A horse trainer has told how he was nearly killed when he was kicked by one of his animals.
Derek Shaw, who runs a training yard in Sproxton, near Melton, was rushed to hospital with massive internal bleeding and underwent emergency surgery to remove a ruptured spleen.
The 55-year-old spoke to the Mercury yesterday as he was recovering at home after the incident in a field at his yard last week.
"It was touch-and-go at one point," said Derek. "As they took me into theatre, they told me it might not go well.
"I told them not to worry because what would be, would be. Luckily, they were able to save my life and I am still here."
He was injured after he was caught between two mares with their foals on the evening of Wednesday, June 19.
He said he was lucky not to have suffered an even worse injury.
"If the mare had been a foot further back, the kick would have been to my head and I would have been dead, no question about that," he said.
He said he was already back out and about on the yard.
He said: "I can potter about to see how things are going. I feel I'm lucky to be here at all, so I want to get on with things. I'm concentrating on getting fit and getting my next winner."
The accident comes after his 15-month-old daughter, Ellie Mae, died after banging her head on the metal steps of a tractor after falling from her father's arms in January, 2010.
His wife, Lyndsey, who is 20 weeks pregnant with a girl, said a member of staff who was with her husband when he was kicked raised the alarm.
The 33-year-old said: "I got straight out there to Derek and he was in a bad way.
"I called the ambulance and they took him to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.
"It has been a pretty exhausting and awful past week or so, particularly with my being pregnant. Derek came home on Wednesday and it's good to have him back here."
Lyndsey said when her husband came round after surgery, he told her to get to Ascot with one of their horses that was racing.
She said: "It was about 3am and he wanted to talk about the horse supposed to be running that day. He told me he was fine. I went home, had an hour's sleep then went to Ascot with the horse."
