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MIRACLE ESCAPE
Shocking moment young rider is crushed by her horse when it fell jumping a fence – but she somehow escaped unharmed
Body protection saved her from devastating injuries
A YOUNG horse rider had a miracle escape after a cross country fall saw her horse came crashing down ON TOP of her.
Maisie Goodsell feared she had broken her back after horse Kizzy knocked over the solid fence and came crashing down on top of her.
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But she was discharged from hospital the same night with nothing but bruises thanks to the body protector she'd been wearing - only because her mum had GROUNDED her the week before for not wearing it.
Maisie's mum Catherine, 44, filmed the horrifying moment as Maisie flew headfirst towards the ground and Kizzy rolled straight over her.
The teenager, from Beckley, East Sussex, then had to lie completely still on damp grass in the darkness for two hours before an ambulance arrived.
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Maisie, 17, said: "It was a complete shock and I was not expecting it.
"We had been going round all the bigger jumps on the course and were just finishing off on the smallest one.
"I was absolutely terrified as I thought I had broken my back. I could not feel my legs or move my toes.
"I was really worried that I would never be able to ride again. That was the only thought going through my head. I was panicking."
Doctors told Maisie the body protector had saved her from breaking her neck and her back.
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Mum Catherine had banned the horse mad teen from riding for a week after spotting her daughter out jumping without wearing the safety gear just two weeks before.
Maisie said: "I always argued with my parents about it but this proves the point that it's much better to wear it.
"I'll never ride without one again."
Mum Catherine, a PA to a hospital director, said: "A couple of weeks before she was out jumping in our field without the body protector. I told her because she was not wearing it she had a one week curfew on riding.
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"I'm so glad the message got through. She has been really lucky.
"As soon as it happened I was concerned she was not getting up.
"Fortunately I have received first aid training at work which helped me to stay quite calm.
"She was so winded she couldn't breathe, and I just told her to keep still."
An emergency responder from the air ambulance arrived to assess whether Maisie needed to be airlifted to hospital. Having decided her condition was not life-threatening, he called for a land ambulance.
As her mum took the horses back to the stables, Maisie was taken by paramedics to Pembury Hospital in Tunbridge Wells.
There she was given pain relief and waited several hours for a whole body X-ray.
But slowly she noticed improvements in her condition.
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Maisie said: "I started to feel my legs touching my bed and my back started to ease up.
"I still thought I had broken my elbow as it was four times the size and completely black."
After seven hours in hospital, doctors gave her the all clear and discharged her.
She said: "They were as shocked as me to be honest. All I had was soft tissue damage, and back ache from lying still on the bed for seven hours.
"The feeling of relief was amazing.
"But when I went to stand up, because my hip was badly bruised and swollen, I fell straight over onto my bad elbow, so I had to stay for another hour."
The horse mad teenager only took three days off before gingerly mounting her steed again.
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She said: "I got up on Monday and just sat on a horse. I missed it so much."
The accident caught her completely by surprise as she knows horses, and Kizzy, exceptionally well.
Maisie said: "I have been riding all my life. The first time I sat on a horse was when I was held on a pony at six months old. I feel completely at home.
"The influence came from my nan, who worked at a racing yard.
"I normally ride for three hours a day and I compete most weekends, mostly in show jumping.
"That day I went to practice and have fun and do something a little different. It was really unlucky."
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