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Izzie Hill faces a long stint on the sidelines after suffering a broken leg and ankle in a schooling fall last week.

Crowned national women’s champion in the 2023/24 season, Hill (pictured above) is based with trainers Alan and Lawney Hill in Oxfordshire and is married to their son Joe. She had made a superb start to the current campaign with three wins and a third from four rides, but Ellie Holder took her place when the stable ran I K Brunel at Larkhill yesterday.

Speaking from her home, Hill, who has ridden 128 point-to-point winners, said: “I’ve suffered a spiral fracture of the lower tibia down into my ankle, but it could have been way worse. I was schooling over hurdles and landed on my feet, but slightly awkwardly – all that energy has to go somewhere.”

She was immediately attended to by family members and an ambulance was called. She said: “To get me across the field [schooling ground] to the ambulance required putting me on a stretcher and then into the back of Alan’s pick-up. It was horrendous at the time, but looking back it seems hilarious.”

The following day Hill underwent a five-and-a-half hour operation to insert a rod into her leg from above the knee. She said: “I’m part-bionic now. Joe has been amazing in looking after me, and we’ve had great help from all the family. My parents, Charlotte and Fraser, moved up here from Sussex in the summer, which has been handy.

“It’s too early to say how long I’ll be out for – I’d like to think I could be back for Aintree [in April] or sometime around then, but who knows? I’m hoping to go to Chaddesley Corbett on Sunday because while I would prefer to ride the horses I am desperate to see them run. I’ve invested so much time in them at home.

“Ellie Holder has been in and schooled and she is likely to ride the ladies’ horses in the yard, and Alan will be hoping to use James King and Dale Peters who have ridden for him before.”