What a tragic accident, my thoughts are with this poor girls family. This sounds like a tragic accident. Horse do kick and you should take care when around them but generally horse only kick when they feel threatened or frightened. It is not how just how hard they kick it where on the body they meet. Previously I have been a events organiser arranging high standard show jumping competitions in the UK and have seen horrific accidents involving people and horses and often seen the person simply get up and walk away. On the otherhand I have seen very slight falls or kicks that on sight look nothing with much worse injuries.

Horse are very unpredicable animals and accidents do happen. Horse riding related accidents come third in the list of dangerous sports ahead of boxing, parachuting and sailing!

My 10 year old daughter has been riding since she was 3 years old and she loves it. She has had her tumbles and recently quite a few but she is always supervised, wears the correct equipment (body protector, helmet & correct footwear) and most of all aware that she is dealing with an animal that potentionally has a mind of its own.

I am well aware of the dangers of horse riding and dread if something awful happened to her but if my daughter can have half the fun I had with my horses I know that horse riding is worthwhile. As my daughter say's "horses is in our blood" and if you have that bond with a horse (which I am sure the girl in the accident had) you will know what I am talking about.