130 SIDELINES FEBRUARY 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
and she would buck me off twice every ride.” The two hit it off in
the end and Josie became Jemma’s horse. They moved her to
a stable closer to Jemma’s home so the mare could be ridden
consistently.
After a year of regular riding, the duo became quite a team
and advanced as far as Josie’s ability and temperament would
allow. Jemma continues to ride Josie once or twice a week, but
most of Jemma’s time now is focused on advancing her skills on
lesson horses, and riding Gucci, a friend’s horse, in hunter shows.
She also rides on her high school’s Interscholastic Equitation
Association Team.
Last year Jemma finished first in almost all of her IEA classes,
earning enough points to bump her out of the novice division and
into the intermediate division for the 2013-2014 year.
“My team is really close, we want each other to do well,” she
laughed, “My best friend from the team is in the same division
this year and we always say (to each other) ‘I want you to win’.”
The team also rallied around Jemma during her illness, offering
support and encouragement for a rapid recovery.
It’s no surprise that Jemma’s future plans include horses.
After all, her love for horses started when she was a young child
watching her two older sisters take riding lessons. “I always looked
up to them and wanted to do what they were doing,” she said. At
eight years old, Jemma began riding. “Once I started, I never
stopped,” she added.
Her passion for animals also came from her father, a
veterinarian. “I remember going to farms with him when I was little
and watching him perform surgeries,” she said. Her father has
cared for large and small animals alike, though his practice now
focuses on small animals and reproductive health. “I always knew
that’s what I wanted to do too,” she concluded.
About the writer: Katie Navarra has worked as a freelance writer in the horse
industry for 12 years. She has been a lifelong horse lover and recently purchased a
dun Quarter Horse mare with hopes of re-entering the show ring in 2014.
e
By Katie Navarra
The summer of 2013 promised to be the best summer any 16
year-old, horse-crazy girl could ask for.
Jemma Constant, of Hadley, Massachusetts, had a busy
summer schedule which started at 6 a.m. when she exercised
her first horse. Then, she worked a four-hour shift at the Hadley
Farm Equine Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
After that, she made a half-hour trek north to a private barn in
Miller’s Falls to ride a second horse and help the stable owner
with chores.
It was the summer of dreams - until one day in early July. In a
few short hours, her riding plans changed. Jemma said, “I was at
work and I noticed my arm was swollen.”
Jemma wasn’t in pain and had never experienced significant
medical issues before, so she ignored what she saw and continued
working. When she arrived home, her parents were concerned.
They took her to the doctor where ultrasounds revealed blood
clots which resulted in injections with blood thinners and surgery
scheduled for the following day.
“It was traumatizing to get hit with all that information. I didn’t
know what to think,” she said.
After surgery, she was discharged with instructions to
use injectable blood thinners twice a day until her follow-up
appointment one week later. Eager to put the episode behind her,
she arrived at her check-up confident she was cured.
Unfortunately, the appointment didn’t go as planned; she was
told the blood clots had returned. “No one had seen that happen
to someone a week after surgery while on blood thinners,” she
said. She was admitted to ICU, diagnosed with thoracic outlet
syndrome and then scheduled for a second surgery to dissolve
the blood clots. (Thoracic outlet syndrome is a disorder in which
the blood vessels or nerves in the space between the collarbone
and first rib become compressed, causing pain in the shoulders
and neck and numbness in the fingers.)
Unfortunately for Jemma, medications and surgery to dissolve
the clots were ineffective and she had to undergo surgery to remove
her first rib in an effort to permanently alleviate compression of the
vein.
Despite all of the injections and surgeries, what devastated
Jemma the most was that her summer in the saddle was over. “It
opened my eyes because before I couldn’t go a day without being
on a horse and then I had to go three months without riding at all,”
Jemma said.
Though Jemma’s summer plans kept her feet out of the irons
and firmly planted on the ground, she took the experience in stride.
Although her doctors were unaware, she managed to sneak in a
few rides before receiving the official medical approval to mount
up in October.
Her mother grounded her jumping aspirations for the summer,
but she still managed to ride on the flat. “It really set me back,”
she said.
Fortunately, she had a wonderful teacher, Josie, a 19 year-old
Dutch Warmblood mare who had taught her the importance of
fundamentals.
The mare had arrived two years earlier at the private barn in
Miller’s Falls where Jemma worked part-time. She was brought
to the farm for retirement because she was “rotten, biting, kicking
and bucking off every rider.”
Undeterred, Jemma was on a mission to turn Josie around. “No
one wanted her or could ride her,” she reminisced. “She was crazy
Jemma and Sealy
Photos courtesy of Jemma Constant
Jemma Constant: Recovered and Riding Again
