Thrown From Race Horse – Denaby Lad Killed – Unexplained Accident

November 1947

South Yorkshire Times November 1, 1947

Thrown From Race Horse
Denaby Lad Killed
Unexplained Accident at Swinton

A fatal accident of which there was no witness was investigated by the Doncaster District Coroner (Mr. W. H. Carlile) at a Mexborough inquest on Saturday on a 14-year-old Denaby stable lad, Daniel Ryan. Loversall Street, who received a fractured skull when thrown from a two-year-old grey mare, “Wooden Wedding,” which bolted while being exercised on Swinton racecourse last week as one of a string of eleven horses from Mr. W. H. Smallwood’s stables at Swinton.

No Explanation.

Recording a verdict of “Accidental death,” the Coroner said there was no explanation why the horse bolted, but its history seemed to show that it was a quiet animal, and for some reason which they did not know it got away, bolted into the road and the boy was thrown and died from the Injuries he received.

Sympathy with the relatives was expressed by Mr. J. W. Snape, on behalf of Mr. Smallwood and his staff. “It was a most unfortunate accident,” the Coroner told the boy’s father, Robert Ryan, a platelayer.

The father stated that his son died without regaining consciousness. He liked the job and made no complaints about any particular horse. He was fond of horses, but had had no experience of them before he went to Mr. Srnallwood’s stables.

Geoffrey Potts, steeplechase, steeplechasejockey. who was In charge of the string of horses. explained that Ryan, who was riding approximately two from the rear, mounted “Wooden Wedding” In the stable yard about 100 yards from the racecourse. They were doing walking exercise, which had been in progress about 26 minutes. The first time he noticed something wrong was the mare leaving the string and cantering away. ‘It was not going fast at all, and I was not unduly alarmed at the time. I followed, and the horse made up towards some ploughed fields,” Potts explained.

He was not able to catch up, and the animal disappeared in the mist. Witness followed and discovered the boy lying in the road in Racecourse Road; he had gone through one of the entrances to the racecourse, and was 20 yards from the entrance. Ryan was thrown on his back and was unconscious; there was nothing to indicate that he might have run into anything.

The Coroner: Was the mare high spirited?

Potts: Not at all; very docile.

“Ryan had ridden it at least 20 times before,” Potts said.” The horse was invariably quiet, and we had had no trouble with it before.”

The Coroner: Were there any vicious animals among the string?—None whatever.

Asked to suggest what might have happened, Potts replied, “That is a difficult question. Racehorses do all sorts of funny things. There was no noise before this happened to cause this disturbance.”

Competent Rider.

Ryan had been riding two months and had made marvellous progress. He was enthusiastic, and witness considered him quite competent to ride the animal. He could give no reason whatever why the horse suddenly left the string.

William Henry Smallwood, race- horse trainer, King’s Head Inn, Rockingham Road, Swinton, said that Ryan, who had been employed by him for about three months rode very well indeed. “Wooden Wedding” had been in the stable a little over six months; it came as a yearling. “It was very, very quiet,” he explained, “and I have taught all the other boys to ride on it and never had any trouble with it.”

Replying to Mr. Snape, Mr. Smallwood said he examined the horse afterwards. It had not a scratch on it.

Mrs. Barbara Cooper, “Linton,” Racecourse Road, Swinton, said that she heard a horse galloping down the road. She went to the front of her house and saw a riderless horse going in the direction of Mexboro’, “rather fast.”           She then noticed someone lying in the gutter. She went to him and a Mr. Ascroft rendered first aid until the ambulance arrived. She did not see the boy thrown.

P.c. L. R. Coulson, who was in Swinton police station when he saw the riderless horse running loose in Church Street, Swinton, said the animal was travelling at “a fast canter.” He gave chase on his cycle and found the anmial had been stopped in Swinton’s new Council housing estate by a young boy. It was very quiet.

He suggested that, from marks In the road, the animal might have come out of the racecourse on to Racecourse Road, gone across the road, seen the hedge and turned, and this caused Ryan to be thrown.