Jockey Wayne Burton suffered life-changing injuries when his horse fell. He tells Sarah Singleton about his courageous road to recovery.

You can watch a video of the horse race that changed the life of jockey Wayne Burton forever – he has included it on his website.

It was March 2, 2008, and he was riding Veverka over hurdles at Exeter. Wayne was feeling optimistic.

“I’d ridden her at the same track three weeks before that in another race and finished fourth” he recalls. “I thought that day she would win.”

Wayne was a keen young jockey of 24. He had ridden in 30 races on the flat before moving into hurdle races.

On the fateful day, he found himself on the left of the field as the race began but when they reached the first hurdle, Veverka did not properly leave the ground and tripped over the hurdle. She flipped over and Wayne was propelled into the hard ground.

In the video, the horse gets straight back on its feet and gallops on, but Wayne lies motionless on the ground.

He suffered head injuries and spinal injuries that left him paralysed from the chest down. The race, for him, only lasted for seconds but the outcome has affected the rest of his life.

Isn’t it hard to have that video on his website and to be able to watch that terrible moment?

“It’s something that happened. It was an accident. I knew the risks of riding,” Wayne says. “Perhaps if it had been a car accident or someone had done it to me it would be different.”

He says he remembers little about the immediate aftermath of the accident. Wayne was taken to hospital where he was operated on to try to repair the injuries to his back and spinal cord. He suffered four fits and was put into a coma to prevent further brain damage. When he came round, Wayne could no longer speak.

His path back to health was long and arduous, and with no certain outcome. His memories of the early days are hazy, though he recalls not feeling right.

“A week before I left hospital, the consultant came in and told my family to prepare for the worst,” Wayne says. “He said I would probably never walk again, and my speech and understanding might not come back, and that I would probably always need full time care.

“I heard all this and I thought, this is not happening to me. It made me more determined to pull through.”

But Wayne did pull indeed through. Following months of therapy, he regained his speech and strength. Ten years after the accident, he lives independently, has won fishing trophies, plays basketball for local team the Thames Valley Kings and has even undertaken a sky dive. Now he lives in Swindon with his beloved dog Willis, and he has set up a gardening business with his brother Danny – called Burtons Blooming Garden.

This is his next big project: “I want to take the business forward as far as I can,” he says.

Wayne, now 34, was born at Swindon’s Princess Margaret Hospital and went to Pewsey Vale School. He grew up in Milton Lilbourne, and comes from a family of horse enthusiasts. His grandfather Ted Burton was huntsman for the Tedworth Hunt for 25 years.

“My grandad was the core of the family,” he recalls. “He died two years ago, but I really looked up to him. I see my gran every week. My grandad enjoyed taking the horses out for a hack, and his passion was hounds and hunting.”

Wayne’s father Gerald rode as an amateur in point to points, and as a boy Wayne leant to ride on ponies.

“We always got them on loan. Some weren’t broken in, and I was often the monkey who was the first to sit on top,” he recalls. “I had a few falls. It was all about learning.”

He left school at 16. Wayne had grown up watching horse racing on television, and he admired jockeys like Frankie Dettori and Ray Cochrane, so he got a job as a stable lad at Richard Hannan’s racing yard.

“It was hard work, seven days a week then five and a half days a week – but I enjoyed it,” he says. “I asked for a licence to ride and had about 30 rides on the flat for Richard.”

One highlight for Wayne was when he took a horse called King’s Quay to the Derby in 2003. Although he was not riding, Wayne took care of it and led it round the collecting ring. “I’ve still got the jacket and race card,” he reflects. “I used to look after lots of horses, and I rode some really nice ones. When you are on the gallops with a horse that’s worth maybe half a million pounds – that’s incredible. It’s a real buzz.”

Wayne worked in various other yards over the next few years, before moving to racing over hurdles. In September 2007 he started working for Jimmy Fox.

Wayne said he rode seven races in six months, and was starting to build up his experience, when the accident changed everything.

Much has happened in the decade since. Wayne experienced some low moments but says he never succumbed to despair.

“I have had a few difficult times. I have got frustrated, punched things and cried. The first thing I cried about was that I would never kick a football again – I used to love football,” he said.

Life has continued to offer adventures and challenges to Wayne. He has raised money for the Injured Jockeys Fund, and met Princess Anne three times, as she is a patron of the charity. Wayne took up coarse fishing and in 2013 did his sky dive with the Red Devils, raising a total of £5000 in sponsorship. He has his own basketball court in his back garden and plays regularly with his team. This year, though, he has two preoccupations. The first is to build up the gardening business – he does the administration and bookings, while his brother does the gardening – and to find love. Wayne has had a few girlfriends over the last couple of years but says what he would really like is find a special someone.

For more information about Wayne’s achievements, visit wayneburton.co.uk, and to find out about his gardening service, visit burtonsbloominggardens.com.