A WOMAN was taken to hospital by air ambulance after falling from her horse on a remote country footpath today.

The 61-year-old rider fell from the animal on a path behind Grimston Hall in Trimley St Martin.

She was initially knocked unconscious and sustained a head and neck injury in the incident.

The ambulance service was called at 10.16am and sent a crew to the scene but the furthest they could reach was Grimston Lane, about half a mile from where the woman had fallen.

“We were told at that stage that she was conscious and breathing but she could not remember what had happened and didn’t think she was injured, though there was suspicion of a spinal injury,” said a East Anglian Ambulance Trust spokeswoman.

The service called Anglia One, the air ambulance serving Norfolk and Suffolk, to assist at 10.59am and the crew was on the scene by 11.15am, landing in a field not far from the incident.

“Anglia One was tasked because the patient was in a remote location and a road ambulance could not get closer than half a mile away from her,” said a spokeswoman for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

“The patient was placed in the care of the aircraft’s EEAST critical care paramedic Andy Downes and Dr Jeremy Mauger and she was conveyed by air to Ipswich Hospital.”

The helicopter took off at 11.44am and arrived at the hospital at 11.47am.