Eventer Lellie Ward suffered a fracture to her C-2 vertebra and multiple facial injuries in a riding accident on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at her Paradise Farm property outside of Aiken, S.C. 

Ward, 53, had just mounted a client’s 4-year-old mare in the outside arena and started to gather her reins when the mare abruptly began bucking. 

“She is usually a lovely mare, really a very nice mare. I’ve ridden her all over the farm. I don’t know what caused her to buck, and most of the time I can catch it [when they are about to buck]. I was paying attention, but she just put her head straight down and her heels straight up, and I went straight off over her. I landed face first in my sand arena, and I knew right away it was my neck and it was bad,” said the four-star event rider.

Fortunately, a student saw the mare running loose, ran down to the arena and called emergency services within minutes of discovering Ward. Ward never lost consciousness, and she was taken via ambulance to the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, where she was admitted to the trauma center for multiple injuries. Ward arrived at the hospital around 5 p.m. and was in surgery until 3 a.m.

Spinal pressure from the damaged disc is thought to be causing the severe pain she’s feeling in her arm and hand. Released 24 hours after her admittance and subsequent surgeries, Ward has instructions to return on Feb. 6 for further tests. She is currently resting at home but hopes to be able to manage Paradise Farm’s horse trials in two weeks.