Battling back from her injury nightmare

But there was no mistaking the damage following a horrendous fall one year later which left the eventing star with facial injuries and a fractured skull.

Time was almost called on a promising eventing career but three months later the brave 20-year-old is back with a bang.

Only last week, Howe proved the star attraction at a Bishop Burton College event organised by British Universities & Colleges Sport in which she finished as top individual female rider.

Ambitious Howe will likely have bigger fish to fry in the years ahead but the enormity of not just the victory but merely competing in the event was impossible to ignore.

Only three months ago, the advanced and two-star rider contemplated quitting the sport following the accident at the Weston Park International Horse Trials when her mount, The Surfing Smurf, fell and landed on top of her.

But now gutsy Howe is back in the saddle and only too glad that her persuasive friends changed her mind. “I was very, very close to quitting and the thought of giving up had crossed my mind,” she said.

“But all my friends said to me ‘you can’t make a decision when you are feeling as bad as you are feeling because it won’t be the right one.’

“They are right and I can’t let it beat me. Obviously, we are going right back to basics to build both myself and my horse’s confidence back up again to try and get back to the level I was competing at.

“But my friends were right and I’m going to continue.”

August’s British Eventing Gatcombe Park Intermediate Championship is the immediate aim for Howe, who is studying a degree in equine therapy and rehabilitation.

She had already qualified for last year’s Gatcombe Park event which was cancelled.

That was before the second instalment of an injury nightmare which began with the broken leg in 2011 that was initially missed by hospital medical staff. “It wasn’t found at the first hospital so I came back to college with some pain-killers,” recalled Howe, whose first fall came on Gran Ecuador.

“I walked around and rode horses with a broken leg until I took myself off to a different hospital where I was re-admitted and operated on. I had nine screws and a plate put in but I got myself back up and running.

“I was back competing in various events but then last October I was at the Weston Park International Horse Trials doing a GB squads trial when I had a fall at the very last fence.

“The horse actually came down on top of me.

“I had a fractured skull, injuries to my face, blood from my ears and my nose and a real confidence knock.”

Slowly but surely that confidence is returning and those words of advice are proving wise ones.

“I couldn’t have done any of this without their brilliant support,” said Howe of her nearest and dearest. “That goes for everyone in my team – my sponsors, my friends, my family and my boyfriend and now it’s just a case of working my confidence back up again.

“It was fantastic to win the Bishop Burton College event – it was on my home ground and it has been a tough couple of months.

“But I wasn’t bothered about winning, I was more bothered about the lovely comments I got about my riding.

“Hearing those meant the world to me.”

Todd is now on top of the world after his special birthday call-up

HALIFAX dressage prospect Ryan Todd admits he is “over the moon” after having secured a place on the 2013-2015 World Class Development Programme.

Todd is part of a quintet of Yorkshire aces that have been selected for the programme run by the British Equestrian Federation.

At just 20 years of age, the Halifax prospect is one of the younger members of the set-up which offers those selected a host of benefits.

From mentoring to coaching, to human and equine sports science and medicine advice, Todd knows he is now perfectly placed to hit lift-off over the next two years.

The selection has also formed part of a fantastic start to 2013 for the young Yorkshireman, who celebrated his 20th birthday yesterday.

Admitting learning of his call-up was something of a pleasant surprise, Todd told the Yorkshire Post: “I was kind of shocked, to be honest.

“I had obviously tried my best to do enough to be selected but I wasn’t sure if I was going to get on. But, obviously, then I found out about my selection and I was over the moon. It was a big shock.

“It’s very important to get on the programme as it helps you out with the training and it kind of pushes you in the path of where you need to be going and what you need to be doing.

“You get so much help with guidance and psychologists and stuff like that.”

Todd grew up in Halifax but it is currently based with sisters Becky and Hannah Moody at their Gunthwaite Dressage yard in Penistone.

Todd joined the Moodys in the summer of 2010.

The World Class Development Programme covers the three Olympic sports of dressage, eventing and show-jumping as well as the Paralympic sport of para-equestrian dressage.

Nineteen-year-old Natasha Adkinson – of Bawtry – has been selected for the latter with the Yorkshire quintet completed by three show-jumping stars.

They are brothers George and William Whitaker as well as Joe Clayton, who are all from Huddersfield.