A young lad whose left foot was severed in a lawnmower accident when he was a toddler is successfully taking on the eventing world.

Beaminster School pupil Charlie Bailey of Pilsdon Hill Farm is now 15 and competing on the family’s homebred skewbald mare Midnight.

Now he’s been given a £2,000 helping hand by The Terry Collin appeal fund – set up to honour the memory of the former Bridport News sports editor.

Charlie’s foot was injured when he was three and he was rescued by the air ambulance. It was the speed with which he got to the hospital that enabled surgeons to use microsurgery to reattach his foot.

He spent 18 months in plaster and had to use a Zimmer frame to learn how to walk again.

He said: “I have two different sized shoes. I still get a lot of pain with it, especially when it gets cold.”

He wears a support all the time but none of that deterred him from learning to ride when he was four. He became a member of the Sevington Pony Club and Shipton Riding Club and has competed in dressage, show-jumping and eventing teams for both. But he’s set his sights on joining British Eventing and wants to make it a career.

He said: “I just like being with horses – I like riding them, I like to do the dressage, show-jumping and cross country. I enjoy the discipline of dressage but I do prefer the cross country.”

But none of his dreams would be possible without the support of the Terry Collin fund, he said.

Charlie has been competing on his six-year-old mare – a horse he started to ride at 13. He said: “I did most of the work. She is the first one I’ve broken in.”

Terry’s sister Heather Crabb, who is chairman of the fund, said: “Charlie came and presented his case absolutely brilliantly and we felt he was very deserving of help.”

Heather, who administers the fund with sisters Mary Reed and Anna Fowles, said they were always happy to consider requests for help.

She said: “At Terry’s funeral we collected the best part of £1,000 so we had to think what to do with it and we started the fund to keep his memory going.”

Applications to the fund can be made to 10 Church Street, Beaminster, or by ringing 01308 863176.