Tributes to horse rider who died 13 months after accident

A former riding school owner has died, 13 months after suffering a catastrophic brain injury in an accident involving a horse.

Helen Lord-Scott was injured at Bank Farm near Arley, Worcestershire, on Easter Monday 2025.

She spent more than seven months at the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre in Birmingham, undergoing several operations, before being transferred to the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital where she died in May.

Her husband Ged Scott, a reporter for BBC Sport, said she was never happier than being on horseback, and it was the "cruellest tragedy" that the 61-year-old, from Burford, Shropshire, had lost her life in this way.

He said she had initially shown a positive response, but failed ever to regain full consciousness.

In a tribute, he added: "She could not only light up any room, she was the life force of it too. No matter what the subject, she had an opinion - and it was almost always spot on."

An inquest is to be held in Stourport-on-Severn, scheduled for 8 March 2027, with a preliminary review hearing first in October.

Helen Lord-Scott was born in 1964 and brought up in Nelson, Lancashire, the county where she first worked with horses, later living in Chorley.

She moved to the Midlands in 1995 with her first husband Michael Lord, buying Stourton Hill Stables, near Kinver.

Following the end of her first marriage, Helen remained in charge there until the yard closed in 2011, as a result of a tough economic climate.

She had since remained involved with horses "on a daily basis", the journalist added, most notably with various groups within the Riding For The Disabled Association, both in Worcestershire and Shropshire, for whom she was the county coach.

He said her love of horses went back to her early teens.

She had met Red Rum on one of the three-times Grand National winner's public appearances in Lancashire and "managed to both pat him and surreptitiously steal a hair from his mane - one of her proudest possessions".

She also volunteered with Tenbury Wells scouts, and had undertaken a series of long-distance charity walks.

Starting with the River Severn, she also walked the length of the rivers Wye, Thames, Taff and Ribble, the Grand Union Canal, the Norfolk Coastal Path, the Llyn Peninsula Coastal Path, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, the Pennine Way, the Coast To Coast, the Pennine Way, the South West Coast Path and, in 2023, Lands End To John O'Groats.

Helen and Ged married in 2002 and lived near Kidderminster before moving to Burford in November 2020. She also leaves behind three sons - Sam, 30, 27-year-old Ollie, and George, 23.

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