Horse power

About five months ago, Cara Walker, 17, was lying in a hospital bed recovering from a spinal injury she received when she lost control of her car, rolled the vehicle and was thrown halfway through the side window.

Walker was nationally ranked in the trail riding event for horse shows, and at first her doctors weren’t sure if she would be able to mount up again.

But Sunday, on the third and final day of the Midway Fall Classic Quarter Horse Show at the Midway Expo Center, Walker rode to first place in the horsemanship class with ramrod posture and strict horse control that left her competition behind her.

This was the first time Walker, of Columbia, has competed since the accident last July that left her partially paralyzed with a broken neck.

Walker, a junior at Rock Bridge High School, suffered the injuries following a single-car accident on a back road in Moberly. After taking a lunch break from riding in preparation for the Fort Worth Invitational where she qualified in five events, she rolled her car at 50 mph where the paved road turned to gravel without warning. Walker was the only person of four not wearing a seat belt, and her head and upper body went through the side window.

Fortunately, she was still in her riding boots. “My spurs got caught on the bar under my seat,” Walker said. She credits the spurs with saving her life.

The next couple of weeks she transferred from University Hospital to the Columbia Regional Hospital and shed her full upper-body cast after her neck was fused in surgery. Walker returned home to her parents and twin sisters two days after surgery, but her mother, Jane Walker, said doctors told her to stay away from her sport for a few months until she healed.

For the top all-around youth rider in Missouri and the president of the American Quarter Horse Youth Association, the four months following the accident was her first time away from riding.

After returning home she worked on her own to regain strength and mobility from the accident that initially left her right side paralyzed.

“She first started walking, and going to the mailbox wore her out,” her mother said.

Walker had to work almost every muscle in her body back into shape. After the accident, the family brought “Come as You Are,” her 10-year-old quarter horse, nicknamed Party, to their barn in Columbia, which motivated Walker to at first walk to the barn and then start caring for the horse and eventually ride again.

“I learned to work really hard and never give up and always try to give 110 percent,” Walker said.