Horse rider dies in fall

Rescuers fought in vain to revive a horse rider swept to her death down a swollen Ruamahanga River after falling from her mount yesterday.
Helen Bain, Carterton endurance rider and journalist, died after falling from her horse while crossing a stretch of the swollen river from Willow Park Drive to Matapihi Road at Bideford east of Masterton shortly after 2pm yesterday.
Ms Bain was riding with Masterton friend Loren Batson when her horse tripped on rocks and she was swept down river, Ms Batson's fiancee Clinton Dougan said yesterday.
Mr Dougan said his fiancee called him and he made a dash to the stretch of river from a home at Willow Park Drive and swam until he found Ms Bain lying face down on rocks about 700m metres from where she fell.
"The river wasn't in flood but it was quite high, and dirty, and was moving quite fast - and Helen couldn't swim," Mr Dougan said.
"I'm a diver and a surfer and I found it quite difficult to keep away from the willows along the bank myself and there are some parts where the water was over my head.
"She was still wearing her helmet and all her riding gear when I found her. She had no pulse and she wasn't breathing," he said.
"I reckon she was in the water for at least 20 minutes but I kept giving her CPR until the rescue helicopter came," Mr Dougan said.
"I wish I could have done more."
Mr Dougan said the horse was uninjured in the fall and Ms Bain and his fiancee had been crossing the river to ride the nearby hills at Black Rock.
He said the horse was a very familiar mount for Ms Bain and she had crossed the river at the same point many times with his fiancee and other parties of riders.
Emergency services were called to the scene and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter airlifted Ms Bain to Wairarapa Hospital. Police were examining the scene of the incident late yesterday afternoon.
Ms Bain, a former Kuranui College pupil, has been involved for many years with horse riding, and was a stalwart of the Wairarapa Endurance and CTR Club and national competition place-getter in the sport of endurance riding.
Ms Bain started as a reporter for the Wairarapa Times-Age in the early 90s after studying journalism at Victoria University before working as a general then parliamentary reporter for the Dominion newspaper in Wellington.
She began writing for the Sunday Star Times toward the close of that decade before working as press secretary for John Tamihere and returning to work as political editor for the Star Times.
At the time of her death she was working as communications manager for the Forest & Bird Society.