Horse shatters teen rider's jaw after animal gets spooked

Horror as horse shatters teen rider’s jaw and front teeth after animal gets spooked and kicks her in the FACE: Female farmer, 19, says she’s ‘very lucky to be alive’

• WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT
• Teenager updated her social media account while lying in pool of blood
• Dorset farm worker now hopes to raise £10,000 to have professional implants

A teenager whose front teeth were knocked out after her horse kicked her in the face says she is ‘very lucky to be alive’.

Ella Shilson, of Sturminster Newton, Dorset, bought her new horse, six-year-old Friday, earlier this year and three days later was walking him out to the arena for their very first ride together.

But the 19-year-old claims that her Irish sport horse must have got startled, accidentally kicked her in the face, and knocked her unconscious for around 30 minutes until she was discovered by a dog walker.

The dairy farm worker was only half conscious but still managed to update her BeReal account, a social media app that requires users to share whatever they are doing at a given time, before she was dashed to Poole hospital in Dorset.

There it was discovered she had a shattered jaw, two missing front teeth, holes in her cheek and a lip that had been split in half.

The animal lover claims that doctors at the hospital said the freak accident had been life threatening – as Friday’s horseshoe had been just inches away from ‘knocking her nose up to her brain’.

Ella had surgery the next day to fix a metal plate and brackets to hold her jaw and teeth in place before eventually having the brackets removed three months later.

The animal lover said that missing her most prominent teeth had a massive impact on her confidence – as onlookers would point and ask, ‘Why does she look like that?’, while others branded her a ‘vampire’.

The teen claims she was told by the NHS that there’d be up to a three-year wait for her to receive dentures, so fundraised to get them done privately – and she’s been loving the result.

The animal lover claims doctors at the hospital said the accident had been ‘life-threatening’

She says that removing them every night is a constant reminder of what she’s been through.

In a bid for a more permanent solution, she is now hoping to raise £10,000 to have implants

She added: “It’s all a bit of a blur. Pretty much all that I can properly remember is waking up in hospital with my mum next to me.’

An x-ray shows the gap left in Ella’s mouth after her horse, Friday, kicked her in the face

She was discharged from hospital three days later and eventually had her dentures fitted in May.

Ella set up a fundraising page and was extremely grateful to have raised enough to have her dentures done privately.

She said her two front teeth are missing and that doctors were forced to remove one of her bottom teeth to straighten out her jaw, so is also hoping to have this fixed too when she has implants.

She’s also hoping to raise awareness of the importance of equestrians always wearing helmets, as she claims it saved her life.

Ella has set up a fundraising page and hopes to raise £10,000 to have implants fitted

Ella said: “I set up the GoFundMe because the NHS said that even for the dentures, it was a two- to-three-year wait.

“Things are really good with Friday,” she added. ‘He didn’t do it out of spite, he got scared.

“He’s like a different horse. He’s good as gold, has the nicest temperament ever and knows that he’s home and not going anywhere now, he’s very settled.

“We’re the best of friends. He neighs at me every time I see him and runs up to me in the field, he’s my little baby.”

The University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust said that Poole Hospital deals with emergency patients and that after that initial emergency care, patients are then discharged back to their general dental practice for ongoing care.

You can donate to Ella’s fundraising page here.

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