‘Don’t cut off my boots – they have zips!’ 70-year-old rider who broke both legs in fall thanks air ambulance that came to her aid

A rider who broke both legs when her horse was spooked by loose dogs, but was more worried about the horse – and her boots – than herself, has paid tribute to the flying paramedics who came to her rescue.

Anne Wooley has been recovering from her injuries and is riding her 17-year-old gelding Ted again. She told H&H she does not know how she would have been rescued without the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) after her fall on a bridleway in February.

Anne, who celebrates her 71st birthday this month, said it was a beautiful morning and she and Ted had enjoyed a canter in the woods, slowing to pass under some overhanging branches.

“We went round a corner and suddenly there were these loose dogs, and a person appeared,” she said. “Ted was taken by surprise; it all happened so quickly. I remember I was coming off, thinking ‘I’ve got my air vest on, I’ll be fine’. But the air vest went off and poor Ted ran back the way we came. I said to this lad ‘Please catch him’ but by then he was coming back – and I knew by then that I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get up.”

Anne managed to call 999 before she lost phone signal, and the YAA critical care team was sent to her aid; doctor Dave Driver and paramedic Matty McCabe.

“The information we had was limited, just that a lady had fallen from a horse and had potentially fractured her leg,” Dr Driver said. “While en route, we received updates that the location was inaccessible by road, so we also deployed our Topcliffe-based helicopter to the scene.”

Anne had also managed to call her husband Kevan, who met them on the edge of the woods, and they followed Ted’s hoofprints to Anne, who was in severe pain. Dr Driver said that they could not rule out internal bleeding as “injuries like this can be so distracting that patients may not realise there’s something else going on”.

Urgent intervention

Paramedics Chris Gibbins and Tammy Williams arrived by helicopter, and the team stabilised Anne’s condition, including “urgent intervention to protect circulation in her lower limbs”.

She was given gas and air, then ketamine, and her legs were secured in a vacuum splint for the journey to hospital.

“She kept asking if someone was looking after her horse,” Dr Driver said. “That was her main concern at the time.”

Anne was flown to Pinderfields Hospital, where scans showed she had fractured both legs. She underwent surgery to plate her right ankle and pin her left leg from ankle to knee, and spent three weeks in hospital before she was allowed home.

“I was more or less bedridden,” she said. “Luckily, I keep Ted at home so my husband could look after him; I was sitting on the sofa, peering out of the window to see what he was doing! Luckily the weather’s been good, but he’s had to put him out, bring him in, do his rugs and hay – I told him how much hay he had to have, and to steam it, and his supplements!”

By about Easter, Anne was back on the yard, and able to look after thoroughbred/cob cross Ted, whom she had owned for under a year by the time of the accident, and they have since gradually built up the ridden work.

“This wasn’t going to stop me riding again – I’ve already been back on,” she said.

And she can still ride in her boots.

“I just remember telling the paramedics not to cut off my riding boots and that they have zips,” she said. “Any rider would have said the same, I certainly didn’t want to lose them!

“It was such a shock when I fell. I’d landed in such a remote spot, and all I could think was that no one would find me, especially when I lost phone signal. I was so relieved when I saw the YAA team walking up to me. I can’t thank them enough for how kind and professional they were.

“I’ll be for ever grateful to the YAA for getting me the help I needed. I can’t think how I’d have got out of there without them; the more publicity they can get, the better.”

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