An Update from Peter and Henny

Eventing Nation just spoke to Peter Atkins from a hospital in Westchester County in New York where he awaits surgery on his broken leg, “I broke the bottom off the tibia and the fibia, so they have to pin and plate it to get it all back together”. In a cruel twist of appalling timing, a delayed, and then cancelled flight meant that had Peter, Henny and Firedrake, his Badminton entry, and his exciting young horse, all left for England on their originally scheduled flight on 2am monday morning, they would have been safely en route to London at the time of the accident, and be settling in to English digs as I write this.

In another almost unbelievable case of terrible timing, this is first instance that Peter has ever broken a bone in his life. In his third attempt to make it to Badminton, the two previous times something went wrong with his horses, and now having come so close this time, he told me he’s heartbroken, and incredulous, but keeps telling himself that thank God it’s him and not Henry,

“Henny’s good, he’s fine. He was looking at me laying on the ground, and wondering what the hell had happened and what he could do to help. I’ve never fallen off him, and this was just a stupid, stupid accident. I’m still not sure what he shied at, and how he hooked a back foot in the rock wall and got tangled up, and the next thing I knew he was on top of me.”

Peter said the doctors and nurses were well impressed with his home made cast, and it sounds like he’s bearing up stoically, in fact it sounds like he’s being a true Aussie-stye hero!

“It got a little shaky there for a while, and they put a temporary cast on. The inflammation caused some pain so they gave me some morphine and we’ll see how that goes. I work with horses, I’m used to it. Your feet get trodden on, I get kicked and knocked around all the time so it doesn’t bother me.”

With classic Peter Atkins understatement, he explains that he can’t make any major decisions or go anywhere for the next couple of days, “At some stage a bit of bone poked out and it became compound, so I have to be here for 48 hours for the antibiotics and to make sure there’s no infection”.

The plan going forward depends a lot on how the surgery goes this afternoon, “Of course I’d like to say I’ll be back riding in three or four weeks – the doctors say six weeks but I don’t believe them, and I’d like to go to Luhmuhlen, but I can’t plan on that yet until I know how I’m feeling in the next few days.”

Luckily, Henny and Firedrake are at a lovely facility in New York, “it’s a wonderful place, it’s got a really good feeling, really good management so he’s happy there.” Having just shipped to New York from Ocala on Friday Peter is reluctant to move Henny yet. Peter’s first choice to ride Henny while he himself is out of commission would be Dressage rider (and one time eventer) Jim Koford, based in Wellington, Florida, who’s been helping Peter a lot this winter, “He’s not that easy to ride, so that’s my biggest concern”.

Both Peter and Henny are already qualified to ride at the London 2012 Olympics, now they face a race against time for Peter to heal in time to compete at Luhmuhlen and sufficiently impress the selectors to make the team, “the only chance I have is Luhmuhlen, presuming I can actually get there. If I can keep him in training, get there and have a good run at Luhmuhlen then that’s my only hope, but it’s still not Badminton. Not a very happy day.”

Eventing nation would like to send Peter, and all his connections very best wishes for a fast recovery and the very best of luck going forward. We will continue to keep you updated on all the Run Henny Run news, and hope the surgery goes well. When I asked Peter if there was anything at all we could do to help, I could practically hear him shrugging in his hospital bed, “Get me a new leg?!? ” Go and get better as fast as you can, and Go Eventing!

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