A rider who missed the British Riding Clubs (BRC) winter championships as she amputated her thumb in a stable door – 13 weeks after she broke her neck in a fall – has had a “hectic” few months.
But Suzannah Engelmann was back in the saddle and in great form at the SEIB BRC combined championships (27-28 September), winning the senior 80 challenge with Lissin Rocket, successfully defending their 2024 title.
Suzannah told H&H she “smashed” a vertebra in her neck in a fall from her young horse in January, a few weeks after she was made redundant at work.
“It’s not been the best 12 months,” she said. “I broke my wrist last year too, when the young horse bucked me off!”
Suzannah had to wear a neck brace for eight weeks after the January fall, but was determined to be back in the saddle in time for the BRC winter showjumping championships in March, five weeks after the brace came off. And she got there, but did not ride.
“Because I chopped my thumb off the day before,” she said. “I was all psyched for it as we’d won our title two years running, but when I was going to exercise him, he got his reins caught on the stable door. I went to free them at the exact moment he decided to pull back, and my thumb got caught in the door.
“Everyone said I was very quiet, didn’t make any noise, but just said ‘My finger’s gone’ and walked off across the car park.”
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Suzannah went to see paramedics and told them what had happened.
“I said ‘I’ve amputated my thumb’ and they said ‘I don’t think you have’,” she said. “I was thinking ‘I know the thumb isn’t there but you carry on’. One of them looked at my hand, the other in my glove, where my thumb was, and they said ‘Ah; hospital for you’!”
Suzannah spent four days in hospital, then four weeks with her hand sewn to her hip to create a skin flap to reconstruct her thumb.
“When they suggested it, I said ‘That’s a no’, but it seemed to be the best chance of a good result,” she said. “They sold it to me as three weeks, then as I was being wheeled off to surgery it was ‘… or maybe four’! Thanks. It wasn’t the best recuperation; sleep wasn’t great, especially as my neck was stiff from being broken.”
But Suzannah got through it, and back on board “Rocky”, a 21-year-old Irish-bred gelding she has owned for 12 years, aiming for the September championship at Aston le Walls, where they secured their 12th individual BRC championship title together.
“He’s just awesome,” Suzannah said. “I got him because he was scaring the living daylights out of the last owner, who had bought him for their child, as he did have a habit of leaping in the air a bit; he was slightly dangerous but that’s my kind of horse.
“I have to hold the reins differently now as I can’t have my thumb on top and I have reduced grip and adjustability, but it seems to be working. I had everything going for the championships as we’d won that class last year, and I’d come second by almost nothing in the arena eventing at Lincoln so I really wanted the win – then as I finished, the commentator said ‘It looks like we’ve saved the best till last’, and it was the biggest relief. He’s an absolute superstar.”
Suzannah added that she has not yet been back on board her young horse, but is planning her comeback.
“The doctor said I wasn’t allowed to fall off for a year, so I’ve got three more months before I give that another go!” she said.
Read the full report from the championships in next week’s H&H magazine, out 9 October.
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
