‘I can't wait to return to the outback!'

Stockwoman Lydia is so thankful for Annabelle’s life-saving actions after her mustering accident

- Brigid Auchettl

When Lydia Inglis woke up five days after a dramatic and terrifying mustering accident, it took weeks for her to grasp what had happened.

“It was like I was having a really vivid dream,” Lydia tells Woman’s Day from her family home in Central Otago, New Zealand.

“I thought I was still on the station – I had no idea what had happened to me and everything was hazy.”

Lydia was living her dream life working as a stockwoman at Yarrie Station, WA, when she fell from her horse and down a 1.8-meter rocky bank while she was herding cattle in August 2020.

The 27-year-old was taking part in a two-day muster alongside a team of stock hands responsible for rounding up the cattle on the 2500-square kilometre property when her horse was charged by a cow.

“The horse kicked out at the cow and as it came up our heads collided and I was knocked unconscious,” explains Lydia, who has no memory of the accident itself, but has been told what happened by her workmates.

MEMORY LOST

“My head just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – nothing could have been done to prevent it from happening,” says Lydia, who was wearing a helmet.