A RUNAWAY horse that bolted and fatally injured a partially-sighted grandmother at a Suffolk showground had been worked for too long, an inquest was told.

Carole Bullett, 57, of Clark Walk, Bury St Edmunds, died from serious chest injuries in Addenbrooke’s Hospital shortly after being knocked down at the Nowton Park Country Fair in June 2011.

Today, John Parker, president of the British Driving Society, said he believed the four-year-old Breton horse, which had been giving rides to visitors all day, was tired.

Mr Parker told the inquest at the Farmer’s Club, Bury St Edmunds, that Lucas - who had been released from his bridle moments before the incident by Sally Tyrrell - bolted because he thought he was to be returned to work.

Mr Parker added: “He thought she was going to put the bridle on him again and be put back to work again. And, in my opinion, he had been in the bridle too long. He had been working too long.”

The inquest has previously heard that Miss Tyrrell had removed the bridle to allow the horse to eat. She told the jury she had been instructed to do so by her employer and the horse’s owner Duncan Drye.

Mr Drye, denied he ever gave that instruction.

Mr Parker said that it was “in everybody’s rulebook never take the bridle off the horse.”

He added: “The moment the horse started running there was no voice, no reins and he panics and the faster he went the more the vehicle bounces.”

The inquest continues.