Oliver Wadlow: I do not want to be known for falling off

The 24-year-old point-to-point ace was enjoying his best-ever season when a freak accident at Chaddesley Corbett in Worcestershire turned him into a YouTube sensation.

Wadlow's brush with disaster attracted nationwide interest – but he's determined to put the record straight in the new season.

"I do want to prove to people that I can ride without falling off," said Wadlow, who is an accountant in Bristol during the week but returns home to Morville, Shropshire, at weekends. "I need to get out there riding to show people that I'm back. I think some people have assumed that I wouldn't ride again."

Film and photographs show that would actually be a reasonable assumption. It must be one of the scariest moments ever witnessed on a racecourse.

Wadlow was aboard a horse called Hello Mr Kelly when his mount clattered a fence and fired the jockey into the air. But, as he fell, his foot became trapped between the straps of the stirrup leather and he was dragged, bouncing along at a flat-out gallop.

Fellow jockey Alex Edwards, from Cressage, tried in vain to halt Wadlow's horse and the horrifying incident came to an end only when the saddle broke – just yards from a fence which Hello Mr Kelly went on and jumped.

"I remember falling and swinging around. Something hit me in the back of the head – that blow cracked my helmet," said Wadlow. "I can't remember anything else."

He was taken to hospital where it was found he had smashed his collar bone and broken his coccyx – injuries that proved problematic when his accountancy exams came around a few weeks later.

"I had to withdraw from two of them because I couldn't sit down," he explained. "I went back to work and moved into the kitchen there so I could work standing up."

By the time of the accident Wadlow had four winners – including a treble at Whittington – and 14 placings to his name from 45 rides. He won the North West Area novice riders' title and his aim for the forthcoming season is to better that winning score.

He has no qualms about returning to race riding and is determined to put the fall behind him.

"It was such a freak accident that the chances of it happening again are tiny," he said. "The season before I'd had 50 rides and 16 falls – it was becoming a weekly occurrence. But I didn't break anything.

"Last season I had just one fall at the start and then that one at the end.

"I have never been concerned about my confidence – I had come back from a broken back before. I've been riding a lot recently and the adrenalin rush is still there.

"I just can't wait for the season to really get going again. I am very competitive and I would just like to do as well as last season and possibly a bit better."

Wadlow was a late-comer to racing, despite hailing from an equestrian background. His father Simon, a farmer, is chairman of the Wheatland Hunt and older brother Adam was also a point-to-point jockey. But Oliver can remember dismounting from his pony as a six-year-old and announcing that he was never going to ride again.

"I hated riding," he said. "But then I used to get dragged along to watch Adam at point-to-points and I found I was starting to enjoy it."

The racing bug finally took hold when the former Shrewsbury School pupil went to work for a summer with Shropshire bloodstock agent David Minton and his business partner Anthony Bromley in Newmarket.

He was soon riding regularly, but it proved a short-lived introduction after a fall on the gallops left him with a broken back.

"It took a bit of time to recover and while I was still in a back brace my parents went out and bought me a schoolmaster horse," he said.

The new purchase was Stony Trooper, who had taught the art of race-riding to several young jockeys.

"He was brilliant. My standard wasn't very high as I had very limited experience," said Wadlow.

The breakthrough finally came when he spent his gap year before university working for trainer Steve Wynne. "He was very good. Having someone who had ridden professionally giving me advice was very different. It helped me a lot," he said.

Wadlow managed to combine race riding with his university studies but it was not until his third season that he started picking up regular rides. Total dedication is required and he works hard on his fitness.

His weekends are a master class in time management. A typical non-racing Saturday finds him leaving Bristol at 5am to arrive at the Middleton Scriven yard of trainer Belinda Clarke to ride out. Then it might be off to Shrewsbury to ride one there, followed by a trip to Cheshire – and do it all again on a Sunday. But it's all worth it when the season comes around again.

"Belinda has a horse called That's Mine, who is very exciting," said Wadlow. "He is a really scopey horse and I think we could win several races this season."

Celia Holmes