Sarah Gordon: Lucky To Be Riding and Walking

By Laura Scaletti

Portraits by Shawna Whitty

A small ant, two stacked pennies, three stacked credit cards, 30 sheets of printer paper. All these items are equal to 3mm. In March 2022, Sarah Gordon was 3mm away from being paralyzed after the horse she was riding delivered a vicious buck and dropped its shoulder, sending Sarah airborne.

“I was riding a 5-year-old as a favor for someone. I hadn’t been warned about this particular trick he did, and he was very quick at it. When I hit the ground, I landed with my feet out in front of me, in a sitting position,” Sarah said. “The impact went up my spine and completely shattered my L1 vertebra.”

Rushed to the University of Florida (UF) Health Shands Hospital, Sarah was greeted by doctors who told her if she ever wanted to walk again, she needed surgery immediately. “I responded, ‘Walk again? I want to ride again,’” Sarah said.

The doctors told Sarah not to sneeze or cough as she waited to get into the operating room, as any movement risked paralyzing her. After a six-hour surgery, two rods and 10 screws in her back and an intensive rehabilitation program, Sarah made that wish a reality when she got back in the saddle in July 2023.

Backseat Request

Sarah’s horse dreams started as a child in Greenwich, Connecticut. With her mom at the wheel, Sarah watched as they drove past one beautiful farm after another. “My mom loved to tell the story about how we were driving around, and she heard a 5-year-old voice from the backseat say, ‘Mommy, I want to ride horses.’ So, one day, she signed me up for lessons and pony camp,” Sarah said. “The rest is history; I was smitten from the beginning.”

Once she discovered the magic of being in a barn, Sarah never wanted to leave. “I was a complete and utter barn rat. I spent as much time at the barn as possible. I didn’t care about my social life or attending play dates, sleepovers, parties and so on. I was just focused on horses,” she said. “I think that helped me mature quicker than most kids my age, as I was always hanging around older kids and trainers wanting to improve myself as a rider and barn rat!”

Sarah was fortunate to own and show her own pony and equitation horse growing up. “My equitation horse wasn’t an easy horse by any means. He had a stop in his toolbox, so he really taught me that some days you win and others you lose,” she said. “Even though he didn’t make it easy, I loved him to pieces.”

From those early days watching horses from the back seat of her car to sitting on her first pony, Sarah knew she was destined to be involved with horses in some capacity for the rest of her life. She wasn’t sure what that would look like, but being surrounded by horses daily was always the goal.

“I remember a family friend saying to me, ‘Don’t you dare do this as a profession. Go be a doctor, a vet, an architect or something else!’ To this day, he calls me up and says, ‘I told you not to do this as a profession,’” Sarah said, “I still ignore him.”

Turning Pro

Ignoring the naysayers, Sarah continued on her path of becoming a professional. Her first stop, after her Junior years, was Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). “I wanted to attend SCAD because of their riding program. I wasn’t an artsy student by any means, which made attending SCAD harder as you’re in classes with all these amazing artists, but their riding program is unlike any other,” she said.

From the facilities to the trainers to the horses, Sarah was captivated by everything SCAD had to offer. “It’s a gift for anyone to ride in that program,” she said.

After working for two impressive equestrian operations, Sarah decided it was time to hang her own shingle and go out on her own in 2021. When it came time to name her business, Sarah had the perfect name—Golden Farm. “When I was around 14 years old, my parents sold our house in Greenwich and moved to Stamford, Connecticut. We lived on a road called Golden Farm. I thought it was a perfect fit,” she said.

Things were going well: The perfect farm name had come after finding the perfect horse when she purchased Castella, a 7-year-old with no show record, in 2020. Sarah took her time developing her and really only showed her when she had time. “I was managing and riding full-time, so Stella took more of a backseat and showing her turned into more of a luxury—I would show when it was a slow week for the rest of the barn. I think that was beneficial in the end, because there wasn’t a real rush. She wasn’t over-jumped or over-shown and had time to slowly develop,” Sarah said.

What started out as a New York/Connecticut-based business organically morphed into an Ocala-based operation. “In July 2021, I shipped the horses from New York to WEC Ocala to compete for a month with plans to return north after that month of showing. But instead, I ended up keeping the horses in Ocala after the WEC Summer Circuit ended and I never left,” Sarah said. “We purchased a farm in March 2022—right after I broke my back.”

Road to Recovery

When the unexpected happened in March 2022, Sarah’s resiliency was tested as she had to put in the work to get her “normal” life back. “After surgery I spent days in the ICU then went on to Brooks Rehab in Jacksonville, Florida. That’s where I learned to walk again, put socks on, etc. They were a huge part of my recovery and I truly feel that all the physical and occupational therapy I received there helped me improve faster,” she said.

Sarah continued her PT for a year and a half once she returned home to Ocala. “I was walking with a limp for a long time and had nerve pain down into my calves and feet. They had originally told me that it would be about six months until I could try to ride again, but it ended up being a year and a half, as the metal wasn’t fusing to my bone,” Sarah said.

Prior to being injured, Sarah was competing Stella in the 1.40m, 1.45m and Saturday night Grand Prix classes. When Sarah got hurt, she decided she was going to turn Stella out and give her a break, too. “I figured that it would be less jumps on her legs if I gave her the break instead of having someone else ride her. USEF steward and my mentor, Jimmy Kovacs, said to me, ‘She won’t jump for anyone else so that’s not an option,’” Sarah chuckled.

Stella had always been Sarah’s rock in the ring, and the same held true during Sarah’s recovery. Turned out next to Sarah’s room, Stella was a daily reminder that Sarah still had more to accomplish in the saddle and with Golden Farm. “Every day, I would open my window or slowly go out to her paddock, and she would whinny to me. It gave me the push that I needed to not give up. If she was waiting for me, then I needed to do what I could to get back to her,” Sarah said. “She was patient and had no idea why all of a sudden she wasn’t competing or being ridden, but even so, she was still happy to see me every day.”

In July 2023, Sarah returned to the saddle after 16 months. A joyous occasion after endless patience and rehab, Sarah had a new issue to overcome in the saddle. “When my L1 vertebra shattered, it hit my conus, which encases the nerves. It damaged the nerve that controls my bladder and bowels, making it so I have absolutely no control over them. This made it hard to ride again as I definitely had my fair share of accidents while in the saddle,” Sarah admitted. “It was embarrassing, to say the least, but every time I wanted to cry about it, I told myself, ‘You’re lucky to be riding and walking, Sarah. Go change your pants and get back on.’”

Sarah’s doctors told her that if the nerves weren’t back within a year, they probably wouldn’t function the same again—so unfortunately, lack of control is now Sarah’s normal. As Sarah started riding again, she also realized her balance had changed significantly as she had lost muscles and strength during her involuntary hiatus. “I found myself so afraid of falling off, because I didn’t want to hurt or damage my back and metal, that I was falling off more. That’s when I went to the gym and started getting my other muscles stronger so that they could compensate for my back being so weak and my balance being different now,” she said. “It took over a year in the gym to get the amount of strength I needed to ride somewhat strongly again.”

Forever Homes

Increasing strength and improving fitness isn’t new to Sarah—just up until her accident, it had always been for her sales horses. It’s always been an aspect of her business she loves. “I think of it like a fostering situation: I foster these horses in hopes of finding them forever homes,” she said. “They leave Golden Farm beefed up, having enjoyed lots of turnout and with show results under their belts. I love seeing how much they develop and change, from when they land in the United States to when they get sold.”

Since her accident, Sarah has changed the way she selects horses for her sales program. “I’m very picky about what consignment horses I’ll take on and which ones I buy in Europe. I won’t represent any horse that I won’t personally ride,” she said. “Whenever I take in a consignment horse, I’m very direct with asking the owners which propensities the horse has, and I won’t represent anything that could hurt me or anyone else.”

One of Sarah’s current sales horses is extra meaningful to her. “My mom passed away due to cancer in May of 2024. It’s been so hard to adapt to her not being here anymore. As I was growing up, one of her horses’names was Pride, so I’ve named one of my sale horses Pep Talk, with the barn name Pride,” she said.

This past winter, Sarah and Stella were back competing in the 1.30m at WEC Ocala, which was the highest they’d done since Sarah’s injury in 2022. Everything was looking like the duo would finally get back on track, until Sarah entered the barn in July 2025 and discovered Stella wasn’t acting right. Stella was rushed to the Equine Medical Center of Ocala (EMCO) where they discovered she had a large colon torsion.

“The vets spent hours untwisting her colon. Everything was going well for a few days, until she started refluxing. Everything we tried to feed her she would reflux. After 12 days of no food, the vets felt there was nothing left to do as she was incredibly weak, so they set a day to put her down,” Sarah said.

Stella’s longtime vet Dr. Kristen Darragh called EMCO with a last-resort suggestion to try an extremely high dose of dexamethasone. The result was an amazing recovery: Stella returned to the paddock next to Sarah’s house with her miniature horse, Patsy—on loan from The Peeps Foundation—and eventually returned to full work.

Then, on January 4, Stella was plagued with an even worse torsion and mesentery tear. Sarah stayed by her side while she passed, along with Stella’s groom, Thomas Snyder, and the staff at EMCO. “I had just jumped Stella Saturday morning, and she was so fresh and wild—so full of herself. Then Sunday night, she was gone. It just happened so fast,” Sarah said. “I miss her so terribly. My heart hurts and the farm is so quiet without her.”

Though Stella’s story didn’t end how Sarah hoped, Stella has forever left her mark on Sarah’s life—and Golden Farm. Stella was there for Sarah through her recovery, so that Sarah can carry Stella’s legacy on to the horses that come through her farm. “Stella was my best friend, my heart horse, and she was family. My heart will never be the same without having her here, but I will continue to heal it as much as possible by remembering all our amazing memories and times together,” Sarah said. “I was so incredibly lucky to have her in my life and by my side. I hope Stella and my mom are reunited up there together.”

Follow Sarah on Instagram @goldenfarmllc

Photos by SAS Photography, unless noted otherwise