Horse riders to get free jackets

Heather Bell died after her horse was spooked

The Ministry of Defence is issuing hundreds of high-visibility jackets to riders to ensure aircraft pilots avoid scaring their horses.

The initiative follows the death of Heather Bell from Lincolnshire whose horse bolted in Market Rasen when a Chinook flew overhead in 2003.

An inquest into the accident made several recommendations including the use of high-visibility clothing.

The first jackets were handed out at Gleneagles in Perthshire on Monday.

Brain damage

Altogether 400 sets of high visibility clothing are being issued on a "first come first served" basis.

Defence Minister Tom Watson said: "There's something like two million horse riders in the UK, and just to give the scale this year there's been about 16 incidents of horses being spooked, so it's very, very small.

"But all the evidence shows that if our pilots can see a rider a few seconds earlier it gives them time to make manoeuvres that possibly will stop the horse being spooked."

Jackets are also being handed out at the RAF Benson helicopter base in south Oxfordshire on Monday.

Mrs Bell, a 38-year-old mother of two, was wearing a helmet but suffered brain damage when she was thrown from her horse.

An inquest in October 2004 heard that the craft, from a base in Hampshire, was flying just 30ft above Mrs Bell's head when the horse bolted, hurling her to the ground "like a rag doll".

Evidence showed that the craft had clearance to fly down to 50ft.