EVERY sport has an element of risk.
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For some, it’s minor – scrapes and bruises, pulled muscles or rolled ankles.
For others, it’s far greater than that.
Take horse racing for example.
On top of the individual risk a jockey takes, there is also a fully grown horse – an incredibly powerful and subsequently large animal – under your control.
And like other sports, sometimes things go wrong.
Rose Hammond knew this before she got on a horse.
She knew it on the morning of May 16 as well.
And she still knows it months later.
But she can honestly tell you the risks do not matter to her.
“I’ve always loved racing,” the 18-year-old said.
“I used to go to the races with my dad when I was a little girl.
"And from the beginning I fell in love with it and decided I wanted to be a jockey.
“I’ve always been around horses, I had horses when I was younger and I did pony club.
"I was small so I was suited for the role. It’s just been a lifelong love with the sport, and as long as I can remember it’s all I have ever wanted to do.”
Hammond started eventing when she was 12, and worked a job at a racetrack in Cobden when she lived there.
After moving locally she got a job with Gwenda and Mick Johnstone, and soon started track riding.
“Rose caught on very quickly,” Mick Johnstone said.
“We started teaching her out on a pony in the paddock, and once she got the hang of that we took her out on the track.
“It comes to hand for some people really quickly, and Rose was one of those people. Within four months she was able to ride about 14 of our 18 horses.
"She’s a natural in the way she rides, very relaxed which is perfect.”
A typical day for Hammond now begins at 5.30am at the Johnstone stable, with riding work, feeding the horses and the like, before getting ready at the Johnstones' house before heading off to school.
There wasn’t even the slightest complaint – she was living the dream.
Then came May 16.
“It was a Saturday morning, everything was going really well,” Hammond said.
“I was on one of the younger horses when another ran past and spooked it and it caused us to both lose balance.”
They both went to ground, with the 550kg horse coming down on top of her.
The horse landing caused Hammond to fracture her femur in five places, and to add insult and further injury, the horse’s feet made contact with her as it was getting back to its feet, breaking her nose and giving her a concussion.
Despite the injury, Hammond remains upbeat about the incident.
“It’s part of the job,” she said.
“You just do what you can to stay as safe as you can on the track. Unfortunately, sometimes accidents happen on the track.
“I focus on the good side of racing. It’s what I love.
"Naturally there are risks and negative sides to it, but I love it, and I always focus on the parts of it that I love.”
Hammond was taken away by ambulance, before being flown to Melbourne for surgery.
“They did X-rays as soon as I got there to make sure my back was okay, which it was. Then I went into surgery.
“After that, I was really just sleepy,” she laughed.
The road to recovery was not an easy one from such a serious injury.
“To begin with I was in a wheelchair as I started my recovery,” she said.
“I go to physio every week now, and I work on the small things like riding a bike and doing leg work on an exercise ball.
“It’s coming along slowly, but I’m getting there.
"You definitely want the recovery to be over and get back to normal, but you need to put the work in to get there and that’s what I’m doing.”
With the Murray League’s netball season off, Hammond didn’t have to worry about missing netball with Tongala, but her Year 12 studies – which were already impacted by COVID-19 – took another hit.
“We were doing online classes earlier in the year, then when we finally got back was when I got injured,” she said.
“I missed the term we were in the classroom, and by the time I was ready to get back to the classroom, COVID had us online again.
“So I’ve really only done about seven weeks in class which has been tough, but I’ve had my friends with me making sure I was okay, so I’ve been able to get through it.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking Hammond would never want to go near a track again after such an injury.
But as people in the industry will tell you, there is nothing like the thrill of a ride.
“When you let the horse go, let it into a full gallop and really get its run on, there is nothing like it,” Johnstone said.
“Injuries happen, unfortunately we have all copped them during our time on the track, but you don’t think about them.
"In those moments of a ride it’s everything to you, you’re so in the moment.
“And you could see that with Rose. You could see the thrill she got when she was on the track in a ride, how special those moments were.
"And you could tell she’d be back soon.”
For now, patrons aren’t allowed at the racecourse, but once they are, Hammond will be back where she belongs.
And will she be getting back in the saddle?
“As soon as I can," she said.
“I’ve never wanted to be anything else but a jockey, that’s what I want to do. And it’s still all I want.”
Sports journalist