Back riding after horrifying fall

His track record is one he has every right to be proud of and in 1995 he was on the winning team of three of the most prestigious Nations Cups in the world at Aachen, Dublin and Spruce Meadows.

In the same year he won the Individual Gold Medal for Ireland at the European Championships at St Gallen in Switzerland. But he had a particularly nasty fall more than nine months ago, resulting in the first fall he had not been able to get up from.

He recalled: "I was at a local show and warming up for the jump-off on a one meter twenty fence when the horse mis-judged the back rail resulting in the horse rotating on me and sending me head first into the ground. I knew I was in big trouble right away, whilst at the same time biting half way through my tongue. The pain in my back and neck was intense. On this occasion I could not move at all."

Peter ruptured the spinal sheath, broke his back and shattered three ribs, all resulting from an impact straight down on his head, unlike injuries sustained from a twisting fall.

"Wearing a hat is not about fashion '“ it is about safety and had the design been different I could well have walked away from this fall," he said.

This is why you will now see Peter wearing a new design hat called "The Protector Hat" that he helped develop.

For full story see Sussex Horse World, West Sussex Gazette January 9