The pothole plague on rural roads is putting horse riders at risk, the farmers' insurer has warned.

Bad weather and a lack of maintenance and funding has left some roads in such a bad state that they could be closed altogether, NFU Mutual has said.

The poor state of the roads is leaving those who us them at higher risk of accident, including cyclists and horse riders.

Jeremy Atkins, an NFU Mutual senior agent in Devon, told Farmers Weekly that rural roads were the "arteries of the countryside" and it would have serious implications if they became unusable.

"Other rural road users such as cyclists and horse riders are also at risk," he said.

"They may need to take sudden avoiding action when they encounter a pothole or may ride, unsuspecting, into deep potholes which are filled with rainwater."

The warning comes a month after research by campaign group Cycling UK and magazine Cycling Weekly found 49.5 per cent of cyclists have crashed because of potholes.

Figures from NFU Mutual suggest a 48 per cent increase in the number of pothole claims from 2015-17, with the total value of claims almost doubling over the same period.