Laura Collett never had a Plan B. Not when she left school at 16, not when she nearly died nine years later after a horrific horse riding accident. “I was useless at everything and anything school-related and I had one focus and one dream and that was to get on and make a career out of eventing,” she says, three days after winning gold in that equestrian sport and bronze in the individual competition.
In an Olympics awash with inspiring stories and tales of grit and resilience, Collett’s story is nonetheless remarkable. On paper, she shouldn’t even be in Paris; she shouldn’t even be back on a horse.
She is matter-of-fact when describing her near-fatal accident in 2013. During a routine one-day competition her horse hit a fence, did a 180-degree flip in the air and fell – all 110st of it – directly on to her slight frame. The unscathed grey got up immediately; Collett did not.
On the way to hospital she was resuscitated five times, then placed in an induced coma for six days. Her injuries included a lacerated liver, damage to her kidneys, a fractured shoulder, a punctured lung and broken ribs. Were it not for a protective air jacket she had been wearing, she would almost certainly have died.
Speaking back in her yard in Gloucestershire, where it is “back to reality” after the dream-like events at the Chateau de Versailles this week, the 34-year-old speaks about the obstacles she has overcome to achieve her Olympic dream as though they were just another jump she had to sail over. Collett is not blasé – she has seen friends paralysed and even killed after riding accidents – but refuses to dwell on the past.
“I appreciate that I was given a second chance and not everyone gets that,” she says. “But there’s no point looking back and doubting yourself or wondering what could have happened or what might happen in the future – you just deal with it as it comes.”
On the day she got out of hospital – which she had been allowed to do only because she had secured a place at the Oaksey house rehab centre for injured jockeys – she sneaked back home and climbed back on a horse.
“It was something that I needed to do for myself rather than the sensible thing to do,” she says. “I was in that slightly stubborn frame of mind that I didn’t really care … It was just something that mentally I needed to do.”
She started competing again six weeks and six days after the fall. For months her vision’s depth perception was compromised. “Jumps, for example, almost looked like they were moving as I was coming towards them,” she says. With her remaining, weaker eye she still struggles to see things in the distance. “Luckily, fences are quite big,” she says. “I don’t need to read the small print on them, so it’s OK.”
Collett – who came ninth in the individual event in Tokyo 2020 – says she had something to prove in Paris. “I went to Tokyo knowing that I could win an individual medal and things didn’t go to plan and a lot went wrong. So it was a bit of a redemption mission for me,” she says.
Over three days in the eventing – known as the equine triathlon – Collett and her teammates Tom McEwen and Ros Canter showed nerves of steel to reach the top of the podium.
“As a team, we had one aim, and that was to bring back the gold,” she says. “And we knew that we could and we should. But again, we’re also all very aware that with horses it doesn’t always go to plan and things can change and in a split second.”
In the rarefied world of eventing Collett’s story is something of an anomaly. After her father left the family home when she was young, she and her brother were brought up single-handedly by her mother. “My mum would be working two jobs … it’s not been easy for anyone,” she says. “Luckily, I’ve got a very supportive mother.”
Did she ever feel like an outsider in a world where horses trade for tens of thousands of pounds, and aristocratic families abound? “Yeah, but it just made me more determined to prove people wrong,” she says. “I was very aware. It wasn’t easy, there were a lot of sacrifices and a lot of tears along the way, but I always wanted to make it happen. So I found a way to do that.”
With her medal-winning horse London 52 – known as Dan at home – now contentedly in his field on holiday, chomping on the occasional pink lady apple as a treat, Collett is back to work training the younger horses in her yard.
She is very aware that her team’s event unfolded against the backdrop of one of the biggest controversies in British equestrian history, after the emergence of a video showing dressage superstar Charlotte Dujardin whipping a horse 24 times.
Collett calls the behaviour wrong, saying the video was “shocking and devastating”. But – like Dujardin’s mentor, Carl Hester – she also urges critics to consider the banned rider’s feelings and mental state: “I think people that are going on a bit of a witch hunt need to take a look at themselves first as well. Can they hand on heart say they’ve never made a mistake?”
The scandal has raised questions about the future of the sport, with some questioning if they should be removed from the Olympics entirely. She admits she is concerned. “Yeah, of course, it would be stupid if we didn’t have concerns about it,” she says. “But I would like to think that the positivity that we created shows that equestrian sport is pretty incredible and the horses are at forefront of it all. We are very aware that without them, we couldn’t do what we do.”
And with that, it is time for her to get back in the saddle. “Every time something good happens it just fuels the fire to do it again and experience that again,” she says. “So now it’s just a case of building up the young horses and hoping that one of them will be the next London 52.”
