Horses and air horns don’t mix.Megan Settatree has a fractured rib to prove it.

The 15-year-old Canadian, who moved to Bermuda last year, was riding in Ontario when an air horn rang out from a passing truck.

The noise spooked her six-year-old Paso Fino, Serafina. Megan was thrown to the ground and the driver raced off without stopping to help.

Police are now looking for the culprits.

“I don’t know why someone would do that, but I think it was a prank,” said Megan, who is staying with her grandparents in Stirling for the summer.

“Up until then I’d been having a good day. I’d been at a small horse show with my horse Serafina and we won several ribbons.

“We were on our way home. My grandparents lived just a few miles down the road.”

Her first thought after the accident was not for herself.

“I was just hoping my horse was OK,” said Megan. “I got up and was trying to get on my horse and I couldn’t get on.”

She was surprised when Serafina lay down to let her mount.

“She has never been trained to do that,” said Megan. “I was really surprised she didn’t run home and that she stayed there. I think she knew I was hurt.”

Megan rode for 20 minutes before a neighbour stopped to help.

“Her daughter had been at the horse show with me,” she said. “She got out and started leading my horse down the road.

“Then three little girls walked my horse the rest of the way home.”

The teenager came to the island last November with her parents, Laura and Ken, and her sister, Marissa. The family made the move after her father was hired as a senior underwriting consultant at Manulife Bermuda.

“Leaving my horse last November was pretty difficult,” said Megan. “I only had her for three months when we had to move to Bermuda.”

She started riding when she was three years old and has a passion for horses. Her parents own a small farm in Stirling, and have two other horses as well.

“It has been a difficult year,” said the teenager, who starts at Mount Saint Agnes next month. “It has been a hard transition from going to school in Canada to here.

“When I went back to Canada in June, I just couldn’t wait to see my horses. This is going to make it really hard to leave her again to come back to Bermuda.”

Serafina seems fine after the accident, and Megan has been riding her again.

Her story appeared in Insidebelleville.com, an online newspaper published near her grandparents’ home.

“Since that story appeared on August 14, a lot of people have reached out to me,” said Megan. “I really appreciate that.”

Her mother was impressed by Serafina’s devotion to Megan.

“It is heart-warming,” she said. “We have a real gem with that horse. When I first heard, through a Skype call with my parents, I got angry.

“I thought of what really could have happened and I had a few choice words for those drivers.

“I was relieved though that my parents were with her to comfort her. I was once again reminded of how awesome my neighbours are.”

Megan returns to Bermuda on September 3.