A Hamilton town official has been hospitalized and left mourning the death of her horse after she was thrown off while riding on an Ipswich trail.

Rosie Kennedy, clerk of the Hamilton Select Board , has been riding the trail for years, but after a Nov. 21 incident, she’s now suffering an unstable left ankle fracture and a right medial collateral ligament tear. However, she said the worst pain is the grief she’s feeling for her 8-year-old horse, Pops, who had to be euthanized.

Kennedy told Boston.com that a man on a mountain bike spooked Pops as they approached railroad tracks that the trail crossed. When Kennedy first caught a glimpse of something speeding through the trees out of the corner of her eye, she said, she wasn’t sure what it was.

Whatever it was, it frightened Pops, who sp

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