This being Bryony Frost, she is not content with a simple description of what it was like to win a Grade One race last month at Cheltenham.
‘When I went up to cloud nine that day, I lost the map of how to get there. I’m not keen to find it and come back down,’ says the author of last month’s Festival fairy tale.
Not only did the 23-year-old ride Frodon to a thrilling win in the Ryanair Chase, she followed it up with a memorable, life-affirming TV interview while still aboard her mount in the moment of victory.
Bryony Frost will miss Aintree but is still on a high after her win at Cheltenham on Frodon
It was not your average tonguetied exchange so often heard on these occasions. Out gushed the words: ‘He is Pegasus, he has wings. He is the perfection of determination,’ were among her more lyrical evocations.
She can do more than just pilot a horse with supreme skill, and compete on equal terms with men. She also talks with an almost poetic leaning — the Bard of Buckfastleigh, her hometown in Devon.
This all-round star quality makes it disappointing that she cannot ride in this weekend’s Grand National, the result of a fractured collarbone sustained four days after the emotional scenes at Cheltenham. It will be painful to watch from afar, she admits, as she sits in the pub next to Paul Nicholls’ yard in deepest Somerset, to where she and her team repaired after her groundbreaking success on Frodon.
Her left arm is in a sling as she undergoes rehab in the hope of being back this season
Teetotal, she restricts herself to a full-fat cola. Her left arm is in a sling as she undergoes rehab in the hope of being back before the jump season’s close three weeks on Saturday. ‘I’m one-winged at the moment,’ she says, cheerfully. So, where does all this turn of phrase come from? School was difficult, being something of an outsider who preferred ponies to the party scene, but she enjoyed creative pursuits, despite suffering a form of dyslexia. ‘I loved trying to write stories and songs,’ she relates. ‘My imagination has always run wild.
‘When I was a kid, I was very feral. Perhaps that’s it. I speak with my heart more than my head, and maybe one day it will get me into trouble. When I gave that interview I was only relaying what I had just lived through.’
Frost, who despite injury is expected to be crowned this season’s champion
