Kick to head sounded 'like an apple dropping on concrete'

Mark Isaacs says he is thankful Jackie Deans was there to help him when the horse kicked him. Photo / Otago Daily Times

His face has practically been rebuilt after being kicked by a horse last Wednesday, but this weekend Dunedin horseman Mark Isaacs will be at the mini show in Clyde, right where he wants to be.

Not even 400 stitches, three steel plates screwed into his face, a broken jaw and a reconstructed eye socket would be enough to keep the 47-year-old farrier and show horse owner from the show circuit, he said from his Waldronville home yesterday.

He will be there thanks to quick thinking by colleague and friend Jackie Deans, who was present when he was kicked in the head while undoing a cover on a horse.

"It sounded like an apple dropping on to concrete," Ms Deans said.

Mr Isaacs was knocked out and landed face down in a puddle. Ms Deans fished him out and checked he was breathing, before running to the house to call an ambulance.

Despite Ms Deans' protestations that she was no hero, Mr Isaacs' wife, Sharolyn, said she and her husband both believed otherwise.

"He would not be alive if she had not pulled him out of that puddle," Mrs Isaacs said.

Mr Isaacs spent four days in hospital before he had "had enough" and said yesterday his face was not too painful. He could not remember being kicked, but recalled Ms Deans "screaming" as he slipped in and out of consciousness. "I just thank God she was there."

- Otago Daily Times