After an accident left him paralysed, Rick Seeds turned to working dogs

His childhood was full of mustering and campdrafting with his dad, before starting to ride poddys at age 12.

"My grade five teacher wrote on my report card, 'Richard needs to learn there's more to life than rodeos and horses', but my mum put on there, 'not to him there's not'," he laughed.

He grew up moving from place-to-place while his dad managed cattle properties. It didn't take him long to realise he was better off working than sticking it out at school.

He got his first job in the Boyne Valley at 15 before getting a job at Planet Downs, Rolleston, when he was 16.

There he struck gold with his rodeo dreams when some cowboys turned up to work before making their way north for the rodeo circuit.

"It was a weekend and so me and the other ringers had a mob of mickys in the yard and we were putting them up the brace and getting on them and bucking them out," he said.

"I rode one and these guys called me over and said 'oh you'd better come with us' and I looked at [my boss] old Phil and he said 'if you want to go, I'll give you a months' pay in advance' and so off I went."

He travelled around for a month out to Longreach, Cloncurry, Mount Isa and Alice Springs.

"I was riding in the car with the bull riding champ and saddle bronc riding champion for the year. That was my introduction, so it was a pretty good start," he said.

Following that, he did a few pro rodeos, but the travelling was difficult so he eased up and went amateur for a few years around Queensland while he had a couple of kids with his previous wife.

In the late 90s he started to ride pro again in Canada and the states before finally moving home and starting life with his partner Sally, who he later married.

They moved to Atherton where they leased a property for about 10 years and bred bucking bulls.

After moving around a bit, they bought a block at Gin Gin called Longview, still breeding bucking bulls.

Rick was also messing about with some working dogs and had about 15 quarter or stock horses.

His life dramatically changed in 2016 when an accident left him paralysed from the waist down.

During the accident one of his horses bucked him off up a hill and fell on top of him.

"I reckon that same thing happened to me I don't know how many times and I would always walk away, but I was just too slow," he said.

He knew he'd broken his back as soon as it happened, feeling a large lump swelling up.

He was flown to Bundaberg and then to Brisbane for treatment, where he remained for months.

"I started off with noting, no movement from the waist down, but by time I got out hospital I could move one leg a little bit and I could stand if I had something to hang onto, like rails, but I couldn't walk," he said.

He and Sally sold the property and horses and moved to a smaller block in Morganville that was flat and easier for him to get around.

The hardest part after the accident was loosing independence.

"I've always been a battler, never had anyone to do anything for me, I've always done it myself, I could never afford to pay someone to come and do work, I just had to do it myself," he said.

Sally has been his carer since the accident and although he's fairly independent now, he still needs help. Accepting that wasn't easy though.

"I tried to get her to leave me after the accident, I had it in my head that I had a better chance of getting over it if I was on my own. She did so much for me and I guess I took advantage of it," he said.

"I wanted her to go for her, not for me. But she's solid, she stuck through it with me, through the whole lot."

Rick was able to build a positive mindset by keeping active and going to the gym.

But a few years ago he suffered another blow, breaking his leg when a rope became entangled around his wheelchair and flipped it onto him while installing a rainwater tank on his property.

He hasn't let any of it get to him and has turned to training working dogs to keep himself busy, inspired by Winton's Steve Elliot on Muster Dogs.

Though he had a handful of dogs at the time of the accident, he now has 20 dogs in training leading up to the dog sales. He also has around 30 head of cattle to help with training.

He did some research and found himself a chair that was ideal for training dogs.

"This chair has made a big difference. I can't use it in the long grass, but it's good on level ground and training the dogs because I can use both hands," he said.

"It operates and turns from side to side as I move the seat. When I lean forward it goes forward and when I lean back, it goes back.

"It's all just done from my body movement, so I can be watching my dogs and giving them hand controls and signals while I'm riding in my chair.

"Before I had this, all my dogs were one sided because I would lead them on the one side where I had the toggle switch. That's when I realised I needed to do something and I got this."

The other huge help has been getting a crane for his ute, allowing him to hoist it up into the back and get in and out of the vehicle.

When asked if he had advice for others facing challenged in their lives he simple replied, "there's a lot of other people worse off than I am."