Bubby Upton

Learning to deal with her new "normal", the eventing champion tells Becky Murray about resilience and the man who has given her a second chance in life

- Becky Murray

"I WILL forever be aware of how lucky I am to be able to walk again, let alone ride," says under-25 British champion Bubby Upton, as she reflects on the potentially career-ending riding accident she had in summer 2023, two weeks before Burghley.

That accident brought what had already been a season of some of the highest highs and lowest lows of her career so far to an abrupt end.

On 18 August, Bubby was schooling a horse on the flat at home, when a freak fall happened, resulting in her sustaining a complete burst fracture of vertebra L3 and a horizontal fracture of L2, among other vertebrae fractures.

"The one that was the big concern was the burst fracture because of the unpredictability of it. The fragments went everywhere and it caused a huge amount of swelling and pressure on my spinal cord, and so emergency surgery was required," explains Bubby.

Bubby underwent almost seven hours of surgery to stabilise her spine with metal screws, decompress the vertebrae and drain fluid, and fuse L3. And then months of tough rehabilitation would follow.

PRIOR to the accident, Bubby had been enjoying a super year in terms of results, most notably finishing eighth at Badminton on Cola - and once again claiming the under-25 British title at Bramham, with Magic Roundabout IV.

"Cola had put in an incredible performance at Burghley in 2022, showing everyone what an extraordinary crosscountry horse he is. Going into Badminton he was on very good form," says Bubby.

"I guess you could say it was redemption from our mistake the year before, but in the same breath that wasn't really in my head going into it. What I took from that year was that he had made an unbelievable Badminton debut and was 99.9% perfect, and I slipped up for a second and paid the price.