LEADING American equitation trainer Missy Clark and her husband John Brennan, a native of Co Kildare, endured a terrifying ordeal as a masked man smashed their car window as Clark was pulling out of their hotel in Lexington, Kentucky.

The couple, who are coaching students at the Maclay Championship finals, taking place in Kentucky Horse Park, were staying in the Residence Inn by Marriott Lexington North and on leaving the hotel at 4am, a man, dressed in black and wearing a mask, approached their Porshe Cayenne and smashed the driver’s side window with an axe.

Clark, who was alone in the car at the time, hit the accelerator and the man held on for about 30 metres until falling and escaping across the fields.

Meanwhile, Brennan, who had returned to the hotel room, came out to see all this happen, before chasing the attacker until he got away.

Writing on her Facebook page following the traumatising experience, Clark said: “The world has changed. This morning I lived through one of the most horrifying experiences in my entire life.”

She shared a picture of her smashed window and the attacker’s axe, and added: “This guy broke my driver window with, umm, an axe which he dropped into the car probably as I was dragging him. The corner of my driver seat is sliced open too.”

It is likely the attacker was trying to steal Clark’s luxury jeep.