“PLEASE remember to bring your envelope for your test and masks must be worn unless mounted. One groom per person only please.” These guidelines, included on the North Munster Dressage Facebook page before their recent show, are fast becoming the new normal for riders to expect at competitions.

After learning the full details of her accident 12 years ago, you wonder if Tara Flynn ever expected to compete again. Yet she and her mother/groom Mary were at Roscrea Equestrian Centre last Sunday when the Clare woman competed in two Para Dressage classes with Master Columbus.

“Tara now receives all her training from Vitaliy Halstyan in Tipperary and her ambition is to continue progressing in dressage. With her determination and dedication, not to mention the wonderful coaching she receives from Vitaliy, we have no doubt that she will reach her goals –mainly to compete internationally again,” Mary explained.

That’s the next hope for her Kingdom County mother. “I always loved horses, I grew up on a farm where we always had a horse or two. No shows in those days in West Kerry but riding bareback through those hilly fields, gave me the ‘grá’ for the horse. And wasn’t I lucky that it did. An incurable disease!”

And sure as day follows night, she had a pony-mad daughter who had a wide radius of shows around Cratloe where the family live. Smithstown Riding Centre near Shannon, was where the four-year-old Tara started lessons under the tutelage of Niamh Harney. “Dolly was my first pony which I had for many years. I learned to jump with her and started doing working hunter and showing classes.”

Tara soon became a familiar sight on the Irish Pony Society (IPS) circuit. “We joined the IPS on the advice of a good family friend, Siobhan Madden, as our local agricultural show at Newmarket-on-Fergus was coming up and Siobhan wanted Tara to compete in a working hunter class there,” said Mary, who soon became the ‘pony taxi’. “Yes I did and still do the chauffeuring but Tara has always done the grooming and plaiting.”

Those grooming skills came into their own with the lovely chesnut Pendley Foxtrot, bought by the family in 2000 and a winner in numerous showing and side-saddle classes. What was the secret behind his four dazzling stockings? “Chalk!” revealed Tara.

HOYS years

Gransha’s Jerry Mouse came on the scene when she was 12 and the pair excelled in working hunter championships on both sides of the Irish Sea, including winning the Dublin working hunter title in back-to-back years (2001, 2002). Once Tara set her sights on qualifying for the Horse of the Year Show, held at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, they not only qualified but “always finished in the ribbons,” she proudly noted.

In 2004 Tara bought Master Columbus as a four-year-old from James Arthur in Ennis, having seen him out hunting with James’ daughter, Suzanne. After schooling ‘Cosmo’, as Master Columbus is known to his fan club, throughout the winter of 2005, the new combination was competition-ready. Over the next few years, they matched his predecessor Gransha’s Jerry Mouse’s HOYS record.

“Qualifying for HOYS was the real challenge as only 14 tickets were allocated per class from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. At that time, there weren’t any qualifiers in Ireland, so Mum and I travelled to the UK each year to qualify. It was never easy to qualify as the standard was very high, but somehow, we always managed to do so.”

Another ferry trip took place in 2007 when Tara and Master Columbus were selected for the European working hunter pony championships, held that year in Edinburgh. Their delight at being selected was repaid when they won the individual intermediate championship ahead of the best on the circuit.

With another HOYS ticket as the next goal, celebrations were put on hold until after the upcoming Scottish Horse Show, where they again qualified for Birmingham.

That same year, Tara graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Business and Marketing from the University of Limerick. Having majored in Marketing, she found her niche working for the family business, marketing and drafting advertisements for Telstar watches and even featured in these adverts as a model.

Tara Flynn in her IPS days with two of her champions, Trebarton Born Free and Gransha’s Jerry Mouse

And there her show ring story as a successful IPS competitor, starting a career and perhaps continuing in the showring as an amateur-owner could either have continued or petered out. Until a split-second accident 12 years ago.

The vigil

Always a keen sportswoman, Tara started skiing at an early age, took up scuba diving at the age of 11 and snowboarding three years later. After the 2007 Horse of the Year Show, the same year she won at the European championships and graduated from college, she went on an extended winter holiday to Mammoth Lakes, a mountain town in California’s Sierra Nevada range.

January 10th, 2008 is a date permanently etched in the Flynn family’s minds. That day, while walking towards the ski slopes with her snowboard, Tara was knocked down by a 68,000-lb snow truck and suffered serious injuries. Shortly after being admitted to the local Mammoth hospital, she drifted into a coma and was airlifted across the border to Renown Hospital in Reno, Nevada.

“Her femur was operated on and she was ventilated. She spent two months in intensive care at Renown Hospital, during which time she had further operations on her femur and after which she started on her rehab,” said Mary, who vividly recalls receiving the first phone call in the early hours about her daughter’s accident and as the updates became increasingly serious, the family started booking flights.

“We flew out on the 11th of January; Shannon to Dublin, then on to San Francisco with Aer Lingus and a connecting flight to Reno.”

Tara’s brothers, Dean and Brian, also travelled with their parents and swung into action on the internet, spending hours and then weeks online, researching every option available at that time to help with their sister’s recovery.

“Tara was particularly fortunate in having such a dedicated team looking after her in Renown, many of whom became good friends with the family and still are,” Mary said gratefully.

The family even found one Kerry expat on the hospital staff. “Of particular help was a Dingle man, James Lynch, and his lovely wife Caroline. Jim is a spinal neurosurgeon and he happened to be working at Renown at the time. It was just incredible, it was my sister-in-law from Kerry, who he’s actually related to by marriage, who told me he was at the same hospital.

“He now owns several clinics in Nevada, called Spine Nevada. Throughout Tara’s stay, Jim and Caroline were a tremendous support to her and indeed all the family. They have followed Tara’s progress to this day and are considered true friends by the family.”

It was practical acts of kindness too that the family remember. “Normally, they would close the hospital restaurant at the weekend, you could get a sandwich maybe but Caroline arrived in with this amazing basket of food and wine. You never forget things like that.”

Another Irish-born ally was Dr. Bernard ‘Barney’ Brady, who offered practical support as well as keeping the family’s spirits up. “He was the honourary consul there and he and his wife Marg would come in daily to visit, they lived in Reno and Barney, who has since passed away, was originally from Donegal. An amazing man for telling stories, he’d just take your mind off what was happening with his stories about having bailed some Irish people out of the Reno casinos. They were great people too.”

Rehab on horseback

There were no vacancies in the National Rehab Centre in Dublin at that stage so the next step was to airlift Tara to the Kessler Rehabilitation Center. This happened on St. Patrick’s Day which her connections hoped was a lucky omen and in another coincidence, this is the same New Jersey rehab facility where Irish show jumping rider Kevin Babington was treated after his accident last summer.

After coming off the ventilator in Kessler, staff and family members worked daily with Tara on recovering her speech and movement in her hands and legs. Mary stayed with her daughter at all times during her rehab in America and later in Spain.

“I worked in the family business, looking after payroll, etc. and just continued to do so remotely from wherever we were based.” Joining the vigil at every opportunity was her dad, Tom, and her brothers. “Or one of her now fabulous sister-in-laws; Kate and Lorraine.”

Ventilators, masks and working remotely have become part of the coronvirus pandemic but were very much a feature of the Flynn family’s story over the past 12 years. Requests to wear a mask at a dressage competition must now seem like small stuff in comparison for this pair.

Tara was moved to the Guttman Institute in Barcelona in July that summer. After two months of intensive rehab there, she had some movement in her arms and legs but still hadn’t regained her speech. The breakthrough came in September shortly after her family decided to bring Tara back to Cratloe and to work on her rehab at home.

“Shortly after arriving home, Tara surprised everyone by regaining her speech. At first it was quite limited but with plenty of practice and encouragement she made rapid progress.

"Her walking also progressed quickly by working with her brothers Dean and Brian, who did many rounds up and down the front lawn with Tara supported in the centre and her arms held over their shoulders.”

Another key factor in her progress was a return to the saddle. “As riding was Tara’s great passion, it was decided by her family that it might help her recovery if she were to get back on horseback. With the help of a family friend, Candy Cusack, Tara started back on a very quiet pony at Clare Equestrian Centre, owned by John and Marie Burke, who were very accommodating.

“Supported by family members on both sides of the pony, she did many rounds of the arena a few times a week. With this routine, she made steady progress in many ways, in particular by regaining feeling and strength in her legs.”

The next step was to be reunited with her HOYS partner, Master Columbus and Tara soon progressed to riding solo but unfortunately, a fall resulted in a minor fracture above her knee. Tara also underwent two corrective surgeries in Germany in 2009 and 2010. “These weren’t as a result of the small fracture but to remove Heteropic Ossification (excess bone growth) from her femur which was inhibiting her sitting position. These operations proved hugely successful and made a huge difference to her seat.

Pictured in March 2013 at Barnadown, Tara Flynn and Master Columbus in action \ Louise O'Brien Photography

“As soon as Tara recovered, she was back riding again. Her riding improved steadily and with the help of two more good friends, Roisin Henry and Dan Foley, Tara was soon trotting around the arena with Roisin and Dan holding the reins and running alongside her. A great test of their fitness!”

The little things

Over the next three years, through a mix of her own dedication, passion and determination to succeed, Tara made rapid progress on Cosmo. Both she and Mary are swift to credit the help and tuition from Roisin, Niamh Harney and Karen McLoughney that got Tara to the stage of entering her old forte again; working hunter classes. Her first outing in 2012 was to Barnadown for a Northern Ireland Festival qualifier which she and Cosmo duly won in style.

The road to recovery hit another bump after Tara and Cosmo moved to a U.K yard for further training after she set competing on the cross-channel circuit again as her next target. Another fall resulted in another fracture. “That same femur again!” she said ruefully.

It takes a lot to stop Tara Flynn though. Seven years later, she and Cosmo are back competing in the dressage arena at a variety of levels from preliminary to novice and Para Dressage Grade 3 categories.

Along with Vitaliy, it was longstanding support Roisin Henry who first helped Tara and Cosmo make the transition to dressage and the smile on Tara’s face at Sunday’s competition speaks volumes about what it means to be out competing again.

Mary, who took Sunday’s photographs, can now add personal photographer to her extensive job description, although she shies away from the limelight. It took some gentle persuasion by friends for this soft-spoken lady to get in contact to suggest this article, intended as she says “to give hope to any parents whose child has had a traumatic injury.”

Some 2,000 words means painting the picture of 12 years of breakthroughs and setbacks in broad brushstrokes. How did Mary cope? She thinks for a minute. “You just get on with it. You could fall down but you get an inner strength from somewhere. All the people who had Tara on their prayers list, all the people you know who were wishing her well, it all helped greatly. And it was the little things that keep you going.”

The fearless Tara returned to Mammoth Lakes two years ago with Mary. “To this day we keep in touch with the staff in Reno. We got a tour of the hospital and they were all actually in tears when they saw her again,” Mary recalled. “In fact, one guy in the pharmacy came up and said ‘Thank you for coming back. It’s so rewarding for us to see a patient make it.’ It gives them help if another similar case happens. It was a very emotional trip.”

“I met up with and had fun with some friends I had made there on my first visit,” said her daughter. And she got back in the proverbial saddle by going snowboarding again.

When bad weather kept her off the slopes one day, the pair went to a day spa for a treat where Tara struck up a conversation with one of the staff. It turned out that, in her former job as a first responder, she was at the scene of Tara’s accident and was overjoyed to see ‘the Irish girl’ back in Mammoth Lakes after her miraculous recovery.

And then there was this sobering revelation. “I was told in the hospital at Mammoth that I am the only one so far to survive such an accident.” How did she process that news?

“I feel very blessed. I’d just love to share my story and send a message to anyone in the same situation.”

The message is in the same words recited to her many times by her father since 2008: “Never give up. And always look on the bright side.”