A distraught young horsewoman says she had to watch her horse drown because help arrived too late to save her.

Kim Goldspink, 23, was riding with her boyfriend Stuart Higgins, on Holkham Beach, when her eight-year-old horse Erica threw her from the saddle.

Erica galloped off towards Brancaster Beach, and swam to Scolt Head Island, where she became became increasingly agitated.

Police and coastguards were on the beach. But the lifeboat was not called until the horse entered the water, at around 8pm. By the time it arrived on the scene, she had swam out to sea and had drowned.

Miss Goldspink, who works as a hotel waitress, said: 'I was hysterical, I was upset. We all felt totally helpless trying to save this horse.

'I was watching there, seeing my horse being dragged out by the currents, you could see her trying but the currents were just too strong.'

The couple believe that had the lifeboat been called out earlier, former racehorse Erica could have been saved.

Mother Christine Goldspink said: 'Despite Kim and Stuart saying they needed a boat, she swam out to sea and drowned. When the horse went off the island, they thought they ought to call the lifeboat. The lifeboat should have been called earlier.

'If it had been called out earlier, it could have prevented her going out to sea, it could have turned her and got her back to land.'

Miss Goldspink says she was asked not to recover Erica's body while holidaymakers were on the beach. She had to collect her in the early hours of Friday, after she had been dragged ashore by the harbour master.

'Something needs to be put in place so that no-one has to go through what we have gone through,' said Mrs Goldspink.

'They were more worried about people seeing a dead horse washed up on the beach than saving her when she was alive.'

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: 'The safety of human life is HM Coastguard's priority. HM Coastguard does respond in cases of animals in need of rescue to safeguard the owners.

'In this case a coastguard rescue team and inshore lifeboat were tasked to provide safety cover for the owners trying to recover the horse, however due to circumstances beyond the control of those involved the horse entered the water and sadly died.'