A HORSE rider toppled from her startled horse after a firework was thrown at them has expressed her anger and disbelief over the incident.

Anne Gilliver was riding her horse along New Road in Parley on December 29 when she heard two bangs behind her and looked around to see somebody throw a firework from a passing car.

She said: "I can't understand why somebody wanted to hurt my horse. The dangerous implications of what could have happened are not nice. It's evil. Thank God I wasn't riding over the bridge."

Ms Gilliver, from Bournemouth, first thought the bangs were from shooting in a nearby field, but after the third bang her 13 year-old horse reared up.

Ms Gilliver, 41, fell to the side of Connie, the Irish Cob carthorse, unhurt: "As she reared up I had to steer her away from the cars, otherwise she would have gone down in front of a passing vehicle. She went cantering down the road and I was left on the concrete.

"What I can't get my head around was why they did it. It's bad enough throwing fireworks on the common but to do it in busy traffic is so dangerous," she added.

Ms Gilliver looked up and saw three youths laughing in one of three different cars from which she believes fireworks were being thrown.

She bought the horse in a bad condition after the animal had previously been beaten and has spent six years gaining her trust.

Ms Gilliver has already ridden Connie again, though. "They are not going to stop me enjoying my horse, I'd like them to meet her and understand the damage they can do," she said.

"I thought, what have I ever done to them? But I just want them please to never do it again to anyone, it's so frightening."

Dorset Police are aware of the incident.