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A newly-wed woman was killed when her horse reared up and crushed her in Hawke's Bay.
Emily Macklow, 24, was riding her horse Basil at the Cottle Equestrian Club at Paukawa south of Hastings on Friday. She had been riding sedately in full safety gear with instructor Bernadette
Keenan for about 20 minutes when the horse reared up, toppled backwards and landed on her.
"There was no pressure, no jumping. She was just trotting in the arena. Then all of a sudden it just reared up and fell backwards. She was so little all I could see was her helmet under it," said Keenan.
Keenan said the horse quickly got up and ran to the side of the arena. She ran to Macklow's side but was distraught by what she saw.
"There were no obvious broken bones. She was breathing but it was like a goldfish - she was just gulping in air. There was nothing I could do. I just kept talking to her and saying 'it's alright - they are coming'. I just kept talking until the ambulance got there."
Ambulance officers told Keenan that Macklow was effectively killed instantly.
Kay Cottle, owner of Cottle Equestrian, said she was in the house when the tragedy occurred.
"I came out of the kitchen and looked into the arena and the horse was just there without a rider. By the time I got there she was blue. But there wasn't a mark on her."
Cottle said it was a freak accident but the sudden movement meant Macklow had no chance.
"It was a 600 pound horse landing on a seven stone girl. Sometimes if they go up you can leap off but this horse reared up so quickly she couldn't do anything. She was quite a good rider. God knows why it did it - maybe it had a fit."
Cottle's partner Terry Coffey said the horse, which Macklow had owned for about eight months, was notoriously difficult to ride. "But... she was determined to get the better of the horse when most others would have given it away."
Coffey arrived at the club just after the accident happened. He went to get Macklow's husband of 10 weeks, Dylan Neill.
"When we got back there he just saw her body with a white sheet covering her and the ambulance driving away. So he just broke down."
Macklow had rented a cottage on Cottle and Coffey's property and had worked for Napier police and rural supplier Farmlands doing IT work.
She moved into a Hastings house with Neill, who is from Australia, two weeks ago. Macklow was enrolled in a clinic with John Cottle, a former champion showjumper, for next week.
"She was lovely. She was a sweetie but very determined. You still think she's going to wake up any minute." Basil the horse will be put down within days.
Cottle said the horse's behaviour after the accident was quite bizarre. "He stood in the end of the arena the whole time the police and everyone were around. It just didn't move."