Their accidents occurred at different dates, in different states. Yet both Pam Henline and Karen Nord suffered cervical fractures in auto accidents, en route to or from horse activities. Each has struggled to recover and still experiences daily frustrations. But as they became friends, the women thrived on mentoring one another.

For Henline, a driver changed lanes on a southern California freeway. For Nord, a passenger in an SUV, a tire failed.

Henline, an amateur dressage rider, had competed as high as Grand Prix. She was driving home from her barn in July of 1996 when her accident occurred. “I had just finished riding my horse, Ameego, and was merging onto the freeway,” she said.

After a truck drifted into her lane, she lost control, crashed, and was paralyzed with a C5/C6 spinal cord injury. She spent three months in the hospital and sold her Anglo-Arab for $1, thinking she would never ride again.

Nord, an eventer originally from Massachusetts, earned her BHSAI at Porlock Vale, England. In 1993, she moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where she trains and teaches at her Nord Equestrian School.

She had her accident on her way to a hunt in Santa Fe in December of 1999. Her horse, Pocketful Of Keys, was one of two in a two-horse trailer. When a tire blew, the tow vehicle rolled three times, and the trailer ended up on its side. She said, “Both horses got right up, although the trailer fell apart.”

Nord suffered an acute fracture of the right C5/C6 facet. With fractured cervical vertebrae, Nord and Henline had to give up their equestrian careers. Yet their accidents were the beginning of their comebacks.

Comebacks Demand Commitment

Like most other riders, neither Nord nor Henline had ever thought, “What if I could no longer ride?” They hadn’t considered being vulnerable to serious injury, especially injury away from the barn. The enforced convalescence made both determined to get back in the saddle.

Henline was still in a wheelchair when she returned to riding. Now dependent on a cane to stabilize her walk, years of physical therapy helped her move from patient to passenger. She viewed horses as an aid for her rehabilitation and a needed mental boost. During her lengthy recovery, she often questioned what she was good for, and how she could contribute in such a reduced physical state.

Two goals formed Henline’s commitment to recuperate: “One was to get on a horse; two, to go on an independent trail ride. It took me a couple of years.”
Henline started therapeutic riding 11 months after her accident. At Helen Woodward Therapeutic Riding Center in San Diego, Calif., she started on Yankee, a pinto Chincoteague pony.

“At first I was afraid to get on,” she said. “At that point, I had not sat on a chair without a back for support.”

She moved on to 30-minute sessions on another horse, Questa, a Quarter Horse mare. “It was at the walk only. She was trained and could do leg yields and shoulder-in,” she said.

Henline improved her seat and switched from a bareback pad back to her dressage saddle. She graduated to a different program, BETH, in Bonita, Calif., for one-hour sessions on a former dressage horse, Mark, and then Wallstreet.

“I bought nylon dog leashes, made knots in them I could hold, and clipped them to the bridle to use as reins. I never had a scary moment with either of these two horses–I was acclimated to that height,” she said.

It actually took her three years to ride independently at the walk and a slow jog. On the ground, she walked with a walker or a quad cane.

“Everything in your life changes,” said Henline. “I was fortunate in that I had a job and good disability insurance.” She’s also on Medicare.

Henline and Nord deal with pain and its limitations, although they “look” OK Henline said, “When I get on a horse, you can’t tell how disabled I am. People don’t realize that others can have physical problems they don’t talk about–and mental ones too.”

Nord was able to resume riding much sooner than Henline, although she still endures considerable pain. “The pain undermines everything,” said Nord. “If I overstress a muscle, I have searing pains–in my arm, down the shoulder, and in the shoulder blade. I am tough, and I have a very high pain threshold, but these pains overwhelm me.”

Although she tried to maintain her business after the accident, she had to accept help from her barn’s clients. Daily barn chores were now impossible because of the pain. “Everything has slowed down,” she said.

Even now, more than four years later, Nord said, “Riding hurts. Some people can fuse the injury, if it is only bone, and it heals. It depends on the nerve damage. Mine is so close to the spinal cord. It’s not touching, but it’s so close.”

Her concern shows in her face and voice, and worry is a daily companion. She experiences great stiffness, which is worse when she rides. “It’s in my neck, shoulders, and right arm, and affects my seat and leg,” she said.

Nord hasn’t given in to the pain, and she still rides over fences. She has considered getting a job outside the horse world, using the master’s degree she earned in teaching and learning technologies. She has sold her event horse, finally accepting that she could no longer event.

Seven years after her accident, Henline accepts her limitations around horses. “I can’t deal with a horse pushing me with his head–a push, and I’m gone,” she said. “I’m still not good with posting. In a jog trot, I’m OK. [At the canter], the horse gets out from under me. My legs tire, and I can’t keep my seat effec-tively in the saddle.”

Mutual Therapy

Therapy involves more than physical healing. To return to active riding, Nord and Henline sustained their motivation and love of horses.

After Henline moved to Santa Fe in 1999, she met Nord through a mutual friend. In 2000, Henline started riding with Cindy Rank of Challenge New Mexico, a therapeutic riding program. Rank organized an exhibition for the Event at Goose Downs (N.M.), in July of 2000, where three handicapped riders would pair with Pony Club riders in a walk-trot dressage test. Henline was the only handicapped rider to ride independently, without a sidewalker.

“That was the third time I’d ridden an actual dressage test, since the accident,” she said.

Rank had asked her longtime friend Nord to be the test’s demonstration rider, only six months after Nord’s accident. The two women discovered each had the same injury–and sharing their comebacks cemented their bond.

Nord noticed Henline’s more visible disability, and asked, “So tell me what happened to you.” Henline described her neck fracture and spinal cord injury and credited therapeutic riding for helping her recover.

“But I had a broken neck, too. Not so long ago, less than six months,” said Nord. “Not nearly as bad as yours, though.”

The two agreed to help one another. Nord offered use of her quiet horses, and Henline said she could be Nord’s ground person. Each yearned for complete recovery from her disabilities and found that returning to riding was bittersweet. Henline found a role mentoring other riders. Her first outing after her accident was at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center–a place where she’d once shown in dressage.

“The barn decided to go to a [North American Riding for the Handicapped Association] show at the Equestrian Center. A certified teacher asked me to help with the volunteers and to help the riders who didn’t know diagonals, passing in the ring, and reversing–the basics of competing,” she said.
Nord still coaches some students for horse trials, a competition that’s now too hazardous for her. “It’s hard for me to see eventing,” she said. “It’s a tease and an old desire. But it’s too big a risk for me now.”

Instead, she’s still adjusting her expectations. “I haven’t fully come back. I don’t know if I want to acknowledge certain limitations outright,” she said.
Nord realizes when she needs to stop. She evaluates situations and honestly says when she can’t cope. “I would find myself in a few situations and feel the word ‘No’ coursing through my body. I don’t have to ride like I did, and I’m not going to. It hurts too much,” she said.

She does continue to jump, however. “I jump for the horse’s training, when it’s really safe, I’m comfortable, and the jumps are always low. It’s more to appease me,” she said.

Nord and Henline help each other face realities of their limitations, along with the risks of improving their skills. “We look at what’s positive,” said Nord. “We have shared goals.”

Both women credit Santa Fe reining trainer Terry Berg for helping them. In the small Santa Fe horse community, riders aren’t separated by their disciplines. “I’ve known Karen the last seven or eight years,” said Berg, whose Santa Fe Reiners barn welcomes dressage and hunt seat riders. “She would come over to have a lesson or send her young riders over.”

Berg, a former schoolteacher, instructs many adult women and understands their fears. She suggested that Henline might want to try riding an easygoing Western pleasure horse.

“Terry is cognizant about being careful,” said Henline. “She asked me, ‘Come ride one of my quiet horses.’ “

Henline gained confidence riding in the support of a Western saddle. She moved up to a reining horse at Berg’s, when she could sit a slow canter (the Western lope). She envisioned goals for this new discipline and rode the reining maneuvers in slow motion.

Nord resumed her training, setting conditions to make her riding safer. “My body can’t take jars and jolts. What I do with my riding now is a more intense feeling. I’m much more in tune with my body. If a horse pulls on me, I don’t take it. I longe him, or turn him out.”

She also incorporates her experience into her teaching, as a role model for timid riders. “I can say happily, ‘I can ride this horse, and I broke my neck.’ I understand that he’s trustworthy enough,” she said.

Nord competes in dressage shows, while Henline returned to competition riding one of Berg’s reiners. She received permission to compete from the National Reining Horse Association, after signing an additional release of liability. Wearing a safety helmet and occasionally using her right hand to steady herself, she now rides her own Skippa Crown, a 1990 AQHA gelding. She even hopes to show him in a dressage class one day.

To both women, quality of life involves riding. Nord said, “To make these little changes allows us a big dose of happiness.”