Johnny Depp almost trampled by horse

Johnny Depp was almost trampled by a horse while filming ‘The Lone Ranger’.

The 50-year-old star insisted on doing as many action scenes as possible in the Disney western but almost regretted it when he was thrown of his horse Scout, holding its mane as he was dragged for 25 yards.

He said: "We’d been running the horses pretty hot that day and went down a couple of paths. That all worked out fine until we changed paths in order to get closer to the camera car. Scout decided to jump over a few obstacles. So yeah, user error.

"You would expect to be riddled with fear or adrenaline, but I saw everything very clearly, which was the horse’s muscular front legs moving at a dangerous speed.

"I was still holding on to the mane like an idiot trying to get back up and at a certain point you have to make a decision, do I go down and hit the deck on my own? Or do I wait for the hoof to split my face in two? So I decided to go down on my own and then, incredibly, the horse lifted its front legs and he missed me."

It was almost a fatal disaster for Johnny, who knows he could have been "crushed" – and despite the accident he wants to buy the horse.

He told the Mail on Sunday newspaper’s Event magazine: "He could have crushed me in seconds. I was lucky that the horse’s instincts were good.

"I hit the deck and then stood up. Everybody was yelling at me, ‘Stay down!’ But I felt fine and just stood up and shook it off.

"After it happened they were a little skittish about putting me back on a horse for any stunts, but I did get back on and it was fine. And Scout is a very good horse. Really, he saved my life. I’m trying to buy him."