A woman badly injured when she was thrown from her horse at the back of her isolated Taumarunui-area farm on Monday walked 2km back to her home because she had to.
"I didn't have a choice. It was starting to rain," Janet Kelland, 50, said yesterday.
Mrs Kellandhad a fractured shoulder, a neck injury and could hardly see because both eyes were almost swollen shut. She took two pain-ridden hours to reach her home to call for help.
She is recovering in Waikato Hospital.
She said she was leading two young horses on her sheep farm, 25km west of Taumarunui, when she was thrown from her own mount that she thought was spooked by the younger animals.
She ended up bruised and battered six metres down a bank.
She said she was in immense pain during the trek back to her farmhouse, and needed to rest several times. Once home she phoned a friend who called for help.
Taumarunui St John gave her first aid and she was then flown by the Lion Foundation rescue helicopter to hospital.
Mrs Kelland, a keen mountaineer, has been involved in search and rescue for years and has trekked in the Himalayas.
She credits her fitness and strength as primary reasons why she was able to get back to her farm house despite the pain.
