BY BRITTANY SIMS, JUNIOR JOURNALIST
Kylie Knight, 19, of Peoria, Arizona rides Soula Moolah in the 2008 Ford Youth World working cow horse prelims. She overcame a back injury and qualified two for the cow horse finals.
How does that country song by Blake Shelton go? “Sometimes the things you think could never happen, happen just like that.”
Six months ago Kylie Knight never would have guessed that she would have a stress fracture on her L4 vertebrae that would prevent her from riding for months.
“There is the big middle bone (in the spine) and the (bones) that come off of it, and my right one was broken in half,” Kylie said.
In January, Kylie went to the doctors who performed multiple x-rays, cat scans and MRI’s. Doctors told Kylie that it would be six months before she could run herself much less ride or even walk horses.
“I really couldn’t do much of anything,” she said. “I could go to school and that was about it.”
In May, doctors told Kylie that she could ride again. Her trainer, Corey Cushing, had been riding her horses while she was unable. She climbed back in the saddle quicker than she anticipated.
“I lucked out; the doctor was impressed that I healed so fast,” she said. “I tried to be really good. I took vitamins and everything.”
Though Kylie is able to ride, her pain has not subsided. It will take more than pain to stop her. She won working cow horse class at the 2005 and 2007 Ford AQHYA World Championship Shows and qualified her two horses, Reminic Moon Shine and Soula Moolah, for the finals on August 3 of this year.
