{"id":54420,"date":"2026-06-02T11:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/54420\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:41:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:41:25","slug":"beautiful-mum-from-chilham-died-after-being-dragged-along-road-by-riding-school-horse-in-sutton-near-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/54420\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Beautiful\u2019 mum from Chilham died after being dragged along road by riding school horse in Sutton, near Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A \u201cbeautiful\u201d mum died after being dragged along a country lane by a horse that bolted after being spooked by barking dogs, an inquest has heard.<\/p>\n

Ewa Larsson suffered catastrophic injuries when a cob she was walking back to a riding school in Sutton, near Deal, became \u201cterrified\u201d and galloped off as she attempted to hold on.<\/p>\n

\"Ewa\"EwaEwa Larsson died in hospital six weeks after being dragged along a country lane by a spooked horse. Picture: Facebook<\/p>\n

It is thought the 59-year-old dog breeder, who lived in Chilham, may have been trampled or kicked while hanging on to the horse\u2019s bridle.<\/p>\n

She was airlifted to hospital with massive internal injuries following the incident on August 27 last year but, despite surviving emergency surgery and briefly showing signs of recovery, died on October 13 after developing organ failure and an infection.<\/p>\n

The cob, called Davy, was later described by Ms Larsson\u2019s partner as \u201cunpredictable\u201d, with jurors hearing she had previously been thrown from the same horse just weeks before<\/p>\n

An inquest into her death, overseen by coroner Katrina Hepburn, began yesterday at Oakwood House in Maidstone.<\/p>\n

A jury has been called for the hearing because the death has been treated as a notifiable incident, meaning jurors will assist the coroner in reaching a conclusion.<\/p>\n

\"Ewa\"EwaEwa Larsson enjoying a day out in London just two weeks before the tragic incident. Picture: Facebook<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms Larsson had been riding with experienced instructor Sally Deverill, from Cornilo Riding School, when she initially fell from the horse while out on a hack in a field.<\/p>\n

Ms Deverill said Ms Larsson got up straight away and laughed, appearing uninjured.<\/p>\n

After moving onto the road, Ms Larsson tried unsuccessfully to get back on Davy.<\/p>\n

She chose instead to walk the cob back to the riding school, with Ms Deverill preparing to mount her own horse, Eva.<\/p>\n

That was when dogs barking from a nearby garden in Beacon Hill caused panic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe horses shot off down the road to escape the dogs,\u201d Ms Deverill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I got back on, I could see Ewa and Davy were moving sort of sideways down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe horse was trotting, and she was pulling strong enough that Davy\u2019s head was coming round.<\/p>\n

\"Ewa\"EwaEwa Larsson was airlifted to Kings College Hospital in London after the incident. Picture: Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cThen she tripped and fell. It looked like he cantered a few strides, then he cantered down the road and off the road. I think she did get dragged.\u201d<\/p>\n

The instructor said Davy became \u201cterrified\u201d by the dogs and galloped away before later ending up loose in a nearby field.<\/p>\n

She said she did not see the horse trample or kick Ms Larsson.<\/p>\n

After the incident, Ms Larsson remained conscious and complained of pain in her chest and right arm.<\/p>\n

Ms Deverill called the riding school managers, who contacted emergency services, while passers-by stopped to help.<\/p>\n

Cornilo Riding owner Robert Hinks and a member of staff from the riding school also arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n

One member of the public, Hannah Stewart, told jurors: \u201cAs I approached Sally (Deverill), I was trying to assess the situation and could see that someone had been thrown off. She was in the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t asking questions about what happened, as it was about dealing with the situation.<\/p>\n

\"Cornilo\"CorniloCornilo Riding is in Sutton, near Deal. Picture: Google<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite far away from Sally, but what I gathered is that [Ewa] had been dragged and possibly kicked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Stewart said Ms Larsson initially appeared stable.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a bit woozy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was only later that day that I went on the village Facebook group and saw that there had been an air ambulance in the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not the situation when I left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Deverill and the riding school staff member took the two horses back to the yard, while Mr Hinks stayed with Ms Larsson.<\/p>\n

The inquest heard she was taken to hospital, where doctors discovered extensive injuries and internal bleeding.<\/p>\n

Her partner, Nigel Anderson, said she suffered a cardiac arrest while being airlifted to hospital, with doctors warning him she may not survive as she was rushed into surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was in a coma at first but after a couple of weeks came out of the coma,\u201d he told jurors.<\/p>\n

\"Ewa\"EwaEwa Larsson was described as an \u2018animal lover\u2019 by her family. Picture: Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cThe surgeons said because she\u2019d had a cardiac arrest in the air ambulance and in the middle of the night, she might have brain damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came around and started making some progress. She came off the ventilator and came off blood pressure medication.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said Ms Larsson\u2019s condition deteriorated again and her organs began failing.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably around this time, she contracted an infection which was going into her body, and doctors were not able to stop the infection, which ultimately took her life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Anderson described his partner as an \u201canimal lover\u201d who had taken up riding as a release from everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved horses, loved animals and worked as a hotel manager. Going horse riding was an escape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He described Davy, who arrived at Cornilo Riding School in 2021 as an eight-year-old, as \u201cunpredictable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ewa] was a very strong-minded person, so sometimes she wanted to overcome things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Ewa\"EwaEwa Larsson took up riding as ‘an escape’ in 2023. Picture: Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cShe started at the riding school in June 2023. She had been going quite regularly but wouldn\u2019t say she was an expert by any means.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe became confident and quite fearless because that was her personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Anderson said Ms Larsson had been \u201cthrown off\u201d Davy during an earlier incident, injuring her buttocks and cutting her chin.<\/p>\n

He added that, with hindsight, he did not think she should have gone on the hack.<\/p>\n

The inquest also heard that riding school owner Mr Hinks previously told police Davy was \u201cno more spooky than any other horse\u201d, while Ms Deverill said the school had \u201cno experience of Davy being scared by dogs before and they had never been an issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following Ms Larsson\u2019s death, tributes poured in from friends, family and the wider community.<\/p>\n

One tribute read: \u201cYou brought joy, laughter and light to everyone who met you. You\u2019ll always be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cRest in peace, beautiful Ewa. What a loss for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inquest continues today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cbeautiful\u201d mum died after being dragged along a country lane by a horse that bolted after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1849,3434,1083,1086,1087,450,309,20108,1118,5,6],"class_list":["post-54420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-accidents","tag-animals","tag-canterbury","tag-deal","tag-dover","tag-inquests","tag-kent","tag-sandwich","tag-syndicate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116680332587385243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}