‘I thought, not again!’: rider who broke same leg twice in 10 weeks returns to stand champion

A rider who broke the same leg twice within 10 weeks last year has come back to stand Equifest champion on the anniversary of the second break.

Rose-Zena White was 17 when she fractured her leg when her then six-year-old Dusky slipped and fell last June. Having fought her way back to fitness, she was riding the Connemara gelding at Equifest 2022 when almost the same thing happened.

“The first time, I was thinking ‘It was a freak accident, it was a freak accident’ but then it happened again – and it was a lot worse the second time,” Roze-Zena told H&H. “I was more angry than anything because I’d just got back on and going and it had happened again. As soon as I landed on the ground, I knew it was broken, and thought ‘Not again’.”

Rose-Zena was riding Dusky in the evening performance when he was crowded by another horse, and she thinks he panicked as he had nowhere to go. She spent a week in hospital after the fall, and was not back on board until October.

And when she did, she rode her other horse, part-bred Connemara Ghost, with whom she won her working hunter class at Equifest this year, then stood champion in the evening performance.

“It meant so much,” she said. “I’ve had Ghost such a long time, we know each other inside out, and it was nice to go in on a horse I felt so confident on. I’d had my doubts about riding again as you think you’re invincible, and never think it will happen to you, but it had happened, and I didn’t want to fall off again.

“But Ghost was the one I got on and got my confidence back; she got me back in the saddle. I wasn’t nervous for the evening performance, but I was wary. It felt like such an achievement just getting there so to win the championship was amazing; everyone was crying.”

Rose-Zena said the whole experience has not only changed how she rides in some ways, such as being more wary of ground conditions, she also now thinks differently about her results.

“I’m very competitive but since my leg, if I’ve had poles, I just think everyone has them,” she said. “It’s not a bad day unless something bad actually happens.

“We were planning to sell Ghost at the end of last season but we’re now trying to convince Dad – I feel like she owes me nothing. When I was lying in hospital, I’d just been picked for the Pony Club team for Bramham, and the under-18 eventing team and and I felt so low as I’d achieved all that and couldn’t do it. But Ghost gave me the motivation and kept me going, and got me back. So I hope we’re going to keep her.”

Read the full report from Equifest in this week’s H&H magazine, out 17 August.

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