A County Durham horse rider died from a fall after her mount bolted, an inquest heard yesterday.
Gail Jackson, 50, was an experienced horsewoman and was wearing a riding hat, but she died from severe head injuries.
Mrs Jackson, a divorcee, had been drinking heavily before going for a ride near her home at Emms Hill Farm, Hamsterley, near Bishop Auckland.
Tests showed that she was nearly five times the drink-driving limit and Teeside Coroner Michael Sheffield commented: "She would not have been in control of the horse, or herself, with this amount of alcohol."
Her boyfriend, Robert Wearmouth, of Salisbury Crescent, West Cornforth, who went on the ride with her, told the inquest that the horse bolted for no apparent reason.
The coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure on Mrs Jackson, who died in Middlesbrough General Hospital three days after the tragedy in June.
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