TRIBUTES have been paid to a retired solicitor who died in a hunting accident.

Father of three Anthony Osborne, 66, was riding with the Cotley hunt when his horse George slipped and fell on him.

Cotley joint master Edward Eames said: “He had been one of our members for a long time.

“The accident happened when the Cotley hounds had a joint meet with the Axe Vale. Hounds were trailing in the Axe Vale country.

“I wasn’t there that day but I have been told the horse fell down going down a track and I think the horse rolled on him struggling to get up.

“I think he ended up with quite serious internal injuries.

“He will be missed by members of the Cotley hunt.”

The hunt held a minute’s silence for him at their Friday meet.

Mr Osborne, who lived at Hawkchurch, near Marshwood, worked for Kitson and Trotson in Bridport before joining Chard legal firm Clarke Willmott and Clarke then was a senior partner at Beviss and Beckingsale.

He was a member of the Bridport Round Table and the Chard Rotarians and played with the West Bay skittles team.

Mr Osborne’s son James, 35, said: “It was just a terrible accident. He really lived for his hunting.

“It helps that he died doing something that he loved and also that he is not wired up down in Exeter or paralysed, that would just be hideous.

“If he had to go any way this is the way he would have wanted to go.”

His funeral is on March 22 in Hawchurch at 2pm. Donations to the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance c/o Wakelys in Bridport.