HARD LESSONS LEARNT BY MATTEA DAVIDSON

FEATURE

Hell is the sound of a hackamore breaking

Queensland eventer Mattea Davidson talks to UTE RAABE and reflects on the day her bridle broke on a cross country course, her recovery and her comeback.

Picture this, it’s a beautiful day out at Albury Wodonga Horse Trials and you’re competing in the CIC 3 Star event for a final qualifier. You’ve walked the cross country course multiple times, and you’re feeling really happy with the lines you’ve chosen. You know your horse well, the plan of attack for the day is clear. All the training in the lead-up to this event has been going well; there’s nothing on the course your horse can’t do. Everything unfolds according to plan and your cross country round is off to a smooth start, your horse eats up the course, and does everything asked of him. And then, just like that, in a split second, everything changes.

Queensland eventer Mattea Davidson and her own APH Charlie Brown were approaching fence 13 when the unthinkable happened. It is any rider’s worst nightmare to lose control of their horse, especially in full gallop at a competition. Five months on, she still remembers every moment of the accident.

“I was setting up for the fence, it was a right-hand turn, and I was re-balancing when all of a sudden I had no weight in my hands. My hands came back and I heard a ‘tschink’ noise,” she recalls. “It took me a second or two to realise what was going on. I’d been focusing on the fence, it was a tricky enough line and I wanted to ensure that I was coming in on the right angle and speed, and a gear failure was the last thing on my mind.”

Mattea says that she’s had parts of tack and bridles break on her before, such as a rein or a noseband, but she’s never had her entire steering piece – in this case a hackamore - fall apart. A lot of people asked her later why she didn’t bail, but she says that by the time she fully registered what had happened Charlie was already going too fast and beyond control. Her hopes were that he would slow down once he reached the warmup area and other horses.

She adds, “I was trying to be really methodical about it, I can’t remember feeling panicked. I tried to do a couple of things to slow him down, talk to him, loop the rein about his head, grab his ears, but I soon worked out it was making him more frantic.” Charlie continued to bolt in a straight line until he eventually reached the arena fence, where he continued straight at it to jump it. Realising the disaster that could happen if she jumped with no control, Mattea chose that moment to bail.

The fall put her in hospital with seven fractured vertebrae, a deep laceration

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and torn muscle in her arm, a broken rib and heavy bruising. The proverbial ‘hit by a bus’ aptly describes how she felt at the time. Her recovery has been a slow and painful one, both physically and mentally, with her body healing from a litany of injuries but namely the soft tissue damage and multiple torn ligaments around her broken vertebrae.

‘ ‘ ... by the time she fully registered what had happened Charlie was already going too fast and beyond control.

Eventers are a tough breed, but this accident was something else. “The first two weeks I was on so many drugs for the pain I would really notice it if I missed even a dose,” she says. “Then, when the brace first came off I just wanted to lie down and do nothing, the pain was so excruciating.”

Afterwards came the mental rebuild. Mattea remembers going for a walk shortly after losing the brace and feeling really vulnerable and compromised. “When I had the brace on, people would respect my space and not bump into me,” she recalls. “Without the brace however, I looked like I was fine but I was overly-cautious of people coming near me because I was still tender and stiff and not very strong. I also felt vulnerable around the horses at first. From the outside everything looks normal, but the pain on the inside is still present.”

But in those moments she had two choices, to either push on and look at the positives, or give up. Mattea chose, with support from her husband Shane, who never questioned her desire to return to riding, to push on. Within three months of her fall, she was back in the saddle and in March she entered her first competition. Getting on and off proved to be the hardest part at first, as any sudden impact caused her severe pain. She quickly learned to choose only the more softly-moving horses.

Looking back now at her comeback she says: “I’ve surprised myself with where I’m at. At the moment I really focus on my physio and my core strength. For the first two months I was only breathing through my mouth because it was too painful to breathe through my nose, but if you do that repeatedly you lose a lot of core strength. Now I see a physio every week and perform stretches every morning, I’m pretty religious about that. I do notice that I’m much more tired now and I don’t have the same strength back yet, although the hardest thing is lifting the round bales on to the back of the trailer.”

Mattea knows all too well that the outcome of the fall could have been an infinitely more dramatic. “I feel really grateful that the accident was not worse, and I want to make the most out of this year and the horses that I’ve got,”

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‘I was still tender and stiff and not very strong. I also felt vulnerable around the horses at first. ‘

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she says. “These moments bring life into perspective. When you get back into the grind, you lose focus of those feelings, which is bad, but that’s what happens. I’m lucky to be here, and I have to keep reminding yourself of that and appreciate what I have.”

Last year’s sudden passing of her good friend dressage rider Amanda Shoobridge has only intensified these feelings for Mattea and given her a new determination to enjoy every moment. Mind you, any suggestion that she might like to stop eventing is quickly swatted away. Her family would prefer it, she says, if she would just concentrate on show jumping and not return to eventing and Mattea admits that it is something she would consider, but not for the same reasons. “The horses last longer in jumping, and I really like show jumping, but at the moment I am happy to continue doing both,” she says adding, “I don’t think the accident affected my confidence, because I don’t feel that I could have done anything differently. It was beyond my control — and you just have to be at peace with that. It was bad luck, that’s why they call it an accident!”

There are no harsh feelings or resentments towards APH Charlie Brown, the accident, she says, was never the horse’s fault. Instead Mattea is looking forward to making the most of this year and is quietly excited about her string of horses. Charlie will be set for the 4* at the Melbourne International 3 Day Event; former Australian Eventing Champion Jaybee Vigilante is back and then there are some talented youngsters making their debut.

Aside from being a professional eventer and showjumper, Mattea is a successful NCAS Level coach and fully qualified vet specialising in reproduction work. Shane and Mattea are also avid breeders of performance horses for all disciplines. Their business, Davidson Equestrian, is the result of years of hard work and dedication. The couple purchased their property near Toowoomba about five years ago and love the area for the good soil and quality grass (when it rains), the convenient location and progressive infrastructure, but also the country feel. They live for everything to do with training and breeding horses — and it keeps both of them busy!

“It’s a funny thing, people often assume that if you do a lot of things you mustn’t be very good at any of them,” she laughs. “I really enjoy what I do, I like training horses and riders, and I like improving them. I get enjoyment out of doing a good job at different things, that’s very

important to me. Like breeding horses for other people and then seeing them get enjoyment out of it.”

Her comeback is on the right track and she is looking forward to the future, “I would like to continue what we’re doing, but refine our mare herd even more to have the best mares for producing ability but also trainability. I would like to be able to go to all the good shows in Australia with really well-bred horses and just do a really great job. We want to breed the best horses we can!”

On a side note — The national and international eventing rules have changed this year, it is now no longer possible to ride the cross country course with just a hackamore bridle. Mattea nods in agreement: “I would definitely never recommend going cross country in a hackamore after what happened to me!” D