Limerick dad trampled by horse on a beach; his son just feet away
A LIMERICK dad who went to Lahinch for a bank holiday weekend stroll on the beach had a lucky escape after he was trampled on by a horse.
Keith Connolly, aged 46, originally from Glenview Gardens, Ennis Road in the city said he can laugh about the incident now because it is “not often you get trampled by a horse and come out the other side of it” and “nobody was seriously hurt”.
However, he said there could have been serious consequences.
“The horse hit me from behind, trampled over me and grazed my daughter (aged 17). The small chap (aged 2) was 10 feet away on my wife’s back. She had her back turned to it as well. If that horse had ploughed into my wife’s back with the small fella we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” said Keith.
He, his wife and two children went from their home in Kilmore to the Liscannor side of Lahinch and accessed the beach by O’Brien’s Bridge.
“We got there around 2pm on Sunday. There was a horse on the beach being ridden by a girl maybe in her late teens. There was a man filming her as she was trotting around. There was around 100 people on the beach.
“We were making sand castles with the small fella about 60 / 70 yards away from them. She was sprinting down on one side on the horse. I said this is an accident waiting to happen,” said Keith.
A few minutes later they were walking back up the beach after talking to some people they met.
“Next thing ‘Bang’. I got hit from behind. 30 or 40 people saw it. I tumbled twice and then tumbled to get myself up. The horse grazed my daughter. What’s funny now is that I was saying to myself, ‘Did I just get hit by a horse?’ It was the shock of it. My back had got the brunt of it and my right leg was fair sore. I had hoof marks on my right and left thighs.
“The poor girl was in shock too. She was kitted out to the nines and well-spoken. I think she might have been from Dublin. She said, ‘I lost the reins. I’m sorry’,” recalled Keith.
He went into the Laya Clinic in Limerick to get checked out. Keith is nursing “two dickie hips” and has bruising all down his right hand side. Gardai from Ennistymon contacted him on Sunday night after he rang the guards in Ennis.
“They told me Clare County Council had wardens on the beach on Sunday. She should never have been on the beach on her horse in the first place. Riding horses at 6am in the morning is one thing but there was a lot of people there. I am not worried about me but if that horse had ploughed into my wife’s back with the small fella or hit another child on the beach….
“When you were right beside it, it was a big animal. He was towering over me. It was straight out of the film Black Beauty,” said Keith, who called on Clare County Council to stop people from riding horses on the beach at busy times and for those who do to “have a bit of common sense” to prevent future accidents.
Following a query from the Leader, a Clare County Council spokesperson said they were not aware of the exact details of this incident but pointed to recently adopted 2021 Beach Bye Laws for Clare. One section states: “Between the hours of 11am and 6pm during the Summer Season, it shall be prohibited to bring onto a beach a horse, pony, donkey, ass, mule or other animal of the equine species.”
So according to the bye laws you can bring equine animals onto Clare beaches at any time outside of the “Summer Season” of May 5 to September 15.