As you can probably tell, my name is Jacklyn Wyatt, though I also go by Jackie. Born in December of 1985, I have resided in Ontario, Canada for most of my life aside from some winter trips to Florida for work in the winter time. Horses have been a passion in my life for as long as I can remember and I have been riding since I was just a little girl. Growing up I was into show jumping before I fell in love with horse racing in my early teens and ventured off to the racetrack the moment I finished high school.

Also while growing up I developed a passion for websites and programming. At a very young age I started a website called "Shady Hill Farm," named after the farm I took lessons at for several years. This was a virtual horse game, though it was very primitive. Most of the games I had played up until then were very unfullfilling so I had decided to start my own. By the time I was 15 I had created a dynamic, database-driven virtual horse racing game called Equination.net, complete with annual Premium Membership upgrades for a low annual fee. Looking back I find it amusing how far off base it was from the actual horse racing industry, but over the last decade Equination.net has grown along with me as my knowledge of horse racing expands each year. A few years ago I launched EquineLand, a horse showing game with many different breeds and disciplines. In 2010 I developed and launched HarnessNation, a very in-depth and complex harness racing game.

I also do freelance web design and web-based programming on the side.

Back to the horses.

I had always been a very skinny and petite girl growing up, though I did reach a height of 5'4" eventually. I also had a thirst for excitement and I suppose you could call me a bit of an adrenaline junkie. My parents bought me a horse, Martin, when I graduated from grade eight and he taught me a great deal. He was a very strong horse (though looking back after riding racehorses, he seems like a pony!) and quite quick compared to what I was used to. Frequently at shows his long stride used to eat up the ground and we'd usually take a stride out from every combination on course. It wasn't long after I acquired him that my interest in thoroughbred horse racing was sparked and I tried my hardest to find out what I could to get involved. With how skinny I was, I figured I was perfect to become a jockey, which looked like the most thrilling thing in the world to get the chance to do. Who wouldn't want to be paid to ride horses for a living?

There isn't much information available online about getting involved at the racetrack. I had managed to get a job working with some younger horses and horses on layoffs at a farm close to home, but I wasn't gaining much experience and wanted to get myself into the racetrack itself. I lucked out when one evening my dad was driving home from work late at night. He was listening to a sports show on the radio during his long commute home. On the show were a few sports figures, including the great Sandy Hawley. No one had been calling in to speak to him, but my dad decided to and was able to get on the air with him. He asked Sandy if he had any advice for me on how to become a jockey. Sandy requested my dad's contact information after they went off the air and said he would be in touch soon to help get me a job. Sandy called immediately the following day and provided me with the phone number of a trainer who would more than likely hire me on as a hot walker in the summer once I was done school.

It wasn't long after that this trainer and I spoke and we set up a date to meet in the backstretch at Woodbine. I was absolutely in awe as I drove into the backstretch for the very first time with my dad. After my visit with the trainer, who agreed I should finish school - I was eager to get going and was willing to drop everything just to get started - my dad and I took a walk up onto the EP Taylor turf course and I had goosebumps, it was so thrilling to be there. That summer I started working for this trainer as a hot walker until the fall. He gave me the opportunity to get on a few horses in the 1/4 mile sand ring but I needed a bit more experience from a proper farm and headed off to Windfields in Oshawa to get some riding experience.

Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how you look at it - I never got my chance to really ride at Windfields. I rode about a total of twice in the three months or so that I worked there and I was hired with the impression they were going to have me riding regularly. Instead, I was mucking what felt like hundreds of stalls daily, though I did get some ground experience breaking some yearlings. Not long after I gave my notice and that was the end of that. I could muck stalls elsewhere. Someone I had met at the farm, though, had headed off to Florida for the winter to work with hall of famer MacDonald Benson. I begged for them to get me a job, saying I'd find a way to get down there and make it work, even if I was just a hotwalker. On Boxing Day I flew down to Florida for my first winter and finally got my chance to start galloping.

Over the years I had the opportunity to work with some fantastic horses in that stable. Some of the horses I was able to gallop and work were stake winners, including Nashinda who was one of my favorites, and the great Arravale, who went on to be Canada's Horse of the Year. I learned a great deal and eventually started to freelance as I needed to start gaining more experience, especially working horses and working horses from the gates. I suffered a few setbacks here and there. Once I broke my thumb after my saddle slipped under the belly of my horse - Arravale - as we were breezing one day. I'll tell you, it hurts to hit the ground going that fast! Another spring I was kicked in the thigh and bent my knee backwards, stretching my LCL. But in 2007 I finally felt ready to get on with things and I took out my apprentice jockey's license.

In September 2007, at 104 lbs, I rode my first race aboard Russian First. He was a cool gelding trained by Sean Hall. We finished second-last in an eight-horse field, but it was a fantastic experience. In November I rode my first winner aboard Renga's Girl. Leading up to this race I had galloped this filly every day for about two years straight. I knew her like the back of my hand and it was absolutely thrilling to take the lead out of the gates. We set a comfortable pace and shook off the competition when they came at us. There is no better feeling than winning a race! When I got back, the girls in the jockey's room were waiting and put me in a laundry bin, wrote all over my back and arms, cracked eggs on my head, filled my bin with ice and shoved me under a cold shower. Sounds cruel, but it was pretty fun to finally be initiated with my first win like that!

Unfortunately, not long after I started to suffer some health complications. It wasn't until 2010 that I was finally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which was what was causing me so much grief when I was trying to make weight. After a winter off, I felt a lot better and started to race again in the spring of 2008. I eventually won my second race aboard Texas Blitz, who was owned and trained by the same person who gave me my first winner. I had galloped this horse a bit here and there - he ruined a nice pair of my jeans one morning! - and while the race didn't go as planned, it was an exciting victory on opening day at Fort Erie Racetrack. We broke a little slow and while we were supposed to be on the lead on the muddy day, we came from out of it and he was full of run entering the stretch. It was great to be back, but the colitis started to flare up again and I just couldn't handle it anymore.

After taking the summer off, I decided to return in the fall of 2008 at a heavier weight. I was tacking about 116lbs, which is quite heavy for an apprentice, but I was able to pick up my third winner aboard Fleety Pie down at Fort Erie. The original jockey had booked off and I picked up the mount. We were at the back of the pack on a very soupy day before we kicked into another gear and made our way home. I ran out of goggles, it was so muddy, and we bounded hom to take the win. Things were going quite well at the heavier weight, though it was harder to get mounts, and my colitis was not bothering me.

However, in September I suffered a riding accident where a horse bolted to the left as we worked from the starting gates. I tried to keep him straight but couldn't do so successfully and the next thing I knew I was laying on a stretcher in the track ambulance waiting for the hospital's ambulance to show up. I suffered a nasty concussion, having flattened the front of my riding helmet. I also significantly injured my shoulder. When I was cleared to return after my concussions symptoms subsided a few weeks later, I had a great deal of difficulty with my shoulder. I was abnormally weak, Icouldn't whip right-handed and I was in a great deal of pain and discomfort. I decided to stop racing and try to strengthen my arm back up with galloping and hope that, soon, I would be OK to race again. That day never came. After the season finished I started physiotherapy.

In the spring of 2009 I tried to gallop again while still undergoing physiotherapy. I was not experiencing any improvement in my shoulder up to this point, so I was not very optimistic. Not longer after I started galloping - perhaps about a month or so, and only galloping a few horses a day - I had an incident with a horse who was lugging in to the left very hard. I was trying my best to avoid crashing through the inside rail by pulling him to the right when, suddenly, my entire right arm gave out and went completely numb. Luckily, I was able to pull my horse up and avoid any serious problems, but I knew then and there that something serious was wrong and I was just a danger to myself and everyone else on a horse. Unfortunately, no one was able to figure out what was wrong with my shoulder and I was continuously told it was simply muscular and it would heal. The fact it still hadn't after all this time should have been enough of an indication to everyone that it wasn't.

X-rays and ultrasounds showed nothing. I had perfect range of motion. I had basic strength in my arm. Everyone was baffled. In the fall of 2009, with things not going anywhere and not being able to afford the rent in Toronto any longer, I decided to move back home closer to my parents. I was also having a lot of stomach issues and started to get those problems looked at, as well. I suppose, like a horse, I needed a bit of a layoff at "the farm" to get things sorted out. In early 2010 I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and began taking medication and altering my diet, which has helped tremeandously. I had also already begun the long, lengthy process of getting in to see a specialist about my shoulder.

It wasn't until November of 2010 that I finally go to see a specialist/surgeon about my shoulder. He sent me for an MRI, which didn't happen until March 2011. Our healthcare system is just fabulous. In April 2011 I was finally diagnosed with a SLAP tear in my right shoulder. Essentially, I have ripped the cartilage off of the socket in my shoulder joint. I underwent surgery on August 22nd, 2011 and what a difference that has made! Almost immediately following the surgery my pain was completely gone. I was immobilized in a sling for five weeks and when that was removed the surgeon and my physiotherapist were both amazed with my range of motion and strength. I have since started strength training and have been told I may be able to start riding in January. I will have a follow-up with the surgeon in November and we'll have a better idea as to a return to the saddle date at that point.

Provided everything continues to go as well as it has been, I should be able to start riding in January and anticipate being ready to return to racing in April when the season begins at Woodbine. I am so excited to be on my way to returning to do what I love.