Facebook seller mis-sold me an unsafe horse that kicked my daughter in the head
A mother is speaking out after her daughter was injured by a horse she purchased from a Facebook seller who allegedly mis-sold multiple unsafe animals. The case highlights the lack of industry regulations in the horse trading market.
Why it matters
It exposes the dangers of unregulated online animal sales and the potential for severe physical harm to buyers.
Image source, Facebook Image caption, Tasha Lee Hopkins, who is alleged to have mis-sold horses via social media, regularly posts photos to Facebook of herself riding horses
When her teenage daughter was lying motionless on the floor after being kicked in the head by a horse, Fiona feared the worst.
"For a moment, I thought she was dead," she said. "I thought she had broken her neck."
The horse Fiona bought six weeks earlier via Facebook was marketed as a "teenager's dream" but during a riding lesson, it bucked and bolted with her daughter partially on it before kicking her in the head.
Now Fiona, whose name has been changed to protect her daughter's identity, is one of five women who have told the BBC they were mis-sold horses that were either unsafe to ride or had life-limiting conditions by horse seller Tasha Lee Hopkins.
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