AN aspiring Olympic horse rider from Essex remains in a coma after suffering serious injuries in a training accident.

Elliot Furniss

AN aspiring Olympic horse rider from Essex remains in a coma after suffering serious injuries in a training accident.

Rosie Chinery, 18, from Great Yeldham, near Halstead, badly injured her neck during a session in Newmarket last week and is still in an intensive care unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

News of Rosie's accident has shocked the equestrian world and her family have been inundated with support from well-wishers.

Rosie's grandfather Aubrey Chinery, who runs a stable yard in Great Yeldham, said that she had shown movement in parts of her body over the weekend but had still not regained consciousness.

He said: “She's moving her arms and legs, so there's no spinal injury.

“But there's a lot of fluid in her lungs which they (the doctors) think is a crashed lung. They tried to bring her around yesterday when they took the sedations off.

“She's off the danger list but is still in intensive care because of her condition.”

Rosie is one of the country's most promising young point to point and three day event jockeys and was selected last July as a reserve for the England team competing in the Junior European Eventing Championships.

She has already turned out for the England Under-18 team and has recently been training with the Under-21 squad.

Mr Chinery said she had competed around the country since a young age and had a large collection of trophies and rosettes.

Liza Randal, a spokeswoman for British Eventing, said Rosie was definitely “one to watch” among the young riders in the country.

She said: “She would have been doing trials this year for various competitions - she would have been one of the hopefuls.

“We have 30 or 40 young riders we are always keeping an eye on, so she was riding at the top levels.

“This is a difficult time for her parents because she's still unconscious. Our hopes and prayers are with her and her family that she pulls through as quickly as possible and gets back riding again.”

She said such falls were a well-known risk of riding at high speeds, especially at the top level, but others had experienced bad injuries only to recover and ride competitively again.

She said: “Mary King (Olympic silver medal winner in 2000 and 2004) broke her neck eight years ago falling from a young horse she was riding around a field at the time.

“She recovered and went on to compete again. Sadly these things happen and if a horse does collapse and drop down you are at risk of being injured.”