A RIDER who survived a collision with a car, but had to watch her horse be shot at the roadside, is said to be traumatised.

Gill Humphreys, from Dovercourt, was riding in Wix, when a car collided with her horse and left her with broken bones and an irregular heartbeat.

Her horse, Ethel, had to be shot at the site after suffering serious leg injuries.

A vet was called as soon as the accident happened, but when one didn’t arrive within ten minutes a passer-by shot the horse to stop it from suffering. “She is just traumatised,” said Maria Neesome, Miss Humphrey’s sister-in-law.

“It was a terrible thing for her to watch her horse suffer for more than ten minutes. It was just carnage.”

Miss Humphreys, 41, was riding on Colchester Road, near Spring Farm, when a blue Ford Mondeo collided with the back of her horse, sending her falling into a bush and fatally wounding the animal. Although she has been deaf from birth, Miss Humphrey wears a hearing aid and can hear cars travelling towards her.

She was in Colchester General Hospital for three days with a broken sternum, irregular heartbeat, broken nose, cuts and bruises.

Although she suffered horrendous injuries, ambulance crews said she was very lucky, as her breastbone could easily have completely broken and stabbed her in the heart.

“I don’t think she will get on a horse again for a little while, although she is determined to carry on eventually,” said Mrs Neesome.

Ethel, nicknamed Effy, had only been bought by Miss Humphreys two months before the accident and was her first horse.

“She had wanted one all her life and it was the first time she was financially stable enough to own one,” said Mrs Neesome, 41.

“Effy was beautiful, lovely, calm and placid. We had been looking all over for one like her and it’s not fair she’s not here now.”

Miss Humphrey and Mrs Neesome are hoping some positives can come out of the tragedy on June 23.

Mrs Neesome said: “We would like farmers to consider opening their land for riders’ use and the national speed limit to be reduced to 40mph when roads go through or near villages.”