At 15:42 this afternoon the team was paged by the North West Ambulance Service (Air Desk) at Broughton, who were requesting our assistance at an incident involving an injured horse rider.

The call was answered by Deputy Team Leader Chris Greenhalgh who soon determined that the incident, in the vicinity of Charity Farm, Wrightington, lay within the primary operational area of our colleagues at Bowland Pennine MRT.

In consultation with the BPMRT Team Leader Kev Camplin, Chris and Kev determined that a joint Bowland MRT and limited Bolton MRT response would be made to this incident, in the knowledge that a number of Bolton MRT team vehicles were immediately crewed and available (present at community events today), along with other Bolton MRT team members at our Ladybridge Hall and Bolton Central Fire Station bases.

The incident concerned a female aged 20 who had apparently been thrown from her horse whilst riding, some distance away from the road and in a location where it was not possible for a road-going ambulance to reach. With concern for possible neck and back injuries sustained, responding NWAS crews requested Mountain Rescue assistance to carry the casualty across fields.

With the first responding Bolton MRT arriving on scene at 16:18, along with resources from Bowland Pennine MRT, the casualty was loaded onto a SAR Alpine Lite MR stretcher and was carried a short distance (approx. 280m) across the fields to the waiting NWAS Ambulance, resulting in the swift conclusion to the incident at 17:00.

We understand the following resources were involved in this incident

• Bolton MRT
  • 4 Land Rover Mountain Rescue ambulance vehicles
  • 11 members on scene
  • One member stood down responding
• Bowland Pennine MRT
  • 3 team members on scene, with others stood down responding
• NWAS Lancashire
  • Broughton EOC Air Desk
  • One solo-crewed rapid response vehicle
  • One emergency ambulance (two crew members)