Woman back riding after recovery from horse kick

Julie Doorne refused to give up her passion for horses despite enduring two years of facial reconstruction after an accident in which she was kicked in the face and knocked unconscious.

Doctors told her she was "lucky to be alive" after losing a large portion of her face and all but eight teeth in the incident while she was feeding her horses at home in Grantham.

"Half an inch the other way and it could have been different," she said.

After multiple operations, including bone grafts and teeth implants, Ms Doorne, 71, has overcome her initial fear and is back riding, remaining as devoted as ever to the "amazing animals" which nearly cost her life.

"I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have horses," she said. "I'd start knitting or something."

Ms Doorne was knocked unconscious in the incident in July 2022 and felt a large hole in her face when she woke up.

"I phoned 999 because I thought it was probably quite bad because at that point I was spitting quite a few teeth out," she said.

Her husband, Bill Guinness, was out walking the family dogs with his daughter when the incident happened.

He said a police officer attending could not believe the severity of the injury and thought his wife had been attacked.

"The police officer at the time said he'd never seen an injury like it - even in a road traffic accident," he said.

After having initial emergency surgery, the family worked out that the horses had been having a disagreement over who was going to eat first - and Ms Doorne was either kicked or trodden on in the incident.

Ms Doorne spent two years without teeth due to delays in getting follow-up treatment before the family sought private treatment which Mr Guinness said cost "tens of thousands of pounds".

In the months following the incident, Ms Doorne said a lack of confidence made her unable to "walk up and down the stairs" by herself.

She said she still feels self-conscious talking to strangers and covers her mouth when she laughs.

The accident changed the family's future plans, with Mr Guinness bringing forward his retirement to care for his wife.

He said: "The plans we made got changed because of that day and that accident.

"The beat of a butterfly's wings, and the whole world has changed."

Ms Doorne still has two horses at home and, despite being nervous around the animals at first, said she "wouldn't get rid of the horses".

"For a long time I was very jumpy around the horses. If they swished their tails near me I sort of jumped a bit. I'm a lot better with that now," she said.

She described the accident as "my fault" and said: "It wasn't their fault. They weren't kicking at me."

Discussing her love of horses, Ms Doorne said: "They are so clever, they can tell how you feel. They can if you're tell nervous from 10 yards away, 20 yards away.

"They're just souls – they know you."

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