INTERVIEW
YOUR HORSE MAGAZINE meets
The reigning European Champion event rider tells Julie Harding about the accident that ended her career, and her thankfulness at being given a second chance at life
IF WISHES CAME true, Nicola Wilson would have begun to walk again months before she actually did. The aftermath of the crashing fall she suffered at Badminton in 2022 not only left the popular event rider temporarily paralysed and lying f lat on a hospital bed wearing a neck collar for six interminable weeks, but also with family, friends, connections, carers and even strangers constantly willing her to recover. Good wishes were conveyed. Silent prayers said. A lot of beseeching and pleading went on. Social media and website updates on her condition and recovery were devoured by thousands, many of whom had never even met the reigning European Champion. You don’t bravely pathfind for a British team year after year, helping to scoop medal after medal, without being noticed and admired by a plethora of people, perhaps all the more so because through those stellar achievements you remain modest, coy even, about all those accomplishments.
It is just over a year since that glittering career was concluded in a split second, Nicola’ s mount, the talented JL Dublin, who had won her that European gold medal, catching a leg on Badminton’ s fence 27c, a basket -style box fence, and rolling over his jockey as he fell. He rose swiftly to his feet, but his rider remained motionless.
Today, a scorching Tuesday in June, there are few telltale signs that relate to that terrible day. One, a small ramp for a wheelchair, is attached to the back door step that leads into the hallway of the Northallerton farmhouse Nicola shares with her husband, Alastair. But it is now redundant and she stands at the door proffering a wide smile and a chirpy “great to see you. Come on in” , and she holds up a tube of foundation.
“I need to put on some make up,” she announces as she leads the way into the kitchen where she applies the flesh-coloured liquid to her face without a mirror before walking into the sitting room, closely followed by her two Lurchers, Tipple and Teasel.
“When I hit the ground [at Badminton] I was having a beautiful ride. Then I was on the grass and I was aware of someone next to me. I thought I was winded. I was trying to say that I couldn’t breathe, but nothing was working. I was paralysed.
“ Alastair believed I’ d died. He kissed me and told me that he loved me. It’ s been so difficult for him, ” a brief silence ensues at the thought of that desolate moment.
“The next thing I was aware of was being in the medical tent and I couldn’t move. They had resuscitated me and I was chattering away and saying that I could do paras, ” Nicola continues.
“To begin with in hospital I was very poorly and I couldn’t move or feel anything. Five
