Appeal to find teen rider's hit and run driver

Seventeen-year-old agricultural college student Jade Lawson from Kirkby La Thorpe was riding her horse Darcy at about midday on Saturday on the lane through Ewerby near the playing field. A car is said to have come up behind, without giving way and clipped the rear end and legs of the horse.

Jade’s father, Dave Lawson, said she was riding with Jade Broughton, the owner of the stable yard where Darcy is kept, when the incident happened. Luckily the horse did not rear, bolt or unseat its rider and appears not to have suffered any lasting damage.

But he said: “It shook my daughter up and scared her. Jade the yard boss was fuming when they got back. They saw him stop further up the road and check for damage to his car before driving off. He could not have cared less.

“Darcy is an expensive horse from Ireland. My daughter does showjumping.”

The man is described as being aged 60 to 70 with long grey hair, balding at the back. The car was a red Astra and they managed to get a partial registration number of DP12.

Mr Lawson has reported the matter to the police and said there have been too many people trying to use the country lanes to avoid the A17 road works and traffic queues, endangering horse riders by going too fast around bends, although this incident happened on a straight piece of road.

He said: “A woman was out running and witnessed it all and we have a lot of people looking out for this vehicle.”

He said Ms Broughton has asked the county highways department for warning signs about horses using the lanes. “Someone is going to get hurt before long,” he said.

An appeal on Facebook has lead to a couple of possible sightings so far.

Police invite anyone with information to call 101 quoting incident 189 of February 24.