Singer Madonna injured in riding accident

LONDON - Singer Madonna has suffered several broken bones when she fell off a horse while riding at her English country estate on her 47th birthday, her spokeswoman said.

"She sustained three cracked ribs, a broken collar bone and a broken hand but is expected to be released from hospital later this evening," spokeswoman Barbara Charone said of the accident at Madonna's Ashcombe House estate.

"The star was celebrating her 47th birthday with her husband, film director Guy Ritchie and her two children, Lourdes and Rocco," Charone said in a statement released in London.

The singer was riding with her assistant when she had the accident. Her husband rushed her to hospital.

"She was riding a new horse, not her regular horse," her New York publicist Liz Rosenberg said.

"Hopefully she's going to get out of the hospital late tonight but she did suffer a few breaks, so she's pretty banged up, obviously," Rosenberg said.

Madonna, whose latest album Confessions on a Dancefloor is due for release in November, has been an avid fan of English country life since marrying Ritchie, director of the hit London gangster movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Among the country pursuits the Material Girl superstar enjoys is clay pigeon shooting.

Bought by the celebrity couple three years ago, Ashcombe House is a six-bedroom, 18th century mansion near the picturesque village of Tollard Royal.

Tucked away in a deep chalk valley on the borders of rural Wiltshire and Dorset, it is the former home of the British society photographer Cecil Beaton and its pheasant and partridge shoot is considered one of the best in England.

Last year, Madonna won the right to exclude hikers from much of the nine-million-pound ($23.39 million) estate.

The singer and her husband argued that unrestricted public access would destroy their right to a private family life.

- REUTERS