Lucy Ohlson has overcome two horrific accidents in the past eight years to compete at the Horse & Hound Festival, run in association with KBIS.
Lucy, who runs Petesbrooke Equestrian Centre near Hartlepool, competed in the 70cm class aboard Donna House Star T (“Wilma”).
The pair enjoy taking part in “a bit of everything”, including unaffiliated one-day-events and Team Quest dressage competitions with friends who are based at her yard.
The riding instructor had to learn to walk and ride again after she nearly died in a car crash eight years ago.
She was driving to a friend’s house when her car collided with a piece of farm machinery being towed by a tractor.
One of the blades of the plough tore into Lucy’s car and into her side.
Lucy, who was 28 at the time, was placed in an induced coma and sustained a broken neck, brain trauma and severe internal injuries.
“I had to teach myself to ride again,” she said.
“I knew how to do it, but I had to teach my body how to do it again.”
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Lucy added she believes her recovery was down to her determination to get better.
“I’m quite a determined person,” said Lucy.
“I never thought I was never going to walk or ride again, these were just hurdles I needed to overcome.”
Lucy also broke her pelvis in a schooling fall at home last year and has been working hard to build up her strength and fitness over the past 12 months.
“My horse caught a pole between his front legs and nosedived, he fell and landed on my hip and my pelvis just shattered,” she explained.
Following extensive rehabilitation, Lucy is back in the saddle and jumped double clear at this, her first three-day-event, to finish 18th.
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The full report from the H&H Festival of Eventing in Horse & Hound will be in next week’s issue of the magazine — on sale Thursday, 7 June
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