Meet Carolyn: Back in the Saddle

“When you constantly hear bad news, it wears you down. A lot of stories can't have a happy ending. But I'm glad to say, I'm doing okay.”

One month, amateur dressage rider Carolyn Davey was working and riding with high hopes of achieving her equestrian goals. The next month everything changed. Carolyn was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, and chemotherapy and radiation were ruled out as viable treatment options.

Fortunately, a cancer center was conducting a clinical study trial just a few hours away, and doctors allowed Carolyn to participate despite the gravity of her diagnosis. “As an equestrian, except for having cancer, I was very healthy and strong,” she says.

As treatment progressed, Carolyn grew so weak she was unable to work. Financial pressures mounted. Then she found the Equestrian Aid Foundation. Our grant to help with living expenses allowed Carolyn to focus her precious energy on recovery. "When you're sick, you have expenses you don't think about when you're working and healthy,” Carolyn said. “Do I put gas in my car for the trips to clinical trial, or do I eat? With Equestrian Aid’s help, I didn’t have to worry about that.”

A year later, Carolyn is working and riding again and no longer needs Equestrian Aid’s assistance. "I can't do it all just yet, but little by little, I'm getting there," she reports. She feels her goal to be competitive at the Grand Prix level is back within reach.

Carolyn believes her life is back on track thanks to the Equestrian Aid Foundation’s generous donors--fellow horse lovers who knew nothing about her but understood anyway. “This story is still to be continued,” she says, “but now I'm all about paying it forward.”