Chantal Sutherland has spoken of the freak racetrack incident which caused her to suffer an horrific injury trying to avoid two geese.
The highly successful jockey and former model had just completed a race at Gulfstream Park in Florida when she was confronted by the birds crossing the course from the infield lake.
Her horse spooked, she was thrown off, landing with such impact that she broke the humerus bone clean off her shoulder.
“It was the last race and my horse was a second time starter,” she explained. “My horse was galloping out strong and I was in front of everybody.
“Two geese were crossing the track and they started flapping their wings when they saw the horse. I tried to grab the horse to stop him but when the horse saw them he put the brakes on and ducked to the right.
“I put my arm out to break my fall and when I landed I felt like I was okay. I saw other the horses coming and their jockeys were yelling at me to get out of the way.
“I didn’t want to get trampled so I ran underneath the rail and when I did that I felt like my shoulder was sore, like I’d broken my collarbone.
“But when I looked down at my arm, it wasn’t attached. It was really far away from my body. It was surreal. I grabbed my arm and knew this wasn’t good.”
Although an ambulance arrived, Sutherland said: “I had to walk across the turf course, underneath the rail, across the Tapeta course and underneath the rail and then down a hill and underneath the rail to the dirt course.
"I couldn't go over the rails because it was so painful so I shimmied on my bum.”
Sutherland was taken to hospital where she underwent surgery to have the humerus bone reattached and a plate inserted.
The rider, who has ridden more 1,200 winners worldwide, is expected to spend three months recovering before she can return to the saddle.
