Collettsteeled for her Blair bewitch project
IF those who peddled hurtful rumours about the accident which claimed the life of legendary steeplechaser Kauto Star were hoping to unsettle Laura Collett, they had not reckoned on her inner steel.
Conspiracy theorists were on the loose in the days which followed the June paddock accident which ultimately caused the record five-time King George VI Chase winner to be put down.
For international three-day event rider Collett, entrusted by owner Clive Smith with looking after Kauto Star and teaching him the rudiments of Dressage during the gelding’s retirement, it was an unhappy period but she has bounced back from much worse.
Her physical resilience after a fall in 2013 even saw her dubbed, ‘The Female McCoy’, an acknowledgement of his recuperative powers.
Fractured vertebrae, lacerated liver, punctured lung, broken ribs and a fractured shoulder was the injury list for Collett in the fall at Tweseldown, which also left her in a coma for a week and cost her the sight in one eye.
Seven weeks later Collett, who rides out for National Hunt trainer Oliver Sherwood during the winter, was back competing. ‘I was very fortunate to be able to get up and walk away from it — eventually. I had a little lie down for a while,’ said Collett, 25, who will be pressing her claims for the 2016 Olympics in Rio when she lines up on Grand Manoeuvre at next month’s European three-day event championships at Blair Castle in Perthshire.
‘I did get called the female McCoy — which I was quite happy about. But I was lucky because I was in a coma for a week so, by the time I woke up, they had my pain under control.
‘I lost the sight in an eye but you just get used to it and carry on.’
Reflecting on her time with Kauto Star, Collett added: ‘It was a tragedy but something happened which was completely out of my control. It is nature. Horses are horses. What kept me going was knowing there was nothing I could have done to prevent it happening.
‘No one wants to go through that but I had the focus of Grand Manoeuvre, then the possibility of team selection. Now I have the focus of Blair.’