Wirral woman launches safety campaign after horse death

In January 2021, the Globe reported how one horse had to be put to sleep while another needed more than three hours of life-saving surgery following an incident while out on a ride in Thingwall.

Two teenage girls were out on a horse ride on Barnston Road, near the Bassett Hound pub on Saturday afternoon, when one of their horses became spooked.

READ: Witness appeal after horse dies following riding incident in Thingwall

The affected horse reportedly bolted into a post. The horse later died as a result of its injuries.

During the incident, one of the girls moved her horse in the middle of the road, in an attempt to control the spooked horse which in turn has frightened her horse.

It was reported that she signalled to traffic approaching her to stop, but a silver Volkswagen car allegedly sped past, causing her horse to bolt, causing her 16-year-old rider, Megan Ashton, to be thrown off and the horse to sustain critical injuries. 

The two girls suffered minor injuries. 

Megan's horse Leo had an emergency operation and more than 100 stitches. Sadly, the other horse involved, Rio, which had been ridden by Meg's friend, had to be put to sleep.

At the time Merseyside Police investigated the incident and launched an appeal to find the vehicle's driver.

Robyn Roberts, a resident who lives and rides her horse on the same road where the incident happened, said she was “heartbroken” when she read the news and decided something needed to change.

The 36-year-old launched SafeByChoice in 2021, a technology aimed at making riders safer on the roads by alerting drivers of their presence.

Robyn told the Globe: “When I read the story about the two girls it killed me. I was sat there thinking about those poor girls and decided something needs to change.

“There is a massive gap for drivers being more aware of horses on the road and cyclists on the road and I want to try and fix that with SafeByChoice.

“I am a huge petrol head I am massively into cars as I am horses and that’s when I thought this can be changed its driver awareness and its driver skill as well.”

Robyn Robert's horse Casper (Image: Robyn Roberts)

Robyn is hoping to improve road safety with the use of technology.

She said: “The idea would be very similar to black boxes that you see in cars. So if drivers allow the alert to come through on their phone then it would make them alert prior to reaching a horse in the road.

“So my aim is to make it so drivers are given half a mile notice that there’s a horse around the next bend so its not relying on the driver to physically see the horse because they’ll have been alerted via an app on their phone.”

Robyn is currently in talks with insurance companies and hopes that if drivers allow the access they’ll be given discount on their policy.

She has also contacted Princess Anne who has backed the campaign along with the British Horse Society.

Robyn said: “I’m trying to go at it with a two-prong approach so ideally riders would set up an account on their phone and say if they have an experienced or young horse before riding out with their phone.

“But for those who don’t take their phone I'm hoping to create a tracker dongle which they can wear and that should transmit the same way a phone does.

“If it works and people can see it for what it is the hardest thing I'm going to face is people changing their outlook and asking how technology will help them because a lot of riders are of the opinion that they have to wear high vis in order to be seen.

“So it’s going to be getting over that element that technology can do that for them but still including wearing high vis because they’re both important.

“I’m hoping that once I get backing from insurance companies that there will also be a legal aspect to this as well.

“A lot of drivers when there’s an accident they say they didn't see the horse and that’s why so many riders were hi-vis. I’m hoping with the app that I can alleviate some of that so we can track to see if that car was speeding and what location it was in and if it was alerted with plenty of notice.”