“They all said ‘focus on rehab’, so I made it my job; wake up, breakfast, physio, and so on. I was given a strict routine that is best for the body in these circumstances. You should get your bowels and bladder into a routine and eat and drink at the same time each day.
“Of course there are dark times. The boys would understand. For me it was when someone rides a winner who was on the same level as me but made progress. Actually, it’s envy because my chance has been taken away from me. Everyone tells me that’s completely understandable.
‘Sometimes you get a day. Winter is definitely more of a struggle. I can’t control my body temperature very well, so if you go outside and it’s cold, wet and rainy the wheelchair handles get slippery and that builds up to a mini mental breakdown during the day when I’m everyone could tell to eff -off, but they are pretty few and far between.
“There was one day when I was supposed to watch a Six Nations rugby match, but it was raining, it was cold and I was already a bit sore and just couldn’t prepare for it.
“While I was in the hospital, Sir Mark called. He told me when he broke his back that he couldn’t even blink. He had to get the nurse to open his eyes.
“It wasn’t really what I wanted to hear 16 days later but it was a Sunday when he religiously called all his owners and I’m pretty sure I was his first call of the day which meant a lot and he gave me this great advice ‘don’t be so horrible to your mother.’ He was nice to the nurses but terrible to his mother when she drove up from Devon to see him and he still regrets it now.
“I think my mom started getting used to my injury about two months ago, just as I was off the painkillers. I smiled and laughed a little more and when she saw that in me I think she saw that if I could accept it it would be better for me if she accepted it.
“Dad took much longer, maybe that has to do with protecting a father. He is a pilot and because of the lockdown he did not fly. He had to be busy. After three months he came home from Paris to adjust the house and I think he was happier that he could do something constructive to help.”
McCoy calls Pritchard Webb an inspiration. “He’s a young, handsome boy who had his whole life ahead of him before he got those life-changing injuries, but his attitude was fantastic,” he said. “He has a great outlook on life because it can’t be easy. We all have bad days, but in the grand scheme of things we don’t.”
Most jockeys have pretty puny arms given the weight issues that muscle mass causes, but for the challenge Pritchard Webb now has arms like Popeye fitted in training between his fledgling careers at Sky Sports Racing and as a blood supply agent. But if anyone is mentally up to this challenge, it’s unlikely it’s Pritchard Webb.