Paralyzed 14 Years, Straight Appreciates Good Moments

It was on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009, before the eighth race at Arlington Park that Michael Straight walked unaided for the final time as he stepped to his mount, the 3-year-old gelding Im No Gentleman, and lifted a boot for a leg up. A few minutes later, while rounding the final turn, Im No Gentleman's left fore caught the right hind of a horse angling out and fell, pitching Straight hard to the ground. Fourteen years have passed, plenty of time for Straight to have been pushed to the margins of racing's crowded memory. Hundreds of jockeys have hit the ground since then. Most of them got up to ride again that same afternoon. Many others took a day or two, licked their wounds, and went back to work. Some were seriously injured but recovered, while others paid the ultimate price. And then there were those, like Straight, who emerged into the twilight zone of paralysis, confronted by a world turned upside down and inside out. Straight was 24 when he went down at Arlington. He'd been a jockey for just shy of six months. He won the first race he rode and 38 more, including a nice allowance score three days before his fall. As a North American Racing Academy graduate who had worked for top trainer Wesley Ward, it was not an exaggeration to suggest Michael Straight was on a pace to enjoy a successful career. Straight is now 38. The most recent August 26 passed quietly, one among the many since his injury. He is not one to dwell, though, especially since there have been several dates of significance since then, signposts along a rough road that have helped give meaning to a life so thoroughly interrupted. Dates like: On March 4, 2011, when Straight and his family celebrated the victory of the 5-year-old gelding Big Flirt in a claiming race at Gulfstream Park. "I got on him for Wesley before I started riding, and he was out-breezing horses on the Derby trail that year," Straight said recently from his home in Jacksonville, Fla. "I thought he was going to be the next superstar. But he was a morning glory, I guess, and ended up in the claiming game. I kept following him, though, because I knew how much heart he had. We claimed him in 2010 and he hit the board in 11 of 14 starts for us before we lost him." Or how about that day in 2014 when Straight was introduced to the ReWalk exoskeleton, a technology that allowed him to stand and move his paralyzed legs in a walking motion that brought tears to his eyes. Straight spread his joy far and wide, prompting a fundraising campaign sparked by a $25,000 donation from Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds who bought Michael the device for invaluable therapeutic use at home. With his T4 spinal fracture, Straight is paralyzed from the mid-chest down. His home routine also includes using a product from EasyStand, which breaks up the awful physical and mental monotony of life in a chair. "I'm at over 500,000 steps with the exoskeleton," Straight said. "It kicks my ass every time I get in it. I do close to a thousand steps every time, so by now I've put in 500,000 steps. I definitely have to rest that night and next day, and I'm sore. But it's all worth it. Using it helps muscle tone, bathroom routine, circulation, everything. "I don't know what kind of exercise I'd be doing without it," he said. "I talk to other paralyzed jockeys who never stand. I stand every day with the EasyStand, and the only days I don't stand are the days I walk." I let that last comment sink in. He straight fractured not only the T4 vertebra, but the T5 as well. Doctors told him there was a 2% chance he'd ever walk again, which was their way of saying zero. He also suffered a brain bleed that required six weeks of induced coma following the accident. Just 14 years ago. Now he says things like, "The only days I don't stand are the days I walk." As far as other good moments on the timeline, Straight will point to the day in 2015 he met Richard Papiese of Midwest Thoroughbreds. Papiese had been impressed by Michael's demonstration of the exoskeleton at Gulfstream Park. "He asked if I was interested in a job," Straight said. "I said yes, as long as it wasn't something like bagging groceries. Next thing I know he sends me to Saratoga to represent Midwest Thoroughbreds. It was a great experience." After a run at the top of the game with national championships and major winners like Work All Week and The Pizza Man, Midwest Thoroughbreds tapered off and ended its run. "Rich did a lot for me," Straight said. "I kept following Big Flirt even after we lost him, until he got up to 101 starts. He was pulled up in a race and then entered for his 102nd start at Mountaineer. Rich stepped in and bought him for me." That was in July of 2016. Since then, Big Flirt has lived at a stable near Straight's home. When Straight is not sweating through his exoskeleton routine, or writing about his life, or appearing at events in support of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the Jockeys Guild, he hangs out with Big Flirt. And with Gabby. February 3, 2023, a date that puts the rest to shame, the day Michael Straight married Gabrielle Seiber, a match made in a very particular corner of heaven. "We met online like so many people did during the pandemic lockdown in 2020, when nothing was going on," Straight said. "She is deaf, and as we got to know each other I started to learn sign language so we could communicate when we met in person. By now I'm doing pretty good. At least I know how to spell, in case I don't know the word. "The way we connect is unbelievable," Straight went on. "We went to Saratoga this summer for the PDJF karaoke fundraiser, and that's when people finally got to meet her. She loves the beauty of the racetracks, loves the sight of a racehorse. She's even been on Big Flirt a couple of times, but only hand-walked. After 101 races I don't think the run will ever leave him. "Gabby does everything for me that an able-bodied person would do," Straight added. "And I do what she can't do, which is hear and talk. So we make the perfect couple, because I love talking and hearing people tell their stories." So Aug. 26, 2009, continues to fade, slowly, as Straight adds soothing layers to a life that took a terrible turn. "There are people who look back at 2020 as their worst year ever," Straight said. "I met Gabby. It was the perfect year for me."