Horse Hit By Speeding Rally Car

The horse is sent flying by the impact with the car.

The from within the car just before making contact.

Argentine Rally contestant Federico Villagra was coming over a verge in his Ford Focus when three native horses wandered into his path.

The car hit the first horse in the hindquarters and sent it spiralling into the air but narrowly missed the other two animals.

"I was surprised that some horses crossed … (one) hit the windshield and flew over the car," Villagra was quoted by the Los Andes newspaper as saying.

The surreal footage of the incident is corroborated by an in-car camera that demonstrates how quickly the incident occurred from the occupants' perspective.

The driver and navigator can be seen working together as their car accelerates out of a corner and up a small hill, where they catch the briefest of glimpses of the horses before the bonnet and windshield are smashed in by the force of the impact.

The duo are clearly shocked by the incident but keep driving, even though the soundtrack suggests the engine and other mechanicals have been badly damaged.

They still managed to finish the stage, losing only 30 seconds.

Villagra later told reporters he was "fortunate" to have come out of the crash unscathed.

Wild horses are a common hazard for rally drivers in the north of Argentina.