By Kimberly Gatto
Portraits by Sophia Donohue
Gianna Trotter’s life had barely begun when it nearly ended: She was gravely injured in a car crash one week after her 1st birthday. At the time, doctors told Gianna’s parents that the injury to her young brain was so severe that she would likely never walk or talk again. Yet Gianna was never one to give up easily, even at such a tender age. Now 28, she has defied all odds against her. Guided by her faith and the healing power of horses, Gianna is now pursuing her dream of becoming a world-class show jumper.
“Horses have brought me so much courage and compassion and have helped me through many challenges in my life,” Gianna said. “I believe that God put horses into my life for a reason, and I’m going to make the most of every minute.”
One of Gianna’s favorite quotations is one by surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm to a shark attack: “The list of things I can do differently is long, but the list of things I can’t do is short.” Gianna continues to personify that quote with every passing day.
Early Years
Gianna was born in Brick, New Jersey, as the only child of loving parents Matt and Terri. “With a name like ‘Trotter,’ you’d think I would be destined for a life with horses,” Gianna said. “But neither of my parents were horse people. My dad didn’t like horses because he had a bad fall and broke his wrist when he was younger. My mom was just always afraid of them. I never envisioned that I would have horses of my own until I was much older and would be able to spend all of my time with them.”
After the car accident when she was just a baby, Gianna was placed into an inpatient long-term care facility where she could undergo daily physical, speech and occupational therapy and receive the specialized medical care she required. The accident had resulted in hemiparesis—weakness or the inability to move on one side of the body. Not only can this disability cause a loss of balance, it can make it extremely difficult to perform everyday tasks such as grabbing objects, dressing and even feeding oneself.
“The roof of our car had caved into the side of my head,” Gianna said. “I suffered a severe traumatic brain injury that caused me to lose all motor function on the right side of my body. I don’t have the ability to straighten my arm and things like that.”
At the age of 3, Gianna underwent an eight-hour brain surgery to repair her skull, which had not closed properly after her accident. While the prognosis for Gianna to live a normal life remained grim, she worked hard at her daily therapy sessions, which could be grueling. “The therapy was very hard at times. Some of the exercises involved things like casting my ‘good’ arm so that I would have to use the ‘bad’ arm to do everyday tasks like getting a bowl of cereal,” she said. “But I slowly started to show improvement. My injuries had been so bad that I think there was a sense of disbelief when I made any kind of progress.”
After several years of Gianna’s improvement, her doctors suggested that she try hippotherapy as part of her rehabilitation program. The horses provided comfort and healing for young Gianna. “I loved the horses and riding immediately,” she said. “But never in my wildest dreams did I think that one day I would be jumping. We never went beyond a trot in my therapy sessions, so as a little kid I didn’t even realize that horses could jump. I didn’t discover that until many years later.”
A True Champion
When the therapy program ended, Gianna did not continue riding. “I hoped I would find a way to have a horse of my own someday,” she said. “But owning a horse was not really on my radar until I was much older.”
In the meantime, she spent her summers as a volunteer at a hospital camp for other children with disabilities. “I wanted to give back to others, because I felt that I had been given so much during my recovery,” she said. During her stint as a volunteer, Gianna made such an impression on the hospital’s staff that she was nominated to be a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH) Champion at the age of 14. Each year, local member hospitals of the CMN select a child from each state to serve as a Champion—an ambassador of sorts—to spend a year advocating for children’s hospitals throughout the U.S. and Canada.
In her role as New Jersey’s CMN Champion, Gianna began public speaking at many different venues, ranging from golf events and schools to Disney World and the White House. “The more I shared my story, the more I realized that I was discovering my purpose and that I could inspire others and give them hope in their own lives,” Gianna said. “That’s when I first came up with my ‘anything is possible’ motto, which I continue to believe and abide by each day.”
While Gianna had not ridden since her early days of hippotherapy, horses had never left her mind—or her heart. During a family vacation in Hawaii while she was a teen, Gianna decided to go for a leisurely ride in the mountains and rediscovered her joy in being in the saddle. “I loved it so much and felt so comfortable up there,” she said. “I remember telling my dad that I wanted to travel to every country in the world and ride horses in each one.”
Dream Horse
As soon as she returned home from the trip, Gianna set up her first lesson at a local stable that was able to accommodate her disabilities. For her lessons, Gianna was paired with a kindly 19-year-old chestnut Appendix gelding named A Streaking Zillion, aka Ziggy. “It was love at first sight,” Gianna said. “Ziggy was the horse of my dreams. I have always loved chestnuts, to begin with. And I just trusted him from the very start. He took care of me, and I loved him immediately.”
A former show jumper who had stepped down as he aged, Ziggy gently carried Gianna through the walk, trot and, eventually, canter. Later he took Gianna over her very first crossrail. “I was instantly hooked,” she said. “I didn’t know how I would ever be able to canter and jump, but Ziggy took care of me completely. That horse changed my life forever.”
Soon Gianna and Ziggy were jumping small courses. She was spending six days a week at the barn, visiting with Ziggy and grooming him on the days she wasn’t riding. “This horse and I fell in love. I just wanted to be around him,” she said. “As it turned out, he was being put up for sale by his owner. I made the decision, right then and there, that I would find a way to purchase him. I just knew it was meant to be.”
After purchasing Ziggy, Gianna moved him to Hayfever Farm in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and began riding under the tutelage of famed Olympians Neal and Elisa Shapiro. “This was another sign that my partnership with Ziggy was meant to be,” Gianna said. “I hadn’t realized that Ziggy had a full show jumping career in his past—and Neal and Elisa had actually worked with him seven years before I got him.”
With the support and expertise of her instructors, Gianna was able to modify her tack to allow her to ride properly and safely. As she had difficulty holding her right foot down, she used rubber bands attached to her stirrups. Eventually, she transitioned to magnetic stirrups in order to keep her feet safely in place. Similarly, since Gianna was not able to hold her reins in a traditional fashion, she used a special rein setup made from a combination of a German martingale and traditional reins, but with clips on each end. The device, which looks somewhat like a handle, allows her to maintain steady, even contact on the reins without letting them slip.
As Gianna’s partnership with Ziggy continued to blossom, the jumps became higher. In their first year competing in show jumping classes, the pair finished an impressive fourth in the 0.70m zone standings—against able-bodied riders. “A few people in the horse world had told me that I would never be able to do these things,” Gianna said. “But I was able to rise above the assumptions of other people. I had a horse that loved me as much as I loved him—he did everything I asked of him.”
Sadly, a few years into their partnership, Ziggy passed away due to a strangulating lipoma at the age of 23. “He didn’t seem right to me that day. He didn’t seem to be in severe pain—just a bit colicky—and my trainer immediately called the vet. But then he just lay down and he passed away peacefully before the vet arrived,” Gianna said. “I was truly devastated. And I cried even harder when the vet later told me that she thought Ziggy had remained stoic for my sake.”
Perfect Partner
After the loss of Ziggy, Gianna knew that, while navigating through grief, she needed to have another horse in her life. To that end, she began searching through online horse ads in search of a new partner. “I found an ad for a 7-year-old Appendix gelding that really stood out to me, so I sent it to Neal, who was away at the time,” Gianna said. “The horse was stabled at a backyard barn in Virginia. Neal said he liked the sound of the ad and made plans to go look at the horse with me after he returned home.”
The gelding, Justin Case, known around the barn as Casey, made an immediate lasting impression on Gianna. “I felt a connection with him right away—I could tell how kind and gentle he was,” Gianna said. “While trying him out over fences for the first time, I missed all my distances, but he didn’t seem to care. We took him on trial, and once, when I went in crooked to a line, he immediately straightened himself out. Elisa looked at me and said, ‘Buy him now.’”
Gianna did just that, and—though he had big shoes to fill—Casey has proven to be a worthy successor to Ziggy. “He is so much like Ziggy, even in looks,” Gianna said. “And he has Ziggy’s kind nature. It’s really incredible how steady he is and how he makes sure I’m safe. I feel so blessed to have had two kind and trustworthy equine partners. Ziggy was the one who brought me up and taught me to be confident. And now Casey is allowing me to think about things I never thought were possible for me to do as a disabled rider—like galloping bridleless in a field. Because I’ve had such amazing horses, I don’t have any fear at all.”
In 2022, Gianna and Casey competed at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala in the 0.65m and 0.70m jumper classes, earning several blue ribbons. Additionally, the pair was selected to be a part of the inaugural U.S. Para-Show Jumping team—a group that was designed to bring awareness to the sport with the hope that it will be accepted as an official event of the Paralympics. In the summer of 2024, Gianna and Casey helped represent para show jumping at a demonstration at the annual BreyerFest in Kentucky. “I would love to jump an Olympic-level course someday,” Gianna said. “With this new para opportunity, perhaps I will. Para has given us both a sense of purpose. Casey loves showing off, and I get so much fulfillment from being able to show people what we can do— and hopefully inspire others.”
Don’t Stop Believing
When she’s not at the barn, Gianna keeps herself busy with a variety of interests. She enjoys spending time with her adorable Australian Cattle Dog, Cairo, who has become her constant companion. “My dad passed away a few years ago,” Gianna said. “He was battling cancer and then contracted COVID-19. It was incredibly hard. My parents had divorced when I was 3, but I remained incredibly close to my father. I got Cairo to comfort me after my dad’s death, and he has been such a blessing to me.”
Gianna’s other interests include modeling and vlogging/social media. In 2025, she plans to begin a podcast called Get Over It, in which she will share her own messages of faith and hope. “I want to help others overcome adversity and share the tools I’ve used in my own life, as well as my faith and my love of horses,” she said. “These animals have brought me so much courage and compassion and have carried me through a lot of difficult times. They have brought me such joy, and I want to share that joy with others.
“I want to give other people hope that they can achieve their dreams—it may just take a different way for you to get there,” Gianna concluded. “Just like adjusting reins or stirrups, you may need to make some adjustments in your path to get to where you want to be. Just keep on believing and never give up. As I always tell myself—anything is possible.”
Follow Gianna on Instagram @gianna_trotter and on TikTok at Gianna Trotter Equestrian
Photos by Sophia Donohue, sophiadonohuephotography.com
