By Jordan Gerrans
Colin Lennon felt robbed.
In a split second, his entire career was taken away from him right in front of his eyes.
And, the most distressing aspect of it for the veteran rider was that it happened in such a simple scenario.
The 51-year-old broke three bones in his neck in a routine day as a provincial jockey almost seven years ago in Townsville.
He was just educating a two-year-old in the barriers on the in-field at Cluden Park as his career and passion – being a jockey – was ripped away from him.
The father of one daughter and grandfather to three young girls was told by doctors that he would be lucky to ever walk again and that he should have been paralysed from the chin down.
With all the physiotherapy, rehabilitation and doctors visits, it took Lennon around three years from the incident to really feel himself again and become more active.
And, now, just over six years and six months on from the near tragic incident, Lennon made a triumphant return to race riding at Thangool last Saturday afternoon.
It has not been an easy road back to the saddle for the natural light-weight rider – it was far from easy in reality – but he is proud of his own efforts to fight his way back from the jockey wilderness.
“I feel excellent to be back, I am very happy about the achievement to make it this far,” Lennon said on Wednesday morning not long after riding in a trial at Yeppoon.
“It is what I always wanted to do, I felt robbed with what happened because it was such a simple accident.
“It snapped my career away from me in an instant.
“It split the C7 straight in half – instead of moving it – so I was lucky it did not move across on to that nerve.”
It was a rigorous road for the hoop to be cleared by officials – from a racing and health perspective – before he could even get back to track work, let alone race day.
He did not ease back into his race riding return, either.
Lennon took a full book of six engagements at Thangool last Saturday afternoon.
While he could not return in absolute style with a first-up winner, he was pleased with how he rode, with a fourth place finish in the Class B Handicap over 1400 metres his best effort.
Lennon’s condition has gradually improved over the years but in the first 36 months following the fall, he was barely able to move around, describing his situation as “laid up”.
“I was in a plastic cast – they do not put you in a halo these days – that goes from your chin to your belly button,” Lennon recalls.
“Once I was out of hospital I had nurses at the house every day coming to bath me, they had to hold me as I was not allowed to move back then.
“It was not much fun but I am alive and I can walk, I am very lucky in that respect.
“It took me a full three years before I could get any movement in the neck, but it slowly got there.”