‘I was hand-walking her on crutches!’ Horse and rider come back from ligament injuries to win top title

A horse and rider who were both on box rest with serious ligament injuries a year ago have made a remarkable comeback to win at their Petplan Summer Area Festival.

Camilla Stevens-Tratt was walking her mare Angelica in hand while on crutches last summer, after she had damaged her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and Angelica her annualar ligament. But on 16 August this year, they won the prix st georges (PSG) freestyle title at Chard.

“It was like the complete fairytale ending,” Camilla told H&H. “I’d been to Area Festivals so many times and been pretty average, it hasn’t been our day. I would never have dreamed of it.”

Camilla said she and Angelica, whom she bought as a four-year-old for £900, were competing at PSG level a year ago when the mare, who was then 12, came in from the field lame.

“The vets were guarded about whether she’d get back to high-level dressage so I didn’t want to get my hopes up,” she said. “Then a month after she went lame, I had a nasty fall from a young horse and did my ACL and a meniscus tear. I was on crutches for three weeks, then had a clunky knee brace for three months and I’m still waiting for surgery. I’m managing but it’s not brilliant, but ultimately, it was going to be me or her who got the private surgery as the NHS wouldn’t pay for hers, and she won!”

After the “long slog” of box rest, pen turnout and finally full-field turnout, Camilla brought Angelica slowly back into work.

“I took it super sensibly; she was always ok but it was scary,” Camilla said. “I didn’t have an arena in the spring but when we cut some silage, I had fields to ride in. I started cantering and thought ‘Let’s see’ and asked for a change, and she hadn’t forgotten any of it. She felt brilliant, and that’s when I dared to think ‘Maybe this is going to happen again’.”

At their first competition after their injuries, in June, Angelica and Camilla scored a personal best of 66.13% to win the PSG freestyle at Chard.

“I love the music and Chard is probably our favourite place,” she said. “It was the most vile, windy, wet day and the boards were blowing over; I just thought we had to survive it but she was an absolute star. I didn’t have high hopes for the score as the conditions were so terrible but I didn’t care; I was just happy to be there – and I did burst into tears!”

To qualify for the Area Festivals, they needed another +60% score, which they duly achieved at Chard the next weekend, to set up their return trip this month.

“I was so well prepared, and had perfected my quarter marks!” Camilla said. “I just wanted a lovely plaque and a nice picture and to have a nice day. I was absolutely chuffed with her, and when our score went up, I thought ‘That won’t win but at least we haven’t disgraced ourselves’, and then the other scores went up – and I had another little cry!”

Camilla said her first big win, sash and mounted prizegiving was the perfect end to a “pretty horrendous” 12 months.

“When I was hand-walking her and I was on my crutches, I joked to a friend that when I was back at PSG, I’d tell H&H!” she said.

“Angelica thinks the world revolves around her, which mine does so that’s fine. I’d love to do an inter I freestyle with her; I might give it a go next summer as I’ll never have a horse as amazing as her.”

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