Woman, 31, Left Her Office Position for a Dream Job with Horses. While Riding, One Suddenly ‘Bolted’ and Broke Her Neck

NEED TO KNOW

• A woman left her desk job to pursue her lifelong passion of working with horses
• A riding accident left Emma Bennett with a broken neck and other injuries after a horse suddenly bolted
• Doctors warned the mother of three that she risks paralysis if she falls from a horse again

A woman quit her office role to work a dream job with horses instead. It eventually led to a tragic accident.

Emma Bennett, a mom of three, realized that her day-to-day position as a project manager wasn’t benefiting her any longer, so she “wanted to see what else was out there,” according to Kennedy News & Media.

The former equestrian dreamt of returning to her true passion, horses, so she started helping out as a horse rider on a freelance basis.

“Excited” to be “moving into a new career,” Bennett, 31, explained, “I had wanted to work with horses for years.”

However, she was only at her new job for a few weeks when she went for a ride with a bay mare thoroughbred that randomly bolted.

“There was nothing I could do to stop it. I just thought, ‘This isn’t going to end well,’ ” Bennett recalled.

She added, “I was coming to the end of the gallop, and the horse wasn’t slowing down, and I thought I was going to die if it carried on.”

Bennett said that the horse galloped “onto concrete” at the end of the path they were on. Knowing she “was going to fall off either way,” she made a split decision to jump off the horse and “into a hedge.”

After “briefly” getting knocked out from the fall, Bennett remembered “being in a lot of pain” and “talking nonsense” due to a concussion. She also had a “sore neck” and said she “couldn’t move my arm.”

Bennett was subsequently transported to the hospital following the accident. She was later told she had broken her neck and had fractures in her shoulder blade and various vertebrae in her back.

“The main fracture was in my C6, which can be quite dangerous for spinal cord injuries. So I was very lucky not to damage my spinal cord,” she explained.

Surgeons told Bennett she was at “high risk” of becoming paralyzed if she were to once more fall from a horse, and they suggested she “shouldn’t ever ride again.”

The guidance left Bennett “devastated,” she said, but she isn’t ruling out riding completely. “I’ve got my own horse, and I don’t want to stop riding him, but I probably won’t ride to the level I was riding [ever again],” she said.

“I’m not scared to get back on my horse, but other horses, I’d be more wary now,” Bennett added.

After being discharged from the hospital, Bennett has been recovering at home. She will continue to wear a neck brace for the next few weeks, and she is also undergoing routine CT scans to monitor her recovery.

“It’s very scary to think that doing something I love could have cost me my life,” Bennett said.

She continued: “You never think it’s going to happen to you, especially when I’ve been riding horses for 20 years. I just showed that it can happen at any time.”