Not even 400 stitches, three steel plates screwed into his face, a broken jaw and a reconstructed eye socket were enough to stop the 47-year-old farrier and show horse owner from staying away from the show circuit, he said from his Waldronville home yesterday.
He will be there thanks to quick thinking by his colleague and friend Jackie Deans, who was there last Wednesday when he was kicked in the head as he undid the back leg straps on a cover on one of his horses.
"It sounded like an apple dropping on to concrete," Ms Deans said.
Mr Isaacs was instantly knocked unconscious and sent flying before landing face down in a puddle.
She ran to him, fished him out of the puddle and checked he was breathing, before running to the house to call for an ambulance.
"It's amazing how your first aid training just kicks in, in an emergency like that."
Despite Ms Deans' protestations she was no hero, Mr Isaacs' wife, Sharolyn, said she and her husband both believed otherwise.
"He would not be alive if she had not pulled him out of that puddle," Mrs Isaacs said.
Mr Isaacs spent four days in hospital before he had "had enough" and said yesterday his face was not too painful, despite the extensive surgery.
He could not remember being kicked, but said he recalled Ms Deans "screaming" as he slipped in and out of consciousness.
"I just thank God she [Jackie] was there."
