DAYS after an inquest on a woman rider, thrown from the saddle when a low-flying military helicopter made her horse bolt, I have just witnessed a similar, dangerous act.

At around 2.30pm on November 1, I saw two helicopters make a sudden descent across a field in Thormanby. A horse standing there took to his heels in fear and galloped 200 yards at full speed round the fenced area.

There was no way that the pilots could have told whether it had a rider or not.

That particular horse, Charley, regularly practises jumps in that field with a young girl on his back.

By the grace of God, she wasn't riding him then. If she had been, the chances of another accident, quite possibly fatal, would have been better than evens.

The helicopters had Army camouflage markings, and either individual pilots were ignoring the fine words spoken after the inquest, or fine words are all they are, and we can expect new dangerous and unnecessary acts of contempt for the citizenry.

Edward Pearce,

Ryedale House,

Thormanby,

Easingwold.

Updated: 10:17 Saturday, November 06, 2004