Page 391 - They Also Served

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Guy Disney 2007.
Guy Fraser Disney was born on 17th
March 1982. Educated at Malvern
College, he later attended the Royal
Agricultural University in Cirencester
and, after graduating in 2006, entered
Sandhurst. Commissioned into the Light
Dragoons in 2007, Disney was already a
promising and talented point-to-point
rider. However, in July 2009, on a tour
of Helmand Province, his vehicle was hit
by a rocket-propelled grenade and his injuries included the loss of his right leg, which was amputated below the knee.
Such was Disney’s determination to return to duty that he mastered the use of a prosthetic leg and completed another tour of Afghanistan before retiring from the army in 2012. There then followed a long struggle to gain a licence to ride competitively from the British Horseracing Authority. After an initial refusal, he enlisted the help of barrister David Carey, a former Navy doctor who specialised in assisting pilots to regain their licence after injury. Finally, their perseverance, together with specially designed stirrups, finally paid off and Disney was granted a licence in 2015. That year, he became the first jockey to complete with a prosthetic limb when he rode Ballyallia Man to third place in the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown. At the time, he was frustrated by the media attention saying, with typical frankness: ‘The attention should have been on the winner, not some one-legged bloke hobbling back in’.
Two years later, however, Disney, riding Rathlin Rose, won the event with the horse’s trainer, David Pipe, saying: ‘He’s inspirational to everyone. It puts things in context’. Disney paid tribute to those who had assisted him on the road to recovery: ‘I’ve been amazingly well looked after – people have had it far worse than I have’. Indeed, while he was waiting for his jockey licence, Disney became closely involved with the charity Walking With The Wounded, taking part in a ground-breaking expedition to both the North and South Poles. In 2019, following further racing success, Disney rode in the Randox Foxhunter Chase over the famed Grand National Course at Aintree. In 2020, Guy Disney, an inspiration to all injured veterans, was awarded the MBE for services to horse racing, veterans’ charities, and polar exploration.
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