Cara Walker heads into her final youth Congress having recently won the AQHA Youth World Cup High Point Rider title as well as a Reserve World Champion title in Hunt Seat Equitation and 9th place in Showmanship at the 2008 AQHA Youth World Championship show.
For those who witnessed Cara’s accomplishments to this point in her show career, few knew that it’s a miracle that Cara is able to ride, let alone walk.
It has been over two years since Cara was severely injured in a car accident that shattered a disc in her neck and separated the nerves from her spinal cord. It was to nobody’s suprise that her immediate concerns after the accident weren’t whether she was going to live or not, they were about her next horse show.
“I just remember right after the accident saying, ‘I have to be able to ride in a week. I can’t miss Youth World,” says the 2004 Congress Champion.
Cara, 17 years old at the time, and a group of riders had been at the 2006 Youth World “boot camp” at trainer Kendra Weis’ in Moberly, Missouri, and were on their way back from lunch. Walker was driving her SUV when the unfamiliar road she was on turned from pavement to gravel, she lost control and slid off the embankment. The car landed on its roof and rolled. Walker was not wearing her seatbelt and was thrown through the window.
“I busted through the window and was hanging unconscious and they couldn’t find me because the roof of the car was so smashed. Then I started to try to move and they saw me. They laid me in a truck bed because I was losing so much blood from my head,” she explains.
Ironically, since she was not wearing a seatbelt, it was the spurs that she was wearing at the time that kept the life-long equestrian from being completely ejected from the car. “I jerked my feet backward and my spurs got caught under the seat. That’s what saved my life,” said Cara.
After neck surgery, she was house bound for the first month. Upon recovering from surgery, one of her first questions was for her doctor. “He said I wouldn’t be able to compete at the level I had,” she said, and that “I might be able to ride an old nag around the pasture.”
It has been a tough road to recovery that has been made easier by her devotion to her horse, riding and competing. But there are still lasting physcial effects from the accident. The most debilitating is the inability to feel with her left leg which makes even the simplest riding maneuvers challenging.
“It took a while to learn how to cue my horse (Come As You Are) correctly because I couldn’t feel how much pressure I was putting on him with my leg. But he was really patient and let me figure it out,” admits Cara.
Cara’s success in the show pen since her accident is by no means a fluke. In addition to the Reserve World Championship title she won at the Youth World, she competed in the AQHA Youth World Cup representing the United States and was honored with the High Point Rider award beating 84 riders from 17 countries. She also won the Horsemanship High Point Rider title as well as Reserve High Point Hunter Under Saddle. (see the slide show for pictures from the Youth World Cup.)
Through it all, Cara is able to put her experiences into perspective . “The effects of the car accident have been trying but it definitely makes me appreciate what I have and makes me work that much harder.”
Walker is currently a freshman at Missouri State University and is studying marketing. She will compete in 15-18 all-around events at the 2008 All-American Quarter Horse Congress for the last time and we wish her the best of luck.
UPDATE:
Cara emailed when she was finished showing at the Congress and has the following report!
In the 15-18 stuff I was:
Reserve Champion in the equitation
6th in the western riding
7th in the showmanship
finalist in the horsemanship
In NYATT I was:
9th in the showmanship
finalist in the horsemanship
Congratulations Cara! You are a true inspiration to us all.
