Two years after a devastating accident, former driver Kurt Hughes is struggling to find normalcy in a life that changed overnight. Now a C6 quadriplegic, there’s no question — he will never be the same. But together with his wife Colleen, and the support of a generous racing community, Kurt is working through the arduous process of rehabilitation with notable success. Though he may have to change his strategy, it’s clear he has every intention to continue the pursuit of his dreams.

By Keith McCalmont

Life can change in an instant. On November 3, 2008, horseman Kurt Hughes was heading home from a typical night at the races when disaster struck. His car hurtled off the road, rolling to a stop beyond a ditch on County Road 29, just west of Warkworth, Ontario.

“I actually don’t remember it at all,” says Kurt today from his Hamilton home. “I remember driving home but I don’t remember what happened. I was coming from Kawartha Downs after the races on a Saturday night and my parents were flying in the next day. I don’t remember anything until I woke up in ICU in Toronto. I remember
driving home other nights and deer crossing the road and I wonder if it was a deer. That part has been difficult too... not knowing.”

The ten months that followed the accident were difficult to forget. Diagnosed as a C6 quadriplegic, Kurt was hospitalized for close to a year and attributes much of his recovery from his extended time at Toronto Weston Hospital’s intensive care unit to his wife Colleen.

“I don’t know what I’d do without her. It’s been quite a shock,” he says. “She’s had to be the strong one through it all and she had to handle everything when I was in the hospital for ten months. I was in ICU for two and a half months and acute care for three and a half months. She stayed in a Toronto hotel room for six months, coming in everyday and supporting me. She was there from ten in the morning until ten at night. She’s incredible.”

The not-so-typical newlyweds couldn’t bear to be apart. “It was almost two hours into Toronto and when he was in ICU I couldn’t imagine being that far away,” smiles Colleen.

For the ten months following the injury, Kurt and Colleen struggled through the depths of their new reality. Where would they live? Could Kurt recover? How much recovery could they expect? Who would look after the family and animals? How would the bills get paid?

Over time, the questions were answered. Their two dogs, Ursula and Jake, moved into a kennel. Their two cats moved into the hotel with Colleen. Family and friends arrived from Prince Edward Island and Connecticut to support the pair. And meanwhile, at racetracks across the county, plans were put in motion to raise money to help the young
couple.

Paul MacDonell and Jeff Porchak, along with Ralph and Ken Sucee, organized an online auction. Kawartha Downs sponsored a poker tournament organized by trainer Dave Gibson along with fellow horsemen Reg and Steve Gassien and held at the home of Mark and Sue Winacott.

In Kurt’s native Prince Edward Island, drivers competing in the CDPEC driving championship donated their earnings to help the cause and many of the owners involved donated their purse money.

But while the standardbred community rose up to the challenge, a bedridden Kurt was getting restless. Seeing her husband bothered by bedsores and down in spirit, Colleen knew he needed a spark. “I remember the first time we brought the dogs to see Kurt,” grins Colleen. “He needed a bit of a lift. There just seemed to be no end in sight and we were just supposed to lay there and heal. When we surprised him at the hospital with the dogs it was one of the first times I had seen him move his hands and arms as much. He was petting the dogs…”

The memory is too much. For a moment, the tears begin to flow.

“I met Colleen on Prince Edward Island,” says Kurt. “She was going to vet school there.”

“One of Kurt’s jobs was maintenance at the vet school,” laughs Colleen. “He did it more on the small animal side and I was always on the large animal side. One of my friends was a small animal vet and she got to know him because she’d be there long hours even when she didn’t need to be, playing with the cats. She told me we’d have so much in common as he had horses and introduced us.”

Kurt’s renowned patience on the track as a driver worked in his favour while courting Colleen.

“Sometimes in your fourth year, you work long hours,” recalls Colleen. “My friend and I would meet for a break at an area with couches between the two buildings and we’d see Kurt go up and down the halls and she pointed him out.”

Fate intervened when Colleen was on call with a vet who was summoned to Kurt’s barn to check on a lame horse. Though the pair had barely been introduced, sparks flew. It seems fitting that Kurt would find his true love through a horse. “After that visit Kurt started conveniently leaving through the large animal hospital on his way out each night…” sparkles Colleen as her eyes flirt across the floor at an adoring husband; Kurt grimaces in faux embarrassment.

It would seem the way to a vet’s heart is through the wing of a large animal hospital in Prince Edward Island.

When Kurt was finally transferred out of the isolation of intensive care in Toronto, he rolled through the doors of Chedoke Hamilton Health Sciences Regional Rehab as a man possessed. He applied the desire and determination that made him a good horseman to the task of recovery.

“A lot of it is strengthening,” explains Colleen. “We use a leg bike. I put his feet on there and it has a motor so it turns his feet for him. It helps with range of motion. There’s also an arm bike. As a quadriplegic, he can’t use his hands but he can use his arms. With physiotherapy for two hours, twice a day, he went from lifting half a pound to lifting twenty-five pounds, which was hard for him.”

Kurt is far too modest in assessing his own recovery. “I find it very slow,” he admits. “But when I look at where I was after the injury to now I know I’ve improved a lot.”

“The stronger he can get, the better he can use a manual chair — which they said he could not do based on his injury,” Colleen explains. “They didn’t think he’d be able to push himself, but it just shows how hard he works and how determined he was.”

Part of the recovery program included a visit with a couple that faced similar adversity. The foursome became fast friends and the introduction stirred the competitive nature of the athlete within.

“The couple we talk to… well, the husband plays wheel chair tennis,” offers Kurt. “He plays on Team Canada and he wants me to come out and give it a shot. I may try that now that I have some more free time.”

In time, the couple was asked to sign up as counselors in the program and become active as peers in a new community — trying to lend some of their positive spirit to those in need. “I spoke with a man and a woman recently injured,” says Kurt. “They just wanted to talk to someone who had lived through the experience. I told them to stay positive and that it does get better. It may not look like it or feel like it right now, but the biggest thing is to stay positive. You have to stay determined and you can’t give up.”

It’s clear that Kurt and Colleen never gave up on each other. Through hard work and lots of love, their relationship is, if even possible, stronger than ever and soon to be a little more crowded. Colleen is pregnant — with twins! “We didn’t want the accident to stop us from chasing our dreams.” laughs Colleen. “We decided to have a family and do the things we want to do. Even if we have to do things differently.”

Kurt and Colleen became parents through in-vitro fertilization and Kurt’s eyes shine with pride at the recollection of the day he found out he was going to be a father. While Colleen was off at the fertility clinic getting results, Kurt was at home working his program. “I asked him ‘do you want me to wait till I get home and tell you in person or call as soon as I know?” Colleen remembers.

“I needed to know,” grins Kurt. “So I had the person who was there helping hand him the phone,” she giggles. “ And I said, ‘I wish you were here to see the twins’ heartbeats.’”

“I was so happy and then it hit me,” laughs Kurt. “Twins! I thought — oh my God, what are we going to do?”

“Our moms are so excited,” Colleen adds. “I didn’t think it was going to work and Kurt couldn’t believe I let them put in two embryos. He was sure we were having twins!”

A proud and none-too-bothered Kurt looks fondly at his wife. “We’re gonna be busy!” he says.

For the average quadriplegic, it takes three years to get to a new ‘normal.’ Kurt, just shy of two years from his accident, is hitting the homestretch of his recovery in good position and in time hopes to return to the game he loves. “I haven’t been back to the track here in Ontario but I went home for a week this past August to Charlottetown,” he says. “I went out one night to watch my brother race. Yes, it felt good to be back. It was pretty hard to face it, but after I went I was glad I did. It’s a hard bug to shake. It’s been a big part of my life and I want to get back into it in some capacity. I’m just not sure what my options would be or what’s out there for someone in my position.”

But a man with Kurt’s unique knowledge and perspective on the racing game would surely have an opinion worth reading. “Maybe writing…” he ponders. “I’ve thought about that a little bit. I think it’s something I would enjoy and something I could do.”

Or perhaps the slender PEI-native who chooses his words oh-so-carefully might fancy following fellow island native Greg Blanchard into the broadcasting business. “I don’t know how good I would be in front of the camera,” he laughs, his pale complexion
reddening.

But when the suggestion is made that Kurt must go mad sitting on the couch watching the mistakes of his fellow drivers on race night, the generally quiet man speaks out. “No,” he insists. “I’ve been there. I don’t get mad at all. What happens in a race happens quick.
You only have a second to react.”

He’s more than eager, though, to share his thoughts on the talents of driver Paul MacDonell. “He doesn’t use them too hard. MacDonell will bring your horse back,” Kurt says. “It’s just the way he drives. He puts them in a position to win but always keeps them within themselves. And after driving Somebeachsomewhere… what more can you
say about him? He’s driven the best horse ever.”

It’s clear that Kurt sees MacDonell as a role model. “I tried to drive just like he does,” he admits. “I like to think I brought a horse back and never abused or used them too hard. I’d trip them out a bit more rather than power drive them. Getting a second-over trip was always my favourite. Usually you’re off the speed and always have an option. You’re not caught in and it’s a good trip for the horse that gives you the best chance to win. I think it’s the best trip you can give a horse.”

“Kurt’s just a quality person and a great horseman with aspirations,” says MacDonell of the young man. “He had, as recently as the night of the accident, been winning races at Kawartha Downs as a driver. That’s where his heart was at — being a driver some day. He was a horsemen first in my mind and that goes part and parcel with bringing a horse back after every race. He was just starting to prove what he really was here in Ontario. I think people in Prince Edward Island knew how accomplished he was at driving but he just seemed to be getting his feet wet here when the accident happened. He was right into it and it’s in his blood. He’ll be a part of it for a long time to come.”

Almost two years removed from a devastating moment, both Kurt and Colleen find themselves filled with admiration for a community that supported them through their darkest hour. “Everybody was so amazing through all of this, especially the horse community,” says Kurt. “I remember waking up in ICU and my family coming in and telling me all the support I received and how they pulled together with different fundraisers. Everyone from Kawartha Downs, Woodbine, Mohawk and all the people back home in PEI and the Maritimes... it’s just amazing. You don’t realize when you’re doing the day-to-day grind, until something like that happens, how close the horse community really is.”

As ever, the couple form a united front. “Along the way we’ve tried to thank all the people we knew that helped,” says Colleen. “But there are so many people that just handed Robert (Shepherd, Kurt’s cousin) cash at places like Flamboro. He would give us donations at different times and we really wish we could thank everybody because it just means so much and it just goes to show how supportive the Standardbred community is and we feel so badly that there may be some people we didn’t get to thank because we didn’t even know who they were.”

As Colleen speaks, Kurt shifts forward in his chair as if to listen more closely. It’s another movement that the doctors said wouldn’t be possible, but this young man is continuing to defy the odds.

Once a driver, and now a driving force, Kurt — thanks in great part to an amazingly supportive wife and the backing of a generous harness racing community — will roll on towards his next moment, wherever and whatever it may be.