Bridget Noonan

Sophomore Karly Tyree and her horse, DJ, warming up over a practice fence.

She heard galloping hooves, saw the last snippet of a white and black tail before it disappeared around the corner, grass stains painted her riding breeches. That’s when the pain struck sophomore Karly Tyree in her right shoulder.

“I was just walking out my horse, DJ, after my lesson,” Tyree said. “He hadn’t been ridden in a couple days, so he was super energized and tried bucking me off in my lesson. He didn’t succeed then, but when he spooked at breaking branches in the woods, it totally caught me off guard.”  

Because Tyree’s parents were on a vacation in Mexico at the time of her accident on June 8,  her grandma called them from the hospital to tell them that she broke her proximal humerus.

“It was a horrible experience. My grandma lives in Chicago and doesn’t know the area well so she didn’t know how to get to the hospital,” Tyree said.  “When we got there we didn’t have to wait, and I got my own room pretty quickly.”

According to the NEISS database horseback riding has an average of 38,754 injuries per year, which causes equestrian sports to rank 11 out of 33 sports on the injury scale.

“I didn’t comprehend at first that I broke my shoulder. I guess that I was just in shock from the fall,” Tyree said. “I could feel the bones rubbing together. It was really uncomfortable, and that’s why I was taken to the hospital.”

After waiting three hours to hear the news on her shoulder, Tyree was anxious because she feared she would need shoulder surgery.

“I was already nervous about not having my parents there,” Tyree said. “Then one of the nurses came in after the doctor told me that I didn’t need surgery, and said that she wanted them to send the x-rays to another specialist at another hospital. I didn’t know what to think, because I was just told two different pieces of information.”

After further examination, Tyree learned that she had broken her proximal humerus, but she would not need surgery.

“They put me in a sling, and then wrapped a stabilizer around my upper chest,” Tyree said. “The tight pressure felt really good, because my arm was no longer dangling. I still couldn’t ride for six weeks, and had to go to checkups every two weeks.”

After getting back in the saddle mid-August, Tyree still finds herself tackling the challenge of feeling safe again.

“I’m riding a pretty difficult horse right now, so my confidence isn’t very high,” Tyree said. “I was asked to exercise her, since her owner is in college and doesn’t have the extra time. She has super high energy, and has a tendency to spook at people walking, or even a cat. I know how capable she is of hurting me, and that’s why I get nervous around her.”

After having two falls in the course of three lessons, Tyree knows that she has a long road ahead of her before she gets back into the full swing of things.

“I know that I have to get back on after every fall, because if I don’t, I’m scared that I never will,” Tyree said. “I just need to keep pushing myself to get over this little bump in the road, because if I do, I will be okay again.”