Former jockey Freddy Tylicki, who was paralysed from the waist down in a fall at Kempton last October, plans to get back in the saddle next Wednesday. The 30-year-old has scheduled a riding lesson that he hopes will aid in his rehabilitation.
“I started riding racehorses when I was 11 or 12 years of age and it's like a drug–once you start with it you just can't stop,” he said. “I'm going to have a riding lesson next Wednesday. Obviously it's not going to be a racehorse, it will be something slower.”
Tylicki remains in the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre in Stanmore. “Somehow, life goes on again, you've got to make the most of it and roll on next Wednesday,” he said.
Tylicki had been enjoying a breakthrough year in 2016 prior to his accident, riding the filly Speedy Boarding (GB) (Shamardal) to a pair of Group 1 wins. Tylicki said he has no regrets about being a jockey, telling BBC Look East, “I would never regret being a jockey. I love my job and live for the industry.”
“You are going to get falls, that's for sure, and when you do fall it's how bad it is afterwards,” he added. “I got away with it a few times and unfortunately I didn't get away with it this time. Life has changed and you get good days and you get bad days. There are ups and downs, a lot of downs at the moment, but you've got to fight through them somehow. There's only two ways you can go in this situation and I've decided to go forward.”
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