HORSE FATALITY SUIT SETTLED FOR $150,000

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992                   TAG: 9202010171
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
HORSE FATALITY SUIT SETTLED FOR $150,000
The owner of a Roanoke County stable has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit over the death of her 10-year-old niece, who was killed in a horse-riding accident four years ago.
The settlement was reached late Thursday after four days of testimony in Roanoke County Circuit Court, where a lawsuit divided the family of Amber Ruth Tarter.
The girl was killed in November 1987, when a horse she was mounting reared and fell over backward on top of her at the Sundance Manor stable in Glenvar.
In a $1 million lawsuit, Amber's mother, Sue Parsons, blamed her former sister-in-law and owner of Sundance Manor, Martha Dantzier, for the accident.
Dantzier was accused of failing to properly supervise a riding lesson for Amber and three other youths, and for not giving them helmets that Parsons contended could have saved the girl's life.
Although horseback riders are not required by law to wear helmets - as motorcycle riders are in Virginia - several medical and equestrian experts testified that children should always wear them while riding horses.
"The mother is hoping that some good will come out of this, and that people will be aware that helmets are out there and they can keep children from being seriously injured or killed," said Brent Brown, a Roanoke lawyer who represented Parsons.
But Dantzier's attorney, James Jennings, maintained that a helmet would not have made a difference in what he called a "tragic accident" for which no one could be held legally responsible.
Still, Dantzier agreed to settle the case shortly before it would have gone to a jury.
The lawsuit had also accused her of negligence in the way she taught the riding lesson, in particular allowing Amber to mount the horse unsupervised while Dantzier was in another part of a barn.
But Jennings contended that the accident happened not during an official riding lesson, but more of a "family ride."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB