21-year-old jockey Alice Procter faces spinal injury after fall

After Alice’s devastating fall at Cartmel racecourse, her dad Doug Procter talks to editor Laura Hitchcock about living every parent’s nightmare

I hadn’t spoken to Doug since his daughter had a serious fall at Cartmel racecourse in Cumbria on 20th July. He was his usual brisk, amusing, talkative self … until he wasn’t. The conversation stuttered as I asked after Alice.
Lucy and Doug Procter own and run The Glanvilles Stud near Sherborne – and we’re proud to have them as The BV’s equestrian columnists: foaling season is an annual highlight, with its big spreads of foolish-faced whiskery day-old foals. Alice, their 21-year-old daughter, is a familiar face in Dorset’s equestrian community. A successful three day eventer through her teens, she succumbed to the family trade and the lure of the racecourse, initially with a successful point-to-point career, then training her own horse while working as an amateur jockey at Keiran Burke’s yard near Dorchester.

A humdinger of a fall
‘It’s the unthinkable for any parent,’ says Doug. ‘I was watching her in the 4pm Female Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle on the TV, and I saw her fall. I knew immediately it was a humdinger. But the race carried on – I had to wait for them to come past the second time … that was when I saw the screens were up. That was the moment. That was when I was really worried.’
Lucy, a keen trail runner, had taken the day off to run in Devon and was out of touch. Frantically scrolling every contact in his extensive list, from trainers to TV commentators, Doug tried to find someone on the ground at the racecourse who would know what was happening. He’s swift to praise the Cartmel team, especially the Clerk of the Course James Armstrong who did absolutely everything necessary to ensure Alice received the very best care, even working out how to get her belongings, including her phone, to the hospital 50 miles away when she left by air ambulance.
Less than 90 minutes later, Doug was racing north, the never-ending panic of that five hour drive every parent’s worst nightmare, made even worse by the horrendous weather conditions as he headed to the major trauma centre at the Royal Preston Hospital, to which Alice had been airlifted.
‘By the time I arrived, she was already in surgery. She didn’t come out til four in the morning, at which point all we knew was that “the surgery was successful”. Which simply meant her injuries had been stabilised … It wasn’t until ten the following morning that we were able to get any kind of real news.’

Pudding and positivity
Alice spent the next ten days in ICU – during the fall she sustained a number of injuries, the most serious being to her spinal cord in the thoracic region – it is affecting the lower half of her body.
‘The care she has received has been phenomenal,’ says Doug. ‘The ICU team was brilliant … amazing … I just don’t have words for them. Even to the point that when she wanted some fresh air, they unhooked the machinery from their stands, plonked it on her bed, and wheeled her outside for half an hour – still connected to all the machines – just so she could enjoy a little sunshine.’
The family finds that concentrating on the small things is helping. A few days after surgery, Doug and Lucy were trying to find tempting simple foods for Alice to eat – yoghurt was OK, and then she tried some rice pudding: ‘She loved it. So that was it – obviously I was straight off to Asda, stockpiling those Ambrosia rice pudding pots!’ says Doug.
‘It’s correct to refer to her as an amateur jockey, but the title somehow diminishes her ability. She’s so much more than that. She’s bloody good. She’s such a good rider. This could literally have happened to anyone.
‘And her attitude has been so positive. She’s bloody amazing. She’s absolutely determined, and keeps saying “I’m walking out of here. Watch me.”
‘And she’s just messaged me after proofing this article to ask “can we sneak in a mention of my sponsor, Honeycombe Shoot Sherborne, do you think?”. She’s still making me laugh.
‘Obviously it’s not all sunshine, and she has her down-in-the-dumps moments and, well, that’s … not easy.
‘But she’s astonishing. And we really, genuinely don’t know so much right now.’
Alice will require another couple of weeks on the major trauma ward and then will need space at a spinal injury unit – her injury will require further careful evaluation to guide future treatment and rehabilitation. Doug and Lucy still have a yard to run, so they are currently tag-teaming each other up and down the M6 as they take turns to spend time with Alice – the hospital has assisted with a relative’s room, so they have somewhere to stay, and it comes with a small kitchen small kitchen – thoughtful, small things which help to make life just a tiny bit less stressful.
Meanwhile, Alice’s brother Freddie, also a jockey, has been anxiously following his sister’s condition from 4,000 miles away in the US. Despite his worry, he returned to the track, finishing fourth at Colonial Downs, VA as Doug and Lucy anxiously watched the race on the TV. As we publish this issue, Freddie will be landing at Heathrow, ready to head straight to his sister’s side.

• A GoFundMe has been launched to help Alice during her recovery – at the time of writing it had already reached more than £17,500:
  gofundme.com/f/alice-procter

Although she’s always loved racing, Alice was an accomplished event rider first, and a Horse Trials Support Group scholar.
Riding under Rules she has ridden three times on the Flat, recording a second and third, while over Jumps she has partnered seven mounts including a third and a fourth. She is an accomplished point-to-point rider who struck up a fine association with Keiran Burke’s Golden Poet, winning three times on the Urban Poet gelding, including twice on the same day at Larkhill.
As well as these victories, she rode her last point-to-point winner at Umberleigh, on Bistouri D’Honore who she trains and owns herself.