A RIDER who died when she fell from her horse was wearing an old-fashioned hard-hat, an inquest heard.

Rachel Cross, 42, of Over Nidd, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, died when she fell from her horse in a country lane in December 2003.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Geoff Fell said he would ask the British Horse Society to warn members of the dangers of riding in unsuitable headgear.

Mr Fell said an investigation carried out by Dr Brian Chinn, a safety consultant at the Transport Research Laboratory, found that Mrs Cross's chances of survival would have been greater if she had been wearing a modern helmet.

The inquest heard that Mrs Cross was wearing a hat that should not have been sold after 1997, the year after the EU insisted on major design improvements.

It was not known when she bought her hat.

Friends who were out riding with Mrs Cross on the day of the incident described her as a competent rider and said there had been no undue noise to spook her horse.

The group of four riders had stopped on Mires Green Lane, a farm track at Killinghall, near Harrogate, to open a gate. Mrs Cross was at the back and when the others looked round she was lying on the ground.

It was not known how she had fallen.