A COLLEAGUE pointed out this week that I took a big interest in Liz Halliday after interviewing her at the Paris Olympic Games last summer and that is true. Liz was drafted into the USA team at the 11th hour riding the Irish Sport Horse Cooley Nutcraker and was amazing throughout to finish 19th individually, just adding time penalties to her dressage score. I enjoyed her passion when she came to the mixed zone to talk to the media.

Liz has a great affinity with Ireland and especially Cooley Horses; she rode plenty of them to great success. So, when we heard of her serious head injury just a month later after a cross-country fall, I think the whole eventing community worldwide was shocked and saddened. And it highlighted the danger of the sport even for the most accomplished riders.

This week, it was lovely to see Liz share an update that she is back in the saddle, but also poignant to see that any return to competitive riding seems far out of reach for now. Liz spent six months at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago after the accident before moving to the Centre for Neuro Skills in Dallas. Updating her loyal fans this week, Halliday said: “Now that we have passed the one-year mark of my accident, I wanted to check in with an update on how I’m doing. I’m still grinding every day in my therapy at the Centre for Neuro Skills in Dallas. Thanks to the dedicated therapists here, I have made significant progress, but it is clear that there is still a long way to go on my road to recovery. This is a slow process!

Impacted

“My injury was on the left side of my brain, which means the right side of my body is impacted. My right leg and right arm have very limited function at this stage, especially my arm. Important benchmarks: I can now walk on my own for longer and longer distances with a cane, and my balance is much improved. I am healthy and getting stronger all the time. I’ve now learned to write with my left hand, but my speech and writing are connected, and both are still a work in progress and something I struggle with daily.”

She continued: “A major bright spot has been getting back in the saddle, which I’ve been able to do at a wonderful local facility. I am able to school walk and trot, and riding every week has definitely lifted my spirits. I don’t know exactly what the future will look like for me, but I can promise you one thing: I will never stop working my ass off. Every day is a constant effort to walk, talk, read, write, and do all of the things we take for granted every day, but I will never give up.”