Madonna broke bones, falling off horse

Pop star, author and lady of the manor Madonna required hospital treatment yesterday after she fell off a horse while celebrating her 47th birthday.

The singer, who was last night understood to be recovering at her home in Wiltshire, cracked three ribs, and broke a collarbone and a hand in the fall at her 1,200-acre Ashcombe House estate.

She had been celebrating her birthday with her husband, Guy Ritchie, and her two children, Lourdes and Rocco, when the accident happened. Madonna is not the first celebrity to have been injured in a horse-riding accident. Superman actor Christopher Reeve was paralysed from the shoulders down when he broke his neck falling from a horse in 1995. The 52-year-old actor died last October.

British actor Roy Kinnear suffered a fatal fall from a horse while on location in Spain. Kinnear, 54, bled to death after suffering a broken pelvis during the filming of The Return of the Three Musketeers in 1988.