A STABLEGIRL was due to undergo a four-hour operation today after being kicked in the face by one of the racehorses at a Ryedale yard.

Anne Blanchard, 40, who works for Tim Easterby at Great Habton, near Malton, was facing surgery on a smashed jaw at York District Hospital.

She was kicked by three-year-old sprinter Artie, recent winner of the William Hill Trophy at York, as she was getting the horse in from the paddock last week.

She suffered multiple fractures to her jaw and was initially placed in intensive care.

Her partner Jeremy Corkell said today she was lucky not to have been even more badly hurt, or even killed.

"She was in and out of consciousness until they got her stabilised," he said. "She had a tracheotomy to help her breathing, because she'd swallowed so much blood."

Mr Corkell said no one was to blame for the accident. "It was just one of those things," he said.

Updated: 11:40 Wednesday, July 03, 2002