Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

This picture shows what happened after a spooked horse smashed its head through the trailer as its owner drove on the motorway.

The accident happened on the A7 Motorway just east of the city of Hildesheim in the German state of Lower Saxony.

According to local media, the 78-year-old driver and his 69-year-old female acquaintance were transporting an 11-year-old Hanoverian horse in the trailer.

Pictures Credit: CEN

They had just passed the Hildesheimer Boerde rest stop when the driver noticed the trailer swaying from side to side.

When he looked in the mirror, he noticed that the horse had managed to smash through the front of the trailer and had its bloodied head sticking out of the gap.

The elderly driver immediately parked his vehicle on the hard shoulder and alerted the emergency services.

Before the police arrived on the scene, a passing GP stopped and gave the spooked horse a human sedative to help it calm down, according to reports.

When the police arrived, they closed several lanes on the motorway as a precaution.

A police spokesman said: “For unknown reasons, the horse reared up and broke through the front of the trailer with its head. The animal was seriously injured.”

“As the behaviour of an injured animal – especially a large powerful horse – is unpredictable, arriving officers used two patrol cars in each direction to guide the cars along a single lane.

“An officer with a submachine gun kept the horse trailer in sight as a precautionary measure so he could intervene as quickly as possible in an emergency situation.”

A vet from a nearby town arrived and decided that the best course of action was to put the horse down due to the severity of its injuries.

The police spokesman said: “The 69-year-old owner was medically assisted by an emergency crew as she was emotionally moved and in shock over what happened.”

Under a police escort, the trailer was finally removed and traffic resumed on all motorway lanes.

It is unclear what caused the horse to act that way.