son and daughter to ride later in the season. Mr Seymour-Williams denies he should have to pay any compensation, saying Miss Ford was riding with the hunt ‘for fun... on a frolic of her own’, not as part of her employment.
The Beaufort Hunt is one of the oldest in England and is based at the Duke of Beaufort’s 52,000-acre Badminton estate in Gloucestershire. Judge Michael Kent QC at the High Court in London heard Miss Ford was injured when Tommy reared and fell back on her during the hunt meet on September 15, 2018. After falling the horse thrashed around before dying, pinning Miss Ford to the ground. She remained under the dead animal until an air ambulance arrived.
Giles Mooney QC, for Miss Ford, told the judge she is suing under the Animals Act 1971, claiming Tommy was ‘triggered’ into rearing either by ‘disobedience’ or by the fact he was, unknown to the rider, ‘undergoing a catastrophic internal injury’ that led to his death.
Mr Seymour-Williams, known as ‘Jonks’, must take responsibility, the barrister argued.
But Georgina Crawford, for Mr Seymour-Williams, said if the horse keeled over because it was ill and dying, it was ‘just bad luck’ and her client was not responsible.
‘That is the key battleground between us,’ Mr Mooney said. He added the other main issue is ‘who was really responsible for Tommy and what was Miss Ford doing riding him?’
The hearing continues.