Professional show jumper Cassandra Kahle today was flown to a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta from Gainesville, Fla., where she has been hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury for nearly two weeks.
“The move and flight went very smoothly. They had a team of doctors immediately assess.her. She seems to be settling in well,” said Emil Spadone, the owner of Redfield Farm in Ocala, Fla., and Califon, N.J., where Cassie works.
Cassie, 29, has been able to open her eyes and follow commands, but at the Shepherd Center, the emphasis will be on getting her fully awake before she starts on the next stage of rehab. which will involve physical therapy, possibly lasting for four to six weeks.
Cassie Kahle.
When the Redfields crew returns to New Jersey after the Florida shows end, she can go to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange on either an inpatient or outpatient basis. Kessler is where 2008 dressage Olympian Courtney King Dye did her rehab in 2010 after a serious head injury after her fall from a young horse.
Thousands of people have been following the progress of Cassie, a Canadian citizen who is very popular on the circuit.
“She’s a role model to me. As a person, as a rider, in every facet of life, she really executes it to perfection,” said close friend and fellow competitor Brian Feigus, who shares her love for all things Disney.
He admires her dedication and determination.
“If anybody is going to make a full recovery out of this, she’s the one. She’s a fighter and she’s strong,” he observed.
“There’s not one person in this industry who won’t stand behind her and support her. What everyone has seen is how many people she has touched and how many people care abut her. It’s because of who she is as a person. It’s nice to see that everyone recognizes how incredibly special she is.”
A GoFundMe page to cover medical and rehab expenses for Cassie has been started by Liz Schindler McFadden. Click here to donate.
Emil hopes his insurance and workman’s compensation can pay for much of Cassie’s costs, though these situations are always tremendously expensive and not everything needed can be anticipated at this point.
If money is left over, it will be donated elsewhere when Cassie can help make the decision of where it should go, but Emil needs to find out the rules of how that’s handled with GoFundMe.
For those who don’t know what happened, Cassie and her mount, Heviola, fell in the 1.40-meter Classic at the HITS show in Ocala Jan. 29.The 10-year-old Dutchbred mare was unhurt, but Cassie suffered the TBI in her fall.
Cassie is an accomplished rider who won the $100,000 Grand Prix de Penn National last year and the World Champion Hunter Rider Pro Challenge at the Capital Challenge Horse Show in 2019.
She was going fast in the jump-off at HITS when two distances to the next jump appeared. One was an inside turn, the other was a longer distance.
“I was watching and saw both distances,” said Emil.
“I saw the flyer; she was trying to fit in the shorter one, the horse was trying to pick up on the longer one and left early.”
The horse fell and her rider “got catapulted off the side.”
She hit her head just above her temple and left eye and back to the side; that’s where the contusions are on the scan, according to Emil, adding her only other injury is a big bruise on her side.
Emil noted that like every other rider, Cassie has fallen more than once.
“She always gets up and dusts off her pants and says `Let’s try again.’ She’s tough.”
But this time, it didn’t happen that way.
“It was really a miscommunication. It wasn’t Heviola’s fault and it wasn’t Cassie’s fault,” said Emil.
