A huntsman has been cleared of deliberately injuring a saboteur by riding his horse into her.
Peter Doggrell, 46, was found not guilty by a jury of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on Nicola Rawson.
Rawson, 43, suffered seven broken ribs and a punctured lung when she was struck during a drag hunt on the Dorset-Somerset border.
A video shown to the jury at Taunton crown court captured the moment when Rawson was sent reeling to the ground. She and colleagues were trying to disrupt the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale hunt.
Doggrell told the jury he did not see the Dorset hunt saboteurs in the field nor hear their horn, which was being used to distract the 45 hounds.
Asked how close he was when he became aware of the saboteurs, he replied: “I was more or less on top of them.”
He denied being irritated or annoyed by the disruption to the drag hunt, in which hounds follow a scent.
The prosecution had claimed he had up to 15 seconds to see the saboteurs’ Land Rover and was riding hard, saying it was a “reckless act’.
He rode on after the contact but told police he thought it was a “glancing blow” and did not realise Rawson had been hurt until 20 minutes later.
He was cleared after a three-day trial.
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “We are very pleased that Mr Doggrell has been found not guilty and that Miss Rawson, who was injured in this incident, has recovered.
“There are, however, some serious questions to be asked about how this case ever got to court. That decision to prosecute Mr Doggrell has cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds and put him through a long, stressful and unnecessary process.”
