‘I tried to make my legs move but they would not’

Horse trainer Deirdre Bourns told the High Court how she tried to get up and move her legs after she was trampled by a horse but she could not.

Mrs Bourns, who is paralysed from the chest down, said the most awful memory after the accident two years ago was when she was wheeled into a hospital ward and she saw the word ‘spinal unit’ on the door. “That is when I realised I was in trouble,” she told Mr Justice Kevin Cross.

Mrs Bourns, mother of international showjumper Andrew Bourns was left tetraplegic after an out-of-control four-year-old horse knocked her down and trampled on her at a showjumping event in Cavan. The horse, Miss Red, was being warmed up before an indoors championships competition.