A talented cross-country rider died after her beloved horse somersaulted over a jump, crushing her chest in a freak accident, an inquest heard today.

Emma Jonathan, 23, a former pupil of Stonar School near Atworth, Melksham, had been competing in the Hartpury Horse Trials in Gloucestershire on August 8 last year.

She was thrown off her horse, El Nino, just before the end of the course after the five-year-old mare struck the fence at jump 19 and flipped vertically through mid-air.

Miss Jonathan, from Petersfield in Hampshire, died from massive internal injuries after her chest was crushed under the weight of the horse which rolled off her before trotting away.

Miss Jonathan had been riding since the age of five and started competing while boarding at provate girls' school Stonar.

She had bought El Nino, a careful and good natured horse, as a novice in 2004 and had trained her herself.

Shortly before the accident, Miss Jonathan had been picked to join an elite group from which the British eventing team is selected and had hoped to compete in the London Olympics.

She had just graduated from the University of East Anglia with a 2:1 in the history of art.

At an inquest into her death at Gloucester Coroner's Court today, fence judges told the jury that other riders had had some difficulties in approaching the jump but Miss Jonathan had come to it sensibly.

Elizabeth Hill, one of the judges, said: "Emma looked comfortable and in control and they looked like a real partnership."

Miss Jonathan slipped to the right-hand side and landed on her front before El Nino toppled onto her back.

Mrs Hill ran to her aid and said she groaned and started to move.

"I told her to stay still and that help was coming, I could see blood coming from her mouth," she said.

"When the doctor arrived her eyes lost focus and she started to fade away, I shouted at her.

"There was no obvious reason through Emma's riding, the structure of the fence or the weather conditions, for this to have happened.

"Emma was using her judgment, she was riding well and she came at the jump at exactly the right pace."

A team of doctors and paramedics tried in vain to save Miss Jonathan by carrying out CPR and administering adrenaline for 30 minutes.

Miss Jonathan's mother Jane had been waiting at the finish line for her daughter with buckets of water to cool El Nino down.

In a statement to the court, she said: "I was listening to the commentary over the tannoy and suddenly it went quiet.

"Then there was an announcement that there was a hold up on the course.

"I went to investigate and saw El Nino being walked towards me and I knew that Emma had fallen."

An accident investigator employed by British Eventing said that there was a 30 per cent chance that a rider would suffer serious injury or death after a somersault fall - the most dangerous.

Special pins on the fence designed to break the bar on impact from a horse are intended to keep the horse upright.

The jury heard evidence from course builder Andrew Campbell-Hunter who had re-installed the pins at jump 19 shortly before the event. A subsequent inspection had ruled them sound.