After Jenn Crawford suffered a devastating riding accident on December 26, 2018 that shattered her L1 vertebrae, she was told she would likely never walk again, let alone ride.
“It became about me challenging myself,” she says. Six weeks after the accident and surgery that followed, she was in spinal cord rehab, pushing herself to get stronger and determined to ride again. Six months later, she was back in the saddle, with a few modifications. As she can’t squeeze her legs or use her seat, she had to use her voice to get her horse to move and use magnetic stirrups so her boots didn’t slip out of them.
“I was the only para rider I knew at the time. It was really hard as I didn’t know anyone who could help me. I had trouble finding a coach,” Crawford, 30, says. She took things slowly, only walking and trotting for a year. Once she mastered cantering, “I decided I want to start jumping again, but a lot of coaches don’t want to deal with the liability.”