Accident verdict on rider after fall at trials course

An INQUEST jury returned a verdict of accidental death on a 64-year-old rider who died after he broke his neck when his horse refused a fence on a cross country course in North Yorkshire.

Robin Donaldson’s fall during the Beckwithshaw Horse Trials, near Harrogate, had been described as “innocuous” at first and appearing as if in “slow motion”.

Eyewitnesses had expected him to get up but the former teacher was rendered instantly unconscious, having suffered a fractured odontoid peg in his neck.

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He was taken to hospital but died more than a fortnight later following the fall on August 22 last year.

Summarising the case for the jury, coroner Rob Turnbull said Mr Donaldson was taken first to Harrogate District Hospital but later transferred to a specialist ward at Leeds General Infirmary.

He said it was established Mr Donaldson was paralysed from the neck down and would not be able to breathe unaided. After a further deterioration, it was decided more medical intervention was inappropriate.

Mr Donaldson, from Little Ribston, near Wetherby, died on September 9, 2010.