Senara Wilton was having a riding lesson when she fell off with her foot still in the stirrup. The spooked horse galloped across the training ring with Senara hanging upside down under the animal
In a turn of events hailed as “miraculous”, seven-year-old Senara Wilton has recovered from severe brain injuries sustained when she was dragged and kicked by a horse. The incident occurred while Senara was taking a riding lesson and fell, her foot caught in the stirrup.
The startled horse bolted across the training ring, with Senara hanging upside down beneath it. Her parents, Pauline and Eric, were left aghast as they witnessed their daughter being repeatedly kicked in the head on that fateful day, August 30, 2023.
During the ordeal, Senara’s helmet was knocked off by the horse’s hooves until she was finally freed when her foot slipped out of the stirrup, causing her to plummet to the ground. Staff at the Hunwick riding school immediately called for emergency services, and Senara was flown to the hospital by the Great North Air Ambulance.
Following multiple brain bleeds and swelling, Senara, hailing from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, underwent urgent surgery. Despite spending weeks in the hospital and doctors’ predictions that she might never walk or talk again due to the brain damage, her recovery has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Her mother, Pauline, 46, said: “I assume the horse got spooked by the fact that something was hanging by his legs and then started galloping. Eric, my husband, said he remembered seeing the horse’s hooves kick Senara’s helmet multiple times before it came off.
“When we got to her she was breathing, but it was laboured breathing. We rang 999 and while we were on the phone she stopped breathing and Eric did CPR for several minutes.”
Moments before the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) team arrived, Senara miraculously began to breathe again. Given the gravity of her condition, she was flown to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle for expert care.
GNAAS paramedic Hollie Smith said: “It was clear she was in a critical condition and we needed to deliver a pre-hospital anaesthetic to protect her brain. We transferred Senara onto an ambulance stretcher and administered an anaesthetic just 30 minutes after her initial injury.
“With injuries like Senara’s, every minute counts, and without interventions like these, her brain could have continued to swell and result in further damage. During our journey to the hospital, we continued to provide care, administering medication to help reduce swelling in her brain.
“We landed on the helipad on the roof of the RVI, where we were met by the hospital’s fire team, who assisted us in getting Senara to the emergency department, where a full medical team was ready to receive her. The journey from the incident to the RVI took nine minutes; a journey which would have taken 50 minutes by road.”
After receiving emergency brain surgery, Senara faced a lengthy recovery in hospital, nearly two months, with doctors cautioning her parents that walking or talking might be beyond her reach. Defying all expectations, Senara has since returned to activities such as gymnastics, karate, and swimming.
Proud mum Pauline said: “The human impact as a parent is massive, but there’s nothing you can do in that period of time apart from waiting. The initial prognosis, after reviewing the scans, was that they didn’t think she would walk or talk again. They thought she would have issues with grabbing things, and talked to me about dystonia, which is when you have muscle spasms.”
Senara was discharged from hospital in October 2023, just in time for Halloween festivities.
Pauline said: “Her recovery has been amazing. She struggles a little bit with her movement, but to anyone else physically she is entirely back to normal. She’s back to gymnastics, swimming and karate. It was a big milestone when she got into swim club before the accident, and about a year later she got back into swim club again.”
This week, now aged nine, Senara paid a visit to the GNAAS base near Eaglescliffe, County Durham, to express her gratitude to the medics who saved her life.
Pauline added: “It was amazing to meet the people who saved Senara’s life. We’re very aware that without them we might not have a daughter anymore.”