AN animal lover from Bury has urged council officials to take action after her horse tripped up in a pothole.

Louise Shine was riding her Irish Draught breed Molly from Heaton Park towards her stables in Simister when Molly stumbled and skidded in St Margaret’s Road, Prestwich.

The horse’s legs gave way and she suffered cuts to both her fetlocks.

Several bystanders came to Molly’s aid and Mrs Shine called out a vet to assess her injuries. The 21-year-old horse was able to get home without further distress and is now recovering with the aid of antibiotics and painkillers.

Mr Shine, aged 31, of Derwent Drive, said: “There was a car parked on the road so we walked around it and Molly tripped and lost her footing on the pothole.

“She skidded on her fetlocks in the road, ended up on the ground and, finally, after a few seconds, managed to get up.

“Luckily, I managed to stay in the saddle and there weren’t any cars passing me, as this could have ended up a lot worse.”

After the fall on June 29, Mrs Shine complained to Bury Council about the pothole and was told an engineer would inspect it, but was given no guarantee the hole would be filled in.

Mrs Shine, who works at Stand Newsagents in Stand Lane, Radcliffe, said: “I’m not very happy at all with the way the council is dealing with it. I’m sure if it were a police horse, they wouldn’t have had the same attitude.

"I would like to raise awareness of the state of the road to make sure it doesn’t happened to other riders.”

A Bury Council spokesman declined to go into detail about the incident as Mrs Shine indicated she would pursue legal action to reclaim vets bills.

But he said: “We have received a complaint about the condition of the road and we are investigating it.”

The council’s website says: “We are continually striving to improve the quality of our services but we have to maintain our roads and pavements within limited budgets.

“The speed of the repair depends on how urgent the problem is.”