Eight-year-old Mario Swainson was still in shock yesterday after narrowly escaping being crushed under a horse.

Mario was playing in a playhouse in his grandmother's yard and decided to switch to some swings.

Minutes later a run-away pony jumped an embankment and crashed onto the playhouse, smashing it to pieces.

Yesterday his grandmother Janice Swainson said: "It was a horrifying experience. My grandson escaped death by ten minutes.'' The incident happened on Thursday evening when Mario was playing outside at his home on Portland Square, Somerset.

"Mario said he heard the horse galloping and then it came flying over the embankment and landed on the playhouse,'' added Mrs. Swainson, who lives with her daughter and grandson.

"The playhouse was demolished and the horse got jammed behind my shed. It was a nightmare. I thank God for sparing Mario's life. Ten minutes earlier and that horse would have jumped on my grandson,'' she said.

The horse belongs to Alfred Simmons, whose Rushy Lane home backs onto Mrs.

Swainson's house.

He said his six-year-old pony, called Casey, was tethered to a tree in his garden when something must have scared the animal.

"I'm not sure what it was that scared Casey, but he bolted and took some of the tree with him,'' said Mr. Simmons, who has owned the horse for a couple of years.

"I heard the Swainsons calling and went down to get Casey. He had damaged the playhouse and I told them I would get it fixed.

"This is the first time anything like this has happened and he's back tethered up now.''