by Maxine Gordon

Not even a broken back could keep champion jockey Jacqueline Coward from racing - so why is she hanging up her saddle?

NORTH YORKSHIRE jockey Jacqueline Coward wears her battle scars with a childlike pride. There was the head injury from a fall at Catterick, the broken back that dashed her hopes of riding at Cheltenham and the two smashed shoulders which have been expertly put back together again.

Pausing between coffee and cake she flicks through the image gallery on her smartphone to find a picture of an X-ray showing the metalwork in her left shoulder and points out where it snapped in a second injury to the joint.

Accidents are part and parcel of a jockey's life, but Jacqueline has had more than her fair share.

"I fell off on my first ride," she says. "I ran back to my mum... and told her I loved it!"

Jacqueline was born to ride. Her granddad is renowned North Yorkshire trainer Mick Easterby, who has been sending winning racehorses from his yard at Sheriff Hutton for over half a century. Mum Cherry also runs her own stables in Ryedale - at Low Moor Farm, Scackleton, where she trains point to pointers, ably assisted by Jacqueline in recent months.

The 30-year-old confirms riding is in the blood. "I was chucked on a pony at year dot. I was very gung ho and always wanted to go faster, go bigger."

Fearless and competitive, Jacqueline went on to make history three years ago becoming the first Yorkshire woman to be crowned the national champion female jockey in point to point.

She took part in her final race a fortnight ago - going out with a win and ending an impressive racing career which saw her claim 153 victories, 15 this season alone.

The final race, at the Haydon point to point at Hexham on May 22, was an emotional experience. "It was a fairytale ending," says Jacqueline. "All the photos show me hugging my horse. Later, the other jockeys soaked me with water!"

However, her success was hard fought. Racing didn't come naturally. "I was useless at first, I kept falling off. It took me three years before I had a winner."

Her uncle David coached her in her early days. "He nicknamed me Bob because I was always bobbing around on the horse like a goldfish. He told me: 'You'll either learn to stick or become very ugly' - by falling off all the time!"

A breakthrough came when she went to America for four months to work with top US-based female jockey Diana Gillam. Ostensibly Jacqueline fled to escape a broken heart - she had just split up with her teenage first love Otis Ferry (son of Bryan Ferry) after a four-year relationship.

"I thought I was fit," begins Jacqueline. "I played lacrosse for the North of England, I did sports every weekend at school, I went for runs - but Diana got me to a different level of fitness which definitely helped my riding. She got me up at 4am to ride at the track. It was freezing and we'd be wearing ski wear. After lunch, we went to the gym, sleep, then go out for a six-mile run."

After four months, she felt like a different person. "I was absolutely heartbroken when I went to America. But I came back feeling five years older."

She has this advice for young girls wanting to follow in her footsteps: "Get fit, go running and keep going! Boys are so much stronger than us. Riding well is about being balanced and the fitter you are the better you can hold yourself."

True grit must be an essential requirement too if Jacqueline's career is anything to go by. It was sheer determination that put her back in the saddle time and again following her injuries.

She still relives that fateful day at Catterick in February 2009 when she fell and suffered a serious head injury - the accident was filmed and shown on Helicopter Heroes and is often repeated on TV.

"I was completely out cold. I was told I stopped breathing," says Jacqueline. "I found out a lot about what actually happened from watching Helicopter Heroes." Jacqueline was airlifted to the James Cook Hospital at Middlesbrough, where she stayed for three days before going home. She thought she was fine, but her family knew otherwise. "I was on cloud cuckoo for six months, properly not with it. I'd be eating and telling mum how the porridge was delicious - but I was eating soup. Or I'd ask my sister Sam five times the same question."

She used the time off to repair the rest of her body. She was carrying several injuries from various falls and over the next few months had surgeries to her shoulder, collarbone and shoulder blade.

Amazingly, six months later, she was back in the saddle - but had to go under the surgeon's knife once more when a nasty fall damaged her left shoulder once again.

Even when she broke her back, she was determined to return to the sport she loved as soon as possible.

Her granddad Mick urged her to think seriously about giving up racing. He told her that she might not be so lucky with her next fall - and what if she could never ride again?

Jacqueline is as passionate about hunting as she is point to point racing. In the past year she has been working as a trainer alongside her mother. Her granddad's words seem to have finally hit home. She said: "I want to be hunting when I am 80 - I don't want to be racing when I am 80."

She added: "I am a competitive person but I did realise I can't go on forever." And she wanted to retire on her own terms, not because her body was telling her too. "I wanted to retire when I was still good and winning races."

Which is exactly what she has done.