Jiggi horse trainer Angela Ward faces long recovery from fall injury

An experienced horse trainer has endured a tough recovery from what she described as a minor fall that had a major impact. Here is what saved her.

A “basic fall” that put an experienced rider in intensive care would have ended her life were it not for a vital piece of safety equipment.

Angela Ward, who runs AW Horsemanship in Jiggi, says she would rate the tumble she took last month in the “bottom five” falls of her extensive career.

But it had by far the worst outcome.

Ms Ward said she was in the paddock and the horse just simply turned right and her saddle slipped.

“I hit the deck and slipped under the fence and collected a couple of rocks with my head.

“Literally the fact that I wear a helmet every time I ride is why I can tell my story,” she said.

The impact robbed Ms Ward of her memory.

“My brain has even deleted 15 minutes prior so I literally have no clue what happened,” Ms Ward said.

“The horse I was riding, I’d got off to fix up one of my reigns and took him for a walk over to the trough to get a drink and that’s the last memory.”

Experienced trainer Angela Ward holds the helmet that saved her life when she fell from a horse in January.

Ms Ward was put into an induced coma before being flown to the Gold Coast University Hospital.

Her mum, Lyn Ward, said she was terrified.

“I was scared, scared I was going to lose my daughter,” Lyn said.

The impact Ms Ward suffered had caused substantial swelling to her brain, eyes and face.

“On Wednesday my left eye would only open about one millimetre,” Ms Ward said.

“The right eye was probably three quarters open.”

Specialists then ran a series of tests over the next few days for her eyes, speech, mobility and cognition.

Ms Ward was discharged from hospital after a week.

Angela Ward suffered serious injuries in the fall.

Her mum said she was relieved to have her daughter home.

“She’s doing very well and I’m very surprised at where she is at the moment,” Lyn said.

It could take Ms Ward anywhere between three months and 12 months to recover from the brain injury and whiplash she sustained.

“At the moment I’m not allowed to drive, not allowed to go to work until I get clearance,” she said.

“I’ve been told to take it easy, don’t spend too much time out in the heat as that could affect the brain bleed that I had.”

Fobbing off the occasional headache and constant pressure she felt in the left side of her head, Ms Ward said she couldn’t “do anything stupid” if she wanted to get back into riding.

“I can’t ride at the moment and I’m limited to what I can do but I have a 16-month-old filly that I started working with two days ago,” Ms Ward said.

She said the young horse would help keep her mind occupied during her road to recovery.

Angela Ward of AW Horsemanship in Jiggi with her ‘recovery horse’.

“Just knowing how sensible she would be even though she is totally unhandled means that I would be able to keep myself in a safe environment and try to further her education,” Ms Ward said.

“In the two days, I’ve got her so that she’ll come up to me, she’ll follow me, I can halt her, I can lead her.”

Ms Ward said a “trainable mind” was the most important thing in a horse.

“She amazes me at how willing she is,” she said.

“I know myself that I’m very limited at the moment so if something were to happen I wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

“She’s just giving and giving and it’s like, this is what I’ve been breeding, this is what I’ve been looking for – the horse that will give.”