It is profound and sobering how life can change in an instant. Just ask Jerry and Julie Slemp of Louisa, Virginia. They know all too well how lives can be turned upside down and change forever.
On December 12, 2009, AQHA Professional Horseman and trainer Jerry Slemp was riding a horse around in the arena while his wife and friends were decorating for their annual Christmas party.
“I remember hollering, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen him lope so good,’ toward my husband before he went past the horse trailer where we couldn’t see him,” says his wife, Julie, who, until recently, has shown in Amateur events. “We heard a loud thud, and my barn helper, Mariah, and I ran to the arena to find the horse laying on top of Jerry.”
Julie continues, “Jerry laid there knocked out, but we got the horse off of him. The weight lifted off of Jerry made him come to, and he kept yelling that he couldn’t feel his legs. Mariah Stanton, our help at the time, thankfully, was an EMT and rolled him over and we called 911. In the meantime, Jerry started to regain a little bit of feeling in his legs. I was in shock and thought there is no way anything major is wrong.”
Unfortunately, she was in for a big surprise. The doctors told Julie in the ER that her husband had broken his neck and that the crushed vertabrae was an eighth of an inch away from severing his spinal cord. The break was similar to Christopher Reeves’ break in his neck. The doctors told Julie that the C6 Vertebrae was crushed and that a piece of the bone had damaged part of the spinal cord and they weren’t sure of his prognosis. They put forks on his head, and he laid on his back in traction for three days with weights on this head to get the pressure off the spinal cord before they could operate.
At this point, Jerry was in ICU and after three days, they operated and replaced the vertebrae with a cadaver bone and then put in six screws and fused his neck. Their thoughts were that he should never ride again because if he takes a fall; it will kill him. Julie says that her husband was a miracle to all the staff because he actually could get up and move and walk. Jerry was in the hospital for two weeks, and Julie says the first thing he did was go out to the barn after they got home to see the horse that fell on him and all he did was hug the horse and cry. Julie says that they have no ill will toward the horse because it was an accident and it goes with the territory of being a horse trainer. (Pictured left) Jerry’s received the “Toughest Cowboy” award from VQHA two months after his accident.
Julie recalls that the outpouring of help and support from the horse community was amazing. The prayers and financial donations helped them keep their home. “The AQHA Professional Horseman Crisis fund was instrumental,” Julie says. “Along with friends and family throwing benefit horse shows to help with doctor bills, the Crisis fund helped us pay up several months mortgage so we could keep our home. He loves what being an AQHA professional means and the vow to be good to horses and have great values. That’s him totally.”
Slemp said that they had to be realistic about Jerry’s future of not being able to train again because of the loss of strength and the numbness still from the accident.
“He can walk, but cannot stand up for long periods of time,” Julie states. “He will never be fully recovered due to the spinal cord damage. He would like to judge, so, he got his open show judging card before the accident, but he has short term memory loss; so it’s hard for him to do that as well.”
Jerry had 12 horses in training full-time and youth and amateurs that showed under him. The Slemp’s sent all the horses home except the one that fell on him. The young lady that owns him still gets coached by Jerry. Right now, Jerry is on full disability which is one-eighth of what they used to bring in for income.
“We sold our horse trailer and had to let things go,” Julie says. “I sold my One Hot Krymsun mare I had at the time–that we bought just before his accident. It broke my heart to do it because she was a wonderful kind mare that I just loved and hoped to show in the select events, but I got a good price for her that helped us keep our heads above water.”
Julie reflects, “It has been hard for him to go from riding six to seven training horses a day to not being able to do anything. He is depressed a lot, but finds comfort in our own horses and our stallion and working with the weanlings and longe liners which gives him some sense of worth. Despite the setbacks, he is happy to be alive and to be able to see his grandchildren and still have a home.”
Julie says that she has learned a lot from her and her husband’s recent challenges.
“You have to set long term goals to deal with the hand that was dealt and try to look at things on the bright side, which isn’t always easy,” she says. “You want to say why us, why me, but honestly there are so many people that are way off worse than what we are. I just try to focus on what we can do to improve ourselves and our business and see if we can change courses with our horses.”
One of the positive changes in Julie’s life is becoming the chair of the Virginia Quarter Horse Association’s Crisis Fund.
Slemp explains that she went to a Virginia Quarter Horse Board and General Meeting at the end of last year and just went to hear what the association was up to and to see how she could get back involved. They were talking about the crisis fund they set it up in June 2011, but, they didn’t have a chairman to run it.
“Of course, I jumped at the chance to do this as it is near and dear to my heart,” Julie recalls. “The horse community is an amazing network that come to your rescue when you least expect it. So, if Jerry and I can help out in any way with this we will.”
The VQHA members dug deep into their pockets at their banquet a few weeks ago, and the folks who donated their time and items were amazing.
“We raised over $4,000 at this one event,” Julie proudly says. “I have a goal in mind for the end of the year, and it will be tough to get there–but I have faith and have some great ideas floating around to make my goal come true. We would like to help other people that have been in our situation, due to a horse accident, cancer, tornadoes and whatever life is throwing at us.”
