After falling from a young horse in March 2017, Laura Scott sustained a severe spinal injury. Her rehabilitation has been supported by the Injured Jockeys Fund and, this year, Laura has had some exciting victories in the para-dressage arena while working with her father Jeremy’s talented string of racehorses.
“I was riding a young horse for some friends of ours and it bucked me off into a fence post. I broke my neck in two places and my back in two places,” Laura explained about her injury. “The breaks on my neck basically went into my spinal cord, so initially I couldn’t feel anything from my neck down. I spent three and a half months in hospital and, luckily, they didn’t have to operate. I just had to lie on my back for seven weeks, I think it was, before I first sat up. I had to wait for the bones to heal, and then slowly, luckily, it started coming back. But I lost all use of my hands, my arms, my legs — everything didn’t work. And then I got it back and I managed to walk out of hospital.”
“I rode pointing, but I wasn’t a professional jockey or anything, but the IJF still just scooped you up. As soon as something goes wrong, they’re straight there,” Laura said. “They were literally there a couple of days after it. They were straight in. I had Julia, she came in and saw me quite a bit. Then, when I came out of hospital, I went up to Oaksey House a few times for a couple of weeks and I did a few beneficiary weeks up there, which was really good. Now we go to the hub in Taunton probably once a month to keep up with the physio, to keep everything moving on top of it all.”
The Beneficiary Weeks were especially enjoyable. “The IJF just get a few of the beneficiaries together, probably between five and ten of us. We do a week and they do activities and things, and physio. It’s quite nice to get everybody together and to kind of meet everybody and, probably as good as anything, it was just to speak to them and see what they’re going through. They can relate to you and you can relate to them, and, I don’t know, they just kind of get it. It’s really good.”
Laura still has challenges from her injury. “I think if you didn’t know me you’d probably not think there was much wrong, but I’m probably very good at hiding it. My left side is still not very good and my hands aren’t very good and, in the cold, it really highlights that. But I think going to the physio and keeping on top of it and getting stronger just helps with day-to-day life really. But I think the best thing I ever did was getting back on a horse. (I decided one day that I didn’t really know how I was going to get on or off, but I thought I would do it somehow!) I think that is as good a physio as anything. So, yeah, I’m really lucky. The beginning was pretty bleak, like I didn’t know how I was going to turn out, but my body was good and it’s turned out okay.”
Since then, Laura has become a rising star within the Para Dressage ranks. “So, I got back riding and then we just had a little, small dressage competition up the road from us and I did it on my old event horse and that went quite well. A lady there, whose school I actually use now, was like, ‘Oh, you should start doing dressage,’ so it kind of started from there and I found out about Para Dressage and how to get classified and things, so I’ve gone on from there, really. But it’s a lovely community, everyone is really nice and it’s a good way to get your competitiveness back.”
With wins at Regional and Three Star level this summer, Laura and her horse look to have a big future as a partnership, and this has led to an exciting opportunity with the British Dressage team. “I have actually just been selected to go on one of their World Class programmes, so that’s really cool. I’ll get some training and support from the British squad, which is pretty exciting. Hopefully one day I might get on a team, whether it’s a European or World Championship, or a Paralympics — that is my main aspiration. But, you know, we have a long way to go. The horse I’ve got at the moment is lovely, so I’m hoping we might get there, or at least be knocking on the door for it.”
Along with Dressage, Laura works as head girl for her father, trainer Jeremy Scott. “I came into it a bit quicker, obviously, after my accident. I probably would’ve gone off and done something else, but I was sort of chucked in sooner than expected, but it’s good. I’ve learnt a lot doing it. I do a lot with the horses and now Mum and I work closely with the training of the horses. She’s kind of passing that on to me more now, which is nice. It makes it good when you’ve got a good bunch of staff to work with. They make life a lot easier.”
Last National Hunt season was a season of two halves for the Scott team. “The first half of our season was really tough. We felt like the horses really weren’t running very well and we didn’t know why or what, and the harder you tried the worse it got. It was just one of those years when nothing really went right. In the spring, it just turned a corner and we had two trebles — that was when Golden Ace won the Kingwell — so it all started sort of clicking. Never, ever imagined we’d win the Champion Hurdle, but yeah, best day ever!”
At the Cheltenham Festival, the Scotts won a highly dramatic Champion Hurdle with Golden Ace, who owner Ian Gosden bought for just 12,000 guineas, ridden by Lorcan Williams.
“Because I do work on the yard and I do that, there’s obviously a big build up to it, and you’re trying to get her there in the best shape she can be,” Laura remembered. “So, there’s quite a lot of pressure leading up to it the whole day, thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I hope she jumps round alright and comes back okay,’ and stuff. I just remembered watching the race and, when Constitution Hill fell, I was like, ‘Go on then, might be able to get in the first two or three.’ And then, when it happened, I remember standing there with my hand on my head thinking, ‘No, surely not.’ It was just amazing. It was a really surreal day, but, I mean, even if she had finished second we’d have been absolutely delighted. She ran a blinder regardless of what the other horses did. It was just a magic day.”
The celebrations were “pretty big,” with Jeremy staying in Cheltenham when he was meant to go home and pints and champagne in the local pub for the team. Some of the best-loved pictures from the whole meeting were of the Jeremy Scott Racing supporters surrounding the winners’ enclosure. “We had a few friends up there so at the winners’ enclosure they all started cheering, chanting and whatever else they were doing, and it was amazing because you just looked out and there were so many people we knew and they were genuinely as happy as we were that it had happened. So, yeah, crazy day. Wish we could go back and relive it, really, probably enjoy it a bit more without the nerves!”
A second tilt at the Champion Hurdle could be on the cards for the star mare. “We’ll take it as it comes. She has come in really well and I think she’ll follow a similar route to last year, so we’ll see what happens!”