A Fife teenager who claimed she had to give up a nursing career after a fall from a horse has failed in a bid to recover tens of thousands of pounds in damages.
Stable hand Milly Morrison was riding gelding Macamore from Dunbog Farm, Newburgh when it reared and she was thrown to the ground.
The 17-hand horse then fell on top of her.
Then-17-year-old Miss Morrison suffered head and spinal injuries.
Although she started a nursing degree, she gave it up after a year as her back pain continued.
She claimed in the Court of Session her employer, farm and stables owner James Oakden, should have foreseen the horse would behave in manner likely to cause her harm.
Judge describes the accident
The accident happened on July 25, 2015.
Macamore had been confined in “box rest” with ligament damage and was being ridden outside the grounds for the first time since June 3.
Miss Morrison had just turned the horse to return to the stables when she lost control.
In a written judgement, Lady Carmichael wrote of Miss Morrison’s evidence: “She said that as they were walking back he ‘realised we were coming home’.
“She ‘thought he wanted to do something other than walking’, so he started jogging and swishing his tail and throwing his head up.
“The horses in the adjacent field started to do the same thing.
“When she tried to get him to walk he reared.
“He reared again, and the pursuer thought that the safest thing to do was to dismount.
“She took her feet out of the stirrups.
“She tried to get off when her feet were on the ground but he reared up and the pursuer fell down the ditch.
“She remembered seeing Macamore coming towards her.
“She inferred that he must have reared again, and tipped over so that he also fell down the ditch.
“His shoulder hit her, and she remembered watching it falling towards her, and that she could not get out of the way.
“She could not think of any other way he could have come to fall that would have caused his shoulder to come down before his back end.
“She then saw Macamore making for the yard at speed, and lay down because she realised she was bleeding and thought she might pass out.”
She was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital with a spinal fracture and head injury.
Arguments over liability
Miss Morrison had been a rider since she was 12, when she joined the Pony Club and took part in competitions.
She was a part-time stable hand at the farm, in exchange for her own horse being stabled there.
During the case, Miss Morrison said on the horse’s first ride in the yard, earlier on the day of the accident, with another rider, he had misbehaved and she should not have been asked to ride him.
She said she did not feel in a position to refuse, however.
Experienced rider and eventer Mr Oakden countered that she was capable and had expressed no reservations.
He said he had seen nothing to concern him when Macamore was first ridden , saying the horse was behaving “absolutely fine”.
Lady Carmichael wrote in her judgement: “In cross examination the defender said that his impression was that the pursuer was keen to ride Macamore.
“He would not have asked her to do anything about which she had expressed concern.”
Accident ended nursing career
Miss Morrison spent two weeks in hospital and was reliant on her mother for assistance after returning home.
Miss Morrison claimed her GP had told her the back pain she already suffered would only get worse in her nursing career.
Wearing a back brace, she started her degree but her tutor agreed she should consider switching.
She eventually graduated from Dundee University in geography and environmental science, as well as having part-time jobs.
Although she criticised Mr Oakden as being “defensive” and “impatient in his tone… that at times came close to discourtesy” in giving evidence, Lady Carmichael exonerated him.
She said expert evidence showed there is a risk of misbehaviour in horses which have been contained for a period but Mr Oakden’s judgement that Miss Morrison was capable of handling the horse was “reasonable”.
She wrote: “There is no evidence that the defender should reasonably have anticipated misbehaviour by Macamore of a nature that would have made it unsafe for the pursuer to ride him.”
A finding against Mr Oakden could have seen an award of up to £120,000 in compensation and loss of earnings.
