Three young women are recovering in hospital after a bizarre horse-riding accident involved a lifeboat crew.

Five horse-riders were exercising their horses on Shoebury Beach in Essex when one of the steeds collapsed trapping it’s rider in sea-water. After a local lifeboat crew, police and ambulancemen attended she was released although the horse died.

The incident brought back memories of a cavalry officer who was cut off by the tide while exercising his mount on the Maplin Sands off Shoebury Barracks. He was rescued by a passing sailing barge: although the horse died that time, too.