Yelverton rider's lucky escape after horse 'flips' into ditch

"It could have been a lot worse," said Kate Shobrook, pictured with horse Nasa after the incident

A rider who was trapped under her horse in a ditch said she was "very lucky" to escape with a broken ankle.

Kate Shobrook, 38, was riding her horse Nasa at Buckland Monachorum, Devon when it tripped on a bank, rolling upside down into a gully.

Mrs Shobrook's legs were pinned to the sides by the horse, thought to weigh nearly a tonne.

She escaped with a broken ankle and her legs "black and blue" after husband Jamie managed to pull her free.

Mrs Shobrook was riding Nasa on the driveway of her farm when Nasa "tripped up".

She said: "There's a small bank along the driveway but on the other side of the bank is a big drainage gully.

'Freak thing'

"Nasa just flipped straight over into the ditch with me.

"It was a freak thing, in a split second, and it was no-one's fault."

She ended "completely upside down" under Nasa who was trying to get free and "could have hurt me".

"He did not crush my body because the ditch was a V shape which gave me enough room under him, but my legs were pinned between the ditch and Nasa," she said.

"I just needed to get myself free so he could not hurt me."

Luckily her husband Jamie had been with her, grabbed hold of her arms and had "just about enough room to pull me out".

A vet sedated Nasa before he was hoisted free and unharmed by a crew from Yelverton fire station.

"They are so amazing, I cannot thank them enough," said Mrs Shobrook, who has been told she must stay away from riding for at least eight weeks.

"It could have been a lot worse."