ACCOMPLISHED equestrian Nicola Gledhill died after falling from a horse she was riding for the first time.

An inquest heard how Miss Gledhill, aged 24, had swapped her usual mount for a 'spirited' thoroughbred owned by her friend Stephen Griffiths.

Mr Griffiths, of Upper Town, Berrington, told the Hereford hearing that the thoroughbred suddenly 'took off' when Miss Gledhill had only one foot in the stirrups.

Horse and rider went round a corner where Miss Gledhill fell with a force that fractured her skull through her helmet. She died from severe head injuries soon after arriving at Hereford Hospital.

The inquest heard how Miss Gledhill, of Tenbury, and Mr Griffiths were spending a Saturday morning exercising horses on a track at Little Hereford last November.

In evidence, Mr Griffiths said that the pair swapped horses along the way with Miss Gledhill - an experienced, accomplished equestrian - keen to ride his new and spirited thoroughbred for the first time.

Miss Gledhill, he said, had hardly mounted that horse when it suddenly 'took off'.

"She had her left stirrup (in), I couldn't see if she had her right," said Mr Griffiths.

He next saw Miss Gledhill on the ground and bleeding from her helmet with the thoroughbred some way in the distance.

An ambulance was called from a nearby house. In a statement read by county coroner David Halpern, paramedic David Landey described his efforts - including CPR - to keep Miss Gledhill alive during the blue light journey to Hereford Hospital.

A statement from Dr John Hutchinson told how that effort continued in A&E until it became apparent Miss Gledhill was not going to survive.

Tenbury police officer Andrew Spencer said, in evidence, how he found nothing at the accident scene to suggest why Miss Gledhill's horse had bolted.

In recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Halpern publicly thanked Miss Gledhill's parents, Warwick and Jennifer, for donating her organs for transplant.

"That was not the easiest thing to do in the circumstances," he said.