Tara is 37 years old and was a professional horse trainer. On December 27, 2006, she had a catastrophic accident in Florida. While bringing a young horse in from the paddock he jumped on her back, broke her neck leaving her a tetraplegic. She has no use of her lower extremities, minimal control and feeling from her chest to abdomen and no use of fingers. She has constant nerve pain throughout and at times she is unable to get out of bed.
Despite the accident, she is very determined to stay involved with horses. They are the reason she goes on.
Horses were not only her occupation, but also her passion. She had been riding and competing in the horse industry successfully since eight years old. In 2001, she met her partner Roger Roberts and they had a successful business with driving, dressage and jumper horses. Their specialty was breaking, training and showing horses.
Tara rode with top dressage trainers; Lars Petersen (Olympic Games for Denmark) Anky van Grunsven (Netherlands, three-time gold medal Olympics winner) and Michael Barisone (USA Alternate, 2008 Olympics).
Her dreams and goals were to be a competitive international rider. She had numerous wins of her own which include 2006 Born in USA 3-Year-Old Colt Materiale Champion, prestigious Dressage at Devon; 2005 BLM Champion Training level, Friesian Stallion Elijah; 2005 BLM Third place First level, Friesian Stallion Navarre; 2005 Second place FEI 4-Year-Old Born in USA, Dutch Stallion U Pearl Harbor at Dressage at Devon.
She is still very active with horses. She had a working student who she trained from training level to third level. Together they trained 4 to 5 horses a day. Now Tara teaches a
few people, but would like to do more of it. She judged for Horse Shows at The Hedges this year. Tara is an elected member on the Board of Governors for The Equestrian Aid Foundation and represents them at events, helping with various aspects of fundraising.
Desperately in need of reliable transportation for medical care, because of the limitations of her circumstances Tara is simply unable to afford it on her own. This van would eradicate her worry over access to care. To an equal degree, it would also allow her to evolve beyond her circumstances to continue sharing her passion for horses in a teaching capacity, educating and sharing on safety and prevention. Please, consider her for this van.
