ICHIRF is part of an international, multi-sport study into concussion and its long-term effects.
It is a collaborative project with existing and on-going research in Australia, Switzerland and the USA. Through impartial, objective analysis of a significant pool of data, ICHIRF will work together with its international partners to establish whether there is any correlation between repeated concussion and long-term damage or degenerative conditions that effect the brain.
“The Turf Club fully supports the objectives of ICHIRF. We consider it to be one of the most important research projects ever launched with its focus on concussion. We would actively encourage as many jockeys as possible to support the work and participate in the research.”
Since retiring as a jockey in 1999 he has travelled extensively and undertaken expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctic. In 2003 he competed in the inaugural Polar Race to the Magnetic North Pole and in 2008 he completed an unsupported expedition to the South Pole, travelling around 700 miles on skis. Besides sport, adventure and travel, he has always been passionate about photography and in 2011 he signed up to a nine month intensive photojournalism course at the Spéos Photographic Institute in Paris.
In Spring 2013 his work took him to Guatemala, India, Pakistan and Egypt to photograph the challenges facing The Brooke Hospital for Animals and a successful exhibition (his first) of the resulting images of working equines and their owners was held in January 2014 at St Martin’s in the Fields in London. He covered the highly popular Mongol Derby for the third consecutive year in 2014, and recently photographed the “Patient’s Journey” for Channel 4’s “Supervet,” Noel Fitzpatrick. His images have appeared in publications around the world including Tatler, Four Seasons Magazine, Outside and How to Spend It.
Photo by Laurence Squire