FEATURE
Facing down your fears
of the Blue Mountains in Oberon NSW, and together established their dream property, Burilda Park Equine, settling down to a life in which they indulged their mutual passion for breeding and training horses. But in 2019, the unthinkable happened. Out on a ride to celebrate her birthday, Alex was
As anyone who’s had a bad fall will tell you, the damage is as likely to be mental as it is physical. So how are you to get over the fear that you might fall again? AMANDA MAC looks at a unique program designed specifically for nervous riders.
A
dmitting your fears, whatever
outstretched, both wrists were broken
they are, is never easy,
in the fall. Alex, who at the time had
and overcoming them is
six Standardbreds in work, suddenly
usually even harder. But if it’s true
found herself incapacitated. However,
that anxiety is just a state of mind,
it was just before the accident that
how do you flip that mental switch
she’d met her now husband Leigh
and regain your confidence?
Cragg, who willingly assisted with
If any rider ever had good reason to fear getting on a horse again, Alexandria Cragg, more usually known as Alex, is a perfect example. Half a dozen or so years ago she was riding a meanspirited horse that bolted and pitched her off his back. Landing with arms
the Standardbreds. He also helped Alex overcome her understandable nervousness around horses, using a series of methodical techniques and
thrown and dragged through the bush in a freak accident, breaking her right arm in five places. “It was horrific”, she recalls, “as well as being horribly painful. I was sitting in the bush for around 40 minutes waiting for the SES and ambulance. There were about 20 of us on that ride and I think everyone was traumatised by the accident.” With her arm refusing to heal properly, it took an operation to piece the breaks back together. But unfortunately, damage to Alex’s radial nerve during the surgery left her arm paralysed. “My hand, my fingers, my wrist were all paralysed. I couldn’t lift anything and I couldn’t feel my arm at all. I was told that there was a possibility feeling and movement would never come back, but also a possibility that the nerve might
carefully detailed exercises, firstly while
regenerate. It really was touch and go.”
on the ground and then while mounted.
Alex shares that the months after
In 2015, Leigh and Alex moved west
the operation were very challenging both emotionally and physically. “I couldn’t drive and for seven months Leigh had to brush my hair, dress me, and often shower me. I was in constant pain. Then we got married and I couldn’t even hold my own bouquet. I was quite embarrassed by the whole thing, but it was an amazingly bonding experience for us.” After such a terrible ordeal, it’s hardly surprising that Alex’s anxiety around horses was back with a vengeance. “I didn’t want to brush them. I didn’t want to lead them. I didn’t want to tie them up. I would feed them but that was it – and I certainly didn’t think that I’d ever ride again. But in reality, it wasn’t so much the fear of horses, as
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