FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES MARCH 2014 39
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES JUNE 2012 3
{
“I had been a diver, cheerleader, dancer and
vaulter. I had been an athlete. I didn’t know who
I was anymore without my legs. I wanted my old
life back.”
}
By Lindsay McCall
S
ometimes life can change in one split second. For
18-year-old equestrian vaulter Cambry Kaylor,
that moment occurred on June 21, 2005 when
she showcased her dismount and, in moments,
completely lost the use of her legs.
After a successful practice with her vaulting team for the
National Championships, Cambry did an aerial dismount off
of her horse. This was a move she had perfected and done
many times prior. Cambry explained, “I decided to do my
aerial dismount off the horse, but didn’t communicate it to
my teammate still on the horse. I flipped, hit him with my leg,
changed my rotation in the air and landed on my back. I broke
my back, severed my spinal cord and became permanently
paralyzed from the waist down.”
A talented athlete, Cambry was a diver, cheerleader, dancer
and equestrian vaulter. She remembered thinking in that moment
that she really hurt herself and would be out for the season, but
she would be back competing the following year. “I didn’t think
it’d be the last time I vaulted, let alone the last time I had the use
of my legs,” recalled Cambry.
Cambry was born in Thousand Oaks, California, but grew up
mainly in Woodinville, Washington. During her high school years
she lived in Fairfield, California, before moving to Highland,
Utah. As an eight-year-old, Cambry began her path as an
equestrian after reading an article in American Girl magazine.
She read about a mother and daughter duo in California who
performed gymnastics and dance on the back of a moving
horse. For Cambry, who had been in ballet since she could walk,
gymnastics since she was five years of age and had always
been a horse crazy little girl, this was the perfect trifecta. It would
not be long before Cambry had her mom call the American
Vaulting Association to find the nearest club to join and her
lifelong journey with horses would begin.
Cambry began vaulting with Redwing Vaulters out of
Redmond, Washington. Her vaulting career blossomed and she
became a vaulter on a National Championship C-Team and
two-phase team while vaulting in Washington. She earned her
silver medal and vaulted as a flyer on the Tambourine Vaulters
A-Team when she moved to California. In 2005, in her last year
of vaulting, she vaulted with Oak Hills Vaulters out of Utah as a
flyer on their A-team.
Cambry explains how vaulting holds a special place in her
heart, “I love the challenge, the adrenaline and that magical
moment when the music, horse and vaulter become one.
Vaulting taught me hard work, teamwork, perseverance,
sportsmanship, balance, respect and gratitude for the most
important member of the team, the horse.”
After Cambry’s accident she spent a relatively short time in
rehabilitation. Her therapists said she would be in therapy for two
to three months, but Cambry made it through in five weeks – just
in time to see her team compete at the National Championships.
Her rehabilitation didn’t end after those five intense weeks.
“I quickly ‘recovered’ in that I could independently live from
a wheelchair, but from an emotional standpoint, it took much
longer,” remembered Cambry. “A couple weeks after being
Cambry and her young vaulters.
Photo Courtesy of Cambry Kaylor
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