Miracle Foxhunter rider Harriet Tucker savours point win after shoulder worries

Winning a point-to-point at Larkhill would not normally match the feeling of triumphing at the Cheltenham Festival, but Harriet Tucker's tale is not a normal one.

In March she produced one of the festival's most memorable moments when steering Pacha Du Polder to victory in the Foxhunterafter dislocating her shoulder at the last – "I think adrenaline got me through because you don't give up at Cheltenham," she said.

It was an injury that not only threatened her future in the saddle but left her facing the possibility of losing the use of her right arm.

However, a summer operation rectified the problem and Tucker was still floating on cloud nine on Monday having partnered Monsieur Gibraltar to ladies' open victory at the Wiltshire point-to-point venue 24 hours earlier.

"Everything I'd gone through, thinking whether the operation would work or not, to go and do that yesterday was amazing," said Tucker, whose shoulder was initially hurt in a point-to-point fall two years ago.

"About 30 per cent of the shoulder cuff, which holds it in place, had gone and 40 per cent of the ball had gone, so they cut a bit of bone off the top of my shoulder that I didn't need and reattached it to the cuff to keep it in place.

"I had that done on June 18 and started riding out at the end of November, but when I got told about it I did worry I'd never ride again.

"Emma Edwards, one of the physios at Oaksey House, felt my arm after Cheltenham and if I'd had another heavy fall on that shoulder and stretched all the ligaments even more I'd have lost the use of it."

Watch Harriet Tucker win the Foxhunter on Pacha Du Polder

Tucker, from Frome in Somerset who works for Pacha Du Polder's trainer Paul Nicholls, added: "It was 50-50 whether the operation would work and when I woke up after it I asked how it went and the surgeon said, 'Great, better than I thought it would'.

"I was like, 'Great, I can ride Pacha again at Cheltenham now'. It was the first thing that went through my head."

The 23-year-old amateur jockey, whose grandparents Pat and Donald trained pointers, is thought fitter than ever by jockey coach Rodi Greene – a legacy of the conditioning she received at Oaksey House – but has no plans to turn professional. Instead, she is eyeing another magic March afternoon.

"Pacha's looking well at the moment so fingers crossed we can do it again," she said.

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