If at first you don't succeed...

For many riders, 2023 was the year they realised a childhood ambition, or followed through with a new year resolution. Alex Robinson meets those who made their own dreams come true. Could it be you in 2024?

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AMATEUR event rider Grace Cooper, 25, has overcome more than most en route to completing her first CCI4*.

Grace was the typical pony-mad child before she tried polo at university. Despite a successful start, Grace sustained a head injury that caused a bleed on her brain while playing. The ordeal brought her polo career to a halt, but it relit her childhood ambition to be an eventer.

“I’d always had an appreciation for eventing and after my injury, I thought it would be the right time to have a go,” says Grace, who has sustained multiple head injuries since the initial accident and has consequently had to adapt to having limited control of her hands and legs.

Grace had been on a flyer with her small team of horses, which includes her 2022 Allerton victor Cedarmount Cavalier (Bert). She was confident heading into the CCI3* at Floors Castle in May 2023. Unfortunately, her first ride of the day stumbled, enduring a rotational fall.

“We went out of the start box amazingly but ended up on the floor at the third fence, a wide picnic table,” Grace explains. “I remember hearing a bang and I was rolling on the ground. We walked off OK, but were both very shell-shocked.

“The horse trotted up sound, but as the adrenaline wore off I was feeling increasingly sore,” Grace continues. “Despite this, I managed to fix my air jacket and jump Bert across country. Jumping that fence again, an hour after falling, was daunting but we did it.”