Queensland jockey Shane McGovern faces double amputation after trackwork accident

A Queensland jockey could lose both legs after he was trapped under a dead horse for six hours.

Shane McGovern, 67, took nine-year-old gelding Reformist for routine trackwork on Wednesday in the rural town of Charters Towers, more than 130km southwest of Townsville.

It's understood the horse suffered an aneurysm and fell onto the country jockey, trapping his legs and cutting off circulation.

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He was found six hours later by his wife, Kim.

"I thought 'well, that's Shane, he'll just go off for a ride', which is what he does because the horse was supposed to be racing on Monday,' she told Racenet.

"But I'm absolutely kicking myself, and it's a thing I will never forget.

"And then this ghoulish little arm comes up, and he says 'I'm all right'."

McGovern is now in an induced coma at Townsville Hospital, according to the Australian Jockeys' Association.

"He couldn't move his legs so that naturally affected his blood circulation and caused nerve damage as well,' safety officer Kevin Ring told Racenet.

"There's a possibility he may lose one or both legs."

The report states surgeons have operated on his thighs but have left the calf areas open to monitor tissue damage and prevent infection.

"He was conscious but they've got him on high-powered drugs and he's hallucinating and then gets a bit hyperventilated," Kim said.

"They knocked him back out into an induced coma, put the breathing tube back in to give his body a rest and they'll keep him like that for a couple of days."