Nevada toddler kicked in the head by wild horse in scary video

A Nevada mother inadvertently filmed the quiet moment her toddler ran through a Nevada meadow just before a wild horse kicked the girl in the head.

“I thought she had died because she was unresponsive,” Haley Wilkey recalled the horrific incident.

Little Olivia's skull was split as a result of the brutal abuse – and her mother had to hold her head together during the agonizing 45 minutes that passed before help arrived.

Miraculously, the three-year-old survived this horrific incident and was released from the hospital less than a week after her near-death experience – and her mother filmed her attacker.

In the video, Olivia is seen admiring the beautiful black mustang from several feet away as it munches on grass at Mount Charleston, 40 miles west of Las Vegas.

Wilkey, her husband and four children were in the mountain range doing a photo shoot for another family when two wild horses appeared.

“What is that?” Wilkey asks her toddler, who sweetly replies, “It’s a horse.”

At that moment, Olivia turns her back on the wild horse, which can weigh up to 450 kilograms, and the video stops.

Seconds later, the beast approached the little girl and tore her to pieces.

Wilkey told Fox 5 Vegas that her screams alerted a stranger who played a key role in saving Olivia's life as her father drove down the mountain to find cell reception in the remote area.

“He had a first aid kit with him. He gave me bandages and helped me apply pressure to her head until the bleeding subsided a little. If we released the pressure a little, the bleeding would start flowing again,” Wilkey said.

Wilkey added: “I think she was holding her head for almost 45 minutes while she waited for the ambulance.”

The ambulance took the little girl to a helicopter, which then flew her to the university hospital.

Olivia underwent a three-hour operation in which a neurosurgeon repaired her fractured skull, her family said in an online fundraiser.

She also suffered a brain hemorrhage, a brain contusion and a “severe concussion.”

Despite her serious injuries, Olivia was able to speak to her relatives again just three days later and was released in less than a week.

Her grateful family told Fox 5 Nevada that they are sharing their story to warn other parents about the wild horses at Mount Charleston.

In retrospect, Wilkey admits that she was too close to the animals, but now says that she would have left the meadow as soon as the horses appeared.