Wigan horse show halted for air ambulance landing after young girl hurt in incident with pony

The horror incident happened at Abram Hall Riding Club during its monthly event at around lunchtime on Sunday.

Other incident: Three men arrested after serious early-hours incident involving a machete

Ambulances rushed to the Warrington Road equestrian site and found the girl had been briefly unconscious and was also vomiting.

Seeing her condition, they decided the helicopter should be deployed.

That meant half the showground had to be completely evacuated and all the horses moved to their boxes and trailers so the air ambulance could land in a field.

It was eventually decided the five-year-old girl could be taken to hospital by road and she had recovered enough to stand up and watch the helicopter depart. She was also talking by then.

Her condition in hospital was not known on Sunday evening.

It was an alarming moment for everyone attending the event but thankfully the proceedings were able to continue after a pause of around an hour.

Heidi Crawford, the daughter of farm owner and show organiser Jennifer Crawford, said: "Nobody really saw what happened. It was in quite a crowded area and there was just a commotion.

"You can't take a risk with something like this so we had to get the ambulance.

"It was a scary moment and there was a lot of panic. We had a lot of children here and when the parents heard her scream they were all frantically looking round for their child.

"It's also quite a big issue to land a helicopter in the vicinity of animals. Everyone was very sensible and took themselves off to one side while it landed.

"It was a big relief when she was able to stand up. The show then went on."

The riding club posted a message online later on Sunday thanking the emergency services for their quick response.