Back Injury Case Study: Award for back injury after fall from horse

Acting on a no-win-no-fee basis, we secured a substantial financial settlement for a client who suffered a back injury in a riding accident.

Our client enrolled at a riding school as an adult pupil. She was a novice with no previous experience and wanted to learn to ride so that she could share the hobby with her daughter. She was finding it very difficult to learn how to canter and the teaching methods used didn’t seem to be making things any easier. During one particular lesson, her instructor flicked a lunge whip at the horse to encourage it to canter.

This caused the horse to drop its head, throwing our client to the floor injuring her back very badly.

The riding school persistently denied any liability, saying it was an accident and our client had simply lost her balance. We had to go to court, getting independent expert opinion about the teaching methods used and instructing a senior barrister to represent our client at trial. After hearing the evidence, the judge agreed that the instructor had used poor judgement in flicking the whip at a horse with a novice rider in the saddle.

He concluded that, even though riding is inherently risky, our client was entitled to expect a reasonable level of care and skill in her tuition which had not been provided. She was awarded significant compensation for her injury and financial losses.

If you have suffered a similar experience or would like to talk to someone about your injury talk to us for free and in confidence. Call 0330 013 0251 today or send us a message.