Peter Charles gave both himself and his supporters a serious fright at Hickstead yesterday when falling heavily at the first cross-country fence in the Eventing Grand Prix.
Charles's Kerrygold Puissance winner Traxdata T'Aime, surprised by the ditch in front of the hedge, dived through the fence, pecked on landing and sent Charles crashing to the ground. Just for good measure, the French horse trod on Charles's right ankle, leaving him writhing in agony as an ambulance rushed to the scene.
The Hampshire-based rider (39) finally managed to get back on the horse and hack back to the stables where the damage could be inspected.
Massive bruising where the horse's stud hit Charles's ankle seemed to be the worst of his injury and X-rays taken on-site by Hampshire vet P J McMahon confirmed there were no broken bones. But Charles, by his own admission, is "very, very sore" and not 100 per cent certain of starting in today's classes.
He is determined, however, to be fit to join forces with Trevor Coyle, Jessica Kurten and Edward Doyle for tomorrow's Nations Cup. "I have to be, don't I," he said last night, only too aware that this week's entire Hickstead fixture is backed by his sponsors Traxdata, who will be hoping to see Charles appear in both the team championship and Sunday's feature King George V Gold Cup.
Charles is still undecided on which of his horses he will ride if he is sufficiently recovered for the Nations Cup. He would prefer to ride Carnavelly as his other top horse Nustria missed a fortnight's work after knuckling over on a fetlock joint at Aachen in the middle of last month and pulling out lame the following day.
"He's lost a bit of his fitness and he was puffing and blowing after jumping today as this is his first show back," Charles said. "But it's not up to me. Tommy (Wade, the Irish chef d'equipe) will decide who I ride."
There was some Irish interest at the top of the Eventing Grand Prix line-up, a concept that was introduced 12 months ago as a crowd-pleasing novelty competition, pitting the show jumpers against the event riders in a combination of their two very different disciplines.
Gary Parsonage, a member of Britain's now disqualified bronze medal team at last year's World Equestrian Games, galloped his way to victory with the Irish export Just So II. The 10-year-old son of Ballysimon set what proved to be an unbeatable target literally moments before Peter Charles crashed, to net Parsonage a winner's cheque of £5,000. u5,000 winner's cheque.
Kilkenny rider Marion Hughes, double winner of the Queen Elizabeth Cup in 1995 and 1996, was the only other Irish name to feature amongst yesterday's prize winners, slotting Heritage Vaor d'Isigny into sixth place in the opening class, which was won by Britain's Robert Smith, who claimed the Kerrygold Grand Prix in Dublin two years ago.
