Horse knocks out jockey with wild headbutt

3 weeks ago 11

Veteran jockey Micheal Hellyer was headbutted so hard by his horse before a race that it knocked him out and sent him tumbling to the ground. Incredibly, the 37-year-old hoop says he is lucky.

Footage of the incident shows Hellyer being legged onto the back of his mount, Southoftheborder, at Toowoomba on Saturday night before the four-year-old gelding flings its head backwards and makes heavy contact with Hellyer’s face.

Jockey Michael Hellyer is thrown from a horse.

The horse then rears, as a knocked-out Hellyer crashes to the ground.

Despite the frightening nature of the incident, the jockey escaped with just a split lip and a concussion. He will be sidelined from riding for 12 days.

“Before I got on the horse, the trainer did warn me that he was a little bit on edge that evening. He just said, ‘look, just watch him, he’s a little bit fresh tonight’,” Hellyer told this masthead.

“Honestly, I didn’t take much out of it because usually the horse is very quiet. I had ridden the horse twice before that evening.

Jockey Micheal Hellyer on race day at Flemington.

“But as soon as I got legged on, the horse just pushed me forward a little bit, and he just flung his head back really quick and got me right on the lip, just underneath the nose, and knocked me out instantly.

“Unfortunately, these things can happen. It’s very rare. But because I’d ridden the horse before, I didn’t think he had something like that in him, and, yeah, he got me a beauty.”

Hellyer, who lives in Brisbane, said he was knocked out for “three or four seconds” before being taken to a hospital for scans.

“The doctors at the hospital saw the video of how I got hit and how I fell, and even they were surprised (that I didn’t suffer other injuries),” he said.

“My partner (Jackie Richardson) is a nurse, and when she saw the video, obviously it was sickening to watch, and she was surprised that there was nothing else broken by the way I landed, so it’s extremely lucky.”

Hellyer said he had been surprised by the reaction to the video.

“I can’t believe how much sort of attention it’s got. I’ve got some friends in a group chat that put up a message to say that it made the news in the UK,” he said.

“I guess it puts me out there, doesn’t it? Not in a great way, but it puts me out there, so I can’t complain.”