By Luke Voogt
Darryn Lyons has emerged from surgery accusing tourism campaign organisers of failing to provide a stunt double before his infamous horse fall in 2014.
“I’m very lucky to escape with the damage that was done. It could have killed me,” the former mayor said after Tuesday’s shoulder surgery, which he attributed to the fall.
But Tourism Geelong and The Bellarine boss Roger Grant denied the claim, saying Mr Lyons never requested a stunt double.
Mr Lyons was mounted stationary at 13th Beach while filming the tourism campaign when his robes spooked the horse, prompting it to bolt down the beach and throw him from the saddle.
“When it was being discussed with me (beforehand) I was pretty adamant it was the kind of thing you get a stunt rider for,“ he said.
Mr Lyons, an experienced rider, described the horse as “not docile”.
“I don’t think the horse was the kind of horse that should have been used.”
He rode the same horse through Geelong the day before the accident for a separate segment of the campaign.
“But I didn’t have the robe and chains or any of that paraphernalia on at the time.”
Mr Lyons also criticised a lack of helmets, safety equipment and medical staff at the beach.
“Even when you play polo you’ve got ambulances for this sort of thing,” he said.
He suffered mild concussion, strained ligaments and cuts after the mayoral chains hit his face.
“I was lucky I didn’t lose an eye.”
The shoulder injury worsened after the accident to become so unbearable it required surgery, Mr Lyons said.
He was hopeful on Thursday of a satisfactory recovery.
“The surgeon said it went very well,” he said.
“It’s now a long, long period of rehab. For the next three or four weeks there’s going to be a lot pain.”
Mr Lyons admitted he regretted mounting the horse.
“If I had my time over again I would have been more blunt about what should have been done and what shouldn’t have been done.”
But Mr Grant said the stunt-double discussion “never arose because we never anticipated the need”.
“If Darryn had requested a stunt person … of course we would have considered it,” he said.
“It was just the mayor (sitting) on the horse. If Darryn had asked of course we would have considered it – it wasn’t as if we had planned to have a horse charging down the beach.
“If he had said, ‘No, I’m not doing that because it’s dangerous’, we would have adhered to that.
“I think we were as shocked as anyone. It wasn’t even thought about as a high-risk strategy.”
Mr Lyons drove the campaign concept and knew his way around horses, Mr Grant said.
“That was obvious from the previous shoot where he riding the same horse through the centre of Geelong.
“The fact that he held on for so long (before the fall) was a demonstration of his skill.”
Mr Lyons declined to say whether the accident was an issue for WorkSafe, given he was appearing as Geelong’s paid full-time mayor in a campaign for a council-funded tourism body.
City Hall refused to comment when the Indy enquired about whether council had provided any medical support after the accident.
