Hollie Doyle says she plans to be back on a horse “in the next week or two” after missing the entire summer through injury. The 30-year-old, Britain’s winning-most female rider, has been out of action since May, when she fell at Bath after the horse she was riding went wrong and was fatally injured during a race.
Doyle was taken to hospital, where x-rays showed she had suffered a complex fracture to the lower part of her left leg from the impact of the fall. Surgeons inserted plates to stabilise the limb. Her recovery has been challenging, but in an update released by the Injured Jockeys’ Fund, she believes she is finally close to getting back on a horse.
Recovery progress
“It’s been four and half months since my fall,” she said. “Things are looking up and pretty positive now. I’ve been off the crutches for a number of weeks and I’ve got some really good orthotics to help me walk without a limp.”
“I plan to be back on a horse in the next week or two. Obviously I lost quite a lot of condition and fitness so being able to use a watt bike really helped me build back that muscle. My muscles came back pretty quickly considering how skinny my leg was. That was a big relief because looking at it a few months ago it was really hard to see a way forward, and how things were going to be okay with the lack of range in my ankle and the big limp. Things really turned a corner a few weeks ago and it’s looking good.”
Career and comeback
Doyle, who is married to top jockey Tom Marquand, has ridden 1,135 British winners in her career, including ten at Group 1 level. She had ridden ten winners in 14 days and had climbed to fifth in the Flat jockeys’ championship before her injury, which resulted in her having to watch Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and last week’s Ebor meeting at York from the sidelines when not working on her rehabilitation at the IJF’s Oaksey House facility in Lambourn.
“I do physio every day to build the strength in my left leg back up and in my ankle, which is where the biggest weakness is,” she continued. “I’ve only been able to do the single leg stuff in the last two weeks or so. I’ve got a bit of a way to go yet so I have to keep going with the rehab. I’ve never been out of work for this long. It’s nearly been five months. I’ve come a long way.”
