There’s no cure for the Monday blues, right? Wrong-o, friends — there most certainly is, and it comes in the form of jolly good news. Today, that news — and that bit of sunshine on a dreary Monday — comes to us from Jonty Evans, whose rehabilitation after a traumatic brain injury sustained at Tattersalls on June 3, 2018 is one we’ve all been following closely.
The boy’s done good: Jonty Evans and Cooley Rorkes Drift at Badminton. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.
After spending six weeks in a coma in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and undertaking a lengthy period of rehabilitation, most recently under the careful guidance of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund‘s Oaksey House centre, Jonty has defied perhaps all the odds. Beginning with stints on Hartpury College’s mechanical horse, the popular rider — arguably The People’s Eventer — has since progressed onto the real thing. Today, he shared one of his most poignant pieces of news yet — he’s back on board Cooley Rorkes Drift, or ‘Art’, the horse he crowdfunded in excess of £500,000 to secure, and from whom he fell at Tattersalls.
The best view in the world? Photo courtesy of Jonty Evans.
“It’s not possible to put into words what it’s like to be on him again,” says Jonty. “It feels like I was meant to be there, and I’m so grateful for the support I’ve had.”
Art, who is jointly owned by Jonty, Jane and Fred Moss, and Elisabeth Murdoch, was kept in work in the initial stages of Jonty’s rehabilitation by fellow venter Andrew Downes. More recently, he moved back to Jonty’s Gloucestershire base and has been ridden by head girl Jane Felton.
Jonty’s continued rehabilitation has been made possible in large part as a result of the support of the David Foster Injured Riders’ Fund and the IJF‘s Oaksey House. If you’d like to contribute to either of these fantastic organisations’ efforts, visit their websites for more information.
