Coastguards were called into action last week after a horse riding accident on the beach at Freshwater East.

One witness told the Observer that a female had an accident while riding her horse on the beach on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 27, with the coastguard helicopter arriving at around 3.30 pm to take the casualty to hospital.

“Passers-by had to climb the footpaths up from the beach to get access to a land line from a local resident as they had no telephone signal for their mobiles on the beach with which to contact the emergency services,” said the witness.

“Some passers-by on the beach were able to look after the rider’s horse and led it off the beach before the helicopter arrived,” they added.