A Yorkshire horse rider has been left with multiple broken ribs and partially collapsed lungs after a handful of "memorial balloons" scared her horse into galloping down a runway.
Tricia Phillips was out riding on March 24 when the balloons endangered her and her horse's lives, Yorkshire Live reports.
Her Andalusian Capoté began to gallop down a runway by an airbase near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, in a blind panic after being distracted by the balloons and Mrs Phillips said she was left with no choice but to jump off him.
She said: "She was going so fast, I thought if he hits the concrete on the runway, either I’m going to come straight off on the concrete and have serious injuries, he's going to fall and break a leg and then that's the end of him or he’s going to fall on me and kill me outright.
"The only choice I felt I had was to bale out, so I had to jump off him. It was the only way to stop him - it was the least worst option."
The fall caused seven broken ribs, multiple fractures and partially collapsed lungs.
Tricia said when she hit the ground, she could barely breathe.
The 51-year-old said: "I thought I’d lose all my skin, I couldn’t breathe. I landed and I didn’t bounce and where it was I landed, I laid.
"I just couldn’t move, my friend called the ambulance and they took me to hospital where I stayed for six days."
Tricia was lucky to escape any lasting damage but said balloon releases were a massive issue that needed addressing, especially now that a new crematorium is set to open nearby.
Tricia added: "It’s a real problem for anyone who lives in the countryside.
"People release balloons thinking that it's a fantastic thing to do in memory of someone.
"They look at them for ten seconds and then they don't even think twice about it.
"But those balloons come down in fields and get caught up in trees.
"Animals just eat them, birds get tangled up in them when they land in trees and then they basically starve to death."
As the issues of balloon releases and plastic pollution have been extensively covered by the media over the years, people not listening to the concerns leaves her feeling "exasperated".
The former teacher and animal lover said a better alternative would be to plant a tree in memory of a loved one.
She said: "Apart from the fact that you are basically littering huge bits of plastic into the countryside, I don't know where those people think the balloons will go? Lanterns are just as evil."
Tricia, who runs a small farm and rents out luxury holiday lets and shepherds huts via her business Morndyke, was due to take part in a competition before the accident.
While she is devastated that four years of hard work and preparation have gone out of the window, Tricia said she was incredibly thankful that Capoté did not suffer any injuries in the accident.
She said: "He is my life, he’s my soulmate, he is everything to me.
"It’s irrelevant that I got hurt, if anything had happened to my horse I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself."
