Emergency services were called to the Ocean View Recreation Reserve about 1.30pm yesterday, after the man fell from a horse.
David Taylor was waiting in his van while his two grandsons, Jordan (13) and Caiden (10), went for a walk. As they were walking on to the beach the two boys saw an agitated and wet horse with a saddle on run past them.
"We saw the horse and then we thought someone must have fallen off so we followed the horse’s tracks down the beach and saw someone injured who looked like he was coughing up sand," Jordan said.
The boys rushed back to tell someone to call an ambulance.
Another person was comforting the man while the boys ran back, Jordan said.
It was a "scary" experience but they were happy to help, he said.
Karen Warrington who was pulling into the car park when the horse ran off the beach, praised the two boys’ actions.
"Nobody had any idea why this horse had suddenly turned up without a rider until the boys came back up from the beach and told us, so somebody could call an ambulance," Ms Warrington said.
She was able to restrain the horse and eventually help police return it to a paddock on Saddle Hill.
"It certainly wasn’t a racehorse. He was a big standardbred geared up for regular riding, who was very agitated as he came flying into the car park."
A police spokeswoman said it appeared the man fell from his horse while riding near the high-tide mark about 300m from the reserve.
CPR was performed on the man before a stretcher was used to carry him off the beach into a waiting ambulance.
St John spokeswoman Chrissy Hamilton said the man was taken to Dunedin Hospital with serious injuries.
