PRISCILLA SCHMIDT INJURY UPDATE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, December 4, 2011

The multiple horse fall at Doomben on Wednesday provided a stark reminder of the dangers of the sport.

Thankfully, all four runners survived relatively scathed, as did riders Bill Abbey and Jason Letherby. Jockey Larry Cassidy was hospitalized overnight with damaged rib cartilage, but for Priscilla Schmidt the outcome was far more severe.

Schmidt, an apprentice who has been riding on a high lately while rapidly building a solid reputation both in terms of talent and work-ethic, plunged to the ground when her mount Tisani Boy clipped the heels of I’m The One, and in the process started a chain reaction which saw three other runners come to grief.

Speaking to HRO at Ipswich on Friday, Dwyane Schmidt, Pricilla’s father, gave an update on Priscilla Schmidt’s condition.

“Look, she is in a fair bit of pain. She is stable.

“The injuries are … she has got two breaks to her right leg. They are down low, above her ankle. They are in the fibula. The one is right across the front and the other one is to the side and the break. So it is a pretty nasty break. She’s also got three broken ribs and a punctured lung.

“At this stage she is having more trouble with the lung than the leg. They can’t set her leg yet. They won’t be able to set her leg until the swelling goes subsides a bit, which will probably be, I’d say, seven or eight days. When that goes down they’ll be able to attend to it.

“She’s on lots of medication. There is a massive tube going in to her. On Thursday night her lungs started to fill up with fluid. They had to drain the fluid. They put a pump on her to keep it going.

“Yeah, I was at home when I got the news of the fall. I never even saw the race. My partner rang me and said, I think Cilla might have had a fall. She said four horses came down and I never saw her colours come past the post.

“I immediately rang Billy Shuck. He was actually right there with her on the track at the time and he said, ah she’s broken her ankle. At that stage they said she’s broken her ankle and they thought she might have broken her other leg as well, but in actual fact she only had two breaks to the one leg … and, of course the other injuries.

“There’s nothing good in a fall but I was thankful that she didn’t have head injuries or a back injury.

“She hasn’t had anything serious before. She did break her wrist at track-work one morning. Apart from that she has had some really nasty falls show-jumping, but has never got really badly hurt. She’s got smashed a bit. She crashed a few fences I can tell you, but has avoided serious injury. I guess you don’t have ten horses chasing all around you when you are show-jumping.

“She remembers a fair bit about the fall. She wasn’t one hundred percent, but she remembers what happened to a good extent.

“She said, I’m not one hundred percent sure about everything, but I know Chris Munce’s horse stopped that quick. She gave him a call. Her horse might have been half-hanging at the time … and the next minute, bang it was all over. She fell right under their heels.

“I’d say the minimum she will be out of action is three months. Probably, realistically, four months.

“Yeah, you’re right … it wasn’t that long ago when I was hobbling around on crutches.

“In May I broke my back in four places - show-jumping.

“I do a bit of show-jumping just as a bit of a hobby. I was on a young horse … a green horse. I went over the jump. He got in a wrong position … took the wing, jumped over the top of the wing … that separated me from him and I ended up with four breaks in my back.

“Look, I’m fully recovered now and I’ve started riding work.

“So, as a family, we’ve had a bit a bad luck this year, but it comes with the territory and you’ve just got to move on … and that’s what we’ll do.”

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