AN EXPERIENCED horse rider was killed instantly after falling from her mount while jumping a 2ft fence, an inquest heard yesterday.

Merseyside policewoman Amanda Stone, 32, broke her neck after riding with a friend on her beloved horse Joe, Warrington Coroner's Court was told.

The PC had been a keen horse rider since the age of five, owning seven or eight different horses.

The coroner's court jury, which returned a verdict of accidental death, was told Miss Stone, from Wervin, Chester, had competed at dressage and showjumping while studying at Essex University.

On June 4, she was riding Joe on a five-mile cross-country course at an equestrian centre at Egerton Hall, near Malpas, Cheshire.

But on the fourth jump, a 2ft high "Helsinki Step" fence, she was thrown from her mount.

Marie Done, her riding partner, had just gone over the same fence, and turned to see Miss Stone on the floor.

"Amanda was unresponsive but her eyes were open. I tried to feel for a pulse and could not feel anything," Mrs Done said.

Jane Mitchell, who ran the equestrian centre, knew Miss Stone. She said the fence was one a "novice" would be expected to jump.

"It should not have caused her any problems at all.

"The horse either stumbled or he bucked. She would not have had a chance."

Mrs Mitchell said the complete bridle had come off, suggesting Miss Stone had cleared the fence, but the horse, 16 hands high, had then bucked and thrown its rider over the front of its head.

Despite wearing a helmet, a post-mortem showed a brain injury to the front of her head where Miss Stone hit the ground. It had pushed her head back with such force it broke her neck --proving "instantly fatal", Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said.

He added: "Falling from that sort of distance, with considerable force... normally you would expect the rider to be ejected from the side.

"The most one could anticipate is a few bumps and bruises, at worst broken bones. It is very unfortunate that this happened in this particular way."