'She believed she could so she did'
Shelly Stone, thoroughbred horserace trainer and rider, reflects on the past and looks towards the future after being paralyzed in a horse-riding accident 10 years ago this February.
By Kathryn Kline | 27 January 2021
In the early morning hours of February 18, 2011, as the sun rose in the overcast sky looming above, Shelly Stone began her workday at the Laurel Park racetrack as she would on any other average day.
In addition to owning and training her own thoroughbred racehorses, Stone was in charge of exercising her employer’s horses, managing stable employees, and much more.
She was known as one of the toughest, most-talented trainers in Laurel, Md., and the surrounding areas. Stone wasn’t afraid to take on the rowdiest, most head-strong horses – and that’s what set her apart.
But since she had turned 50 just the prior year, with some careful consideration, Stone had decided that it was in her best interest, for her personal safety and health, that she stop riding the “bad ones”.
That morning, though, her employer was in a rush to get a young colt out on the track before it closed down for a half-hour break. Thus, Stone was tasked with taking the horse, a two-year-old, out to gallop that morning. Since the horse was so young, he had never been out on the track by himself. Usually, young horses are kept together because they just aren’t used to seeing the racetrack, but the person who was supposed to accompany Stone on the track didn’t show and left her on her own with the colt.
As they rounded the top turn, the horse abruptly stopped and stuck his toes in the dirt, throwing Stone into the air, over the inside fence, and onto the hard, frozen ground. In the process of the horse bucking her, Stone’s left stirrup completely broke, providing less protection for her fall and throwing her even further.
She knew something was wrong right away because she couldn’t feel anything from the neck down, but despite it all, Stone remained completely calm.
“I knew if I moved at all, I was going to die,” Stone said. “But I told myself, ‘I just have to relax and breathe slow and I’ll be okay.’ Because in bad situations like that, you’ve got to learn how to relax. A lot of people panic, but you can’t.”
When she fell, Stone landed on her head, which was tucked all the way into her chin and chest, breaking her neck. The racetrack was in a complete state of chaos following the accident, Stone recalls, with people yelling and chasing other loose horses, and it took nearly seven minutes for anyone to even get to her.
“It never should have taken that long for them to get to me – they have ponies there, jockeys… It was a bad mistake,” Stone explained.
Stone was rushed to the nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and later moved to the National Rehabilitation Hospital. She was left in a wheelchair with partial paralysis, or what is known as quadriparesis, meaning that that she still has some feeling in her limbs, but that her body and all four limbs are severely weakened due to her spinal cord being partially severed during the fall.
Today, Stone lives in Tucson, Ariz., with family and a team of medical professionals who assist her in her everyday life – from brushing her teeth and getting dressed to going on outings and running errands. She cannot stand unsupported, but she can use her arms, though her hands have limited functioning due to spasticity – a painful condition that causes atrophied muscles to stiffen and contract.
This has been the most painful and continued reminder of the accident over the years for Shelly Stone – the severe spasms and contractions throughout her body that she is forced to endure every day in varying degrees of pain.
But, Stone hasn’t let the pain, both physical and emotional, stop her from moving forward. She continues to go through hours of painful rehabilitative exercises on the daily intended to strengthen her body and prevent the spasticity from worsening – a process she describes as a “constant battle.”
Over the years, Stone has established an extensive, but effective rehabilitation routine with the help of family, friends, and medical professionals. Soon after the accident, Stone’s father and brother, Andy, traveled to Boston to learn from a world-renowned rehabilitation expert, Igor Burdenko, who once trained Olympic ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan back to health after an injury. There, they both became certified aqua therapists, which has proven to be one of the most helpful rehabilitative tools for Stone in reducing her pain.
“In the pool, I can walk in the water,” Stone explained. “My legs get the memory of walking.”
The low-gravity environment offers a unique way for Stone, who doesn’t have much feeling or function in her legs, to rebuild her core strength through various exercises across the floor of the pool.
As one can see within minutes of talking with her, one of the most striking qualities Stone possesses is her sheer dedication and perseverance – something that has not only kept her moving forward through an intense rehabilitative process and severe pain, but a quality that led her to become so skilled at training and riding horses in the first place.
Stone says her passion for horses is something she’s felt since she was little, as young as five or six-years-old.
“I always knew it. I had little play horses when I was a kid,” Stone recalled. “I saw Secretariat win when I was 12 and after that, I decided that’s what I was going to do – right then.”
At the time, Stone, who was born in Lock Haven, Pa., lived with her family in Bryan-College Station, Texas, as the eldest of four children. Her family was nomadic in a sense, traveling in their green Volkswagen bus to a new city every couple of years or so as Stephen Stone, Shelly’s father, an exercise physiologist with a PhD who eventually went on to train famous clients like Mary Tyler Moore, took on various teaching positions and other job opportunities throughout the country.
During her time in Texas, Stone began taking horse-riding lessons at a riding school with a teacher who had served as an equestrian colonel in WWI.
“He was hard on us. He would run us through these jumping routines where they would take the reins and stirrups off and just run the horses through and we’d have to just hang on,” Stone said. “But he taught us well. I was only 12 and jumping four-foot fences.”
When she was 13, Stone and her family moved to Bowie, Md., a suburb located halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., where she continued her training at the Bowie Race Track.
“It was right there by our house, so I used to go by there all the time and watch the horses gallop. I was obsessed with it,” Stone said.
Stone decided during her senior year at Bowie High School, at age 17, that she wanted to turn this passion into a real career – and she didn’t want to wait it out through her last semester. So, she went to the school’s administration and asked if she could start coming into school later in the day, around 10 or 11 a.m., so that she could be at the racetrack in the mornings while still finishing her degree, but they refused to allow this.
As just another example of Stone’s unwavering resolve, despite pushback from the school and her parents, she decided to leave school anyway and went to work at the racetrack while she also attained her GED.
“I started by walking horses around in circles at the racetrack. That’s the first experience you get with them, they’re pushing you and they fight and kick, so you have to get used to all of that first,” Stone explained. “Then, I started mucking stalls and riding horses around the barn. First, the ponies, and then the racehorses. I was making $70 a week at the time, which I thought was a lot.”
According to Stone, it took her about two years to get good at riding and training the racehorses, with the guidance of a talented horse trainer ranked in the best racing class, Roy M. Peacock, Jr., whom she still speaks to today.
“At first, he would drag me around with the pony while I held onto the racehorse – I couldn’t even make it all the way around the racetrack, I’d get so tired. I was so weak because I’d never done anything like it,” Stone said.
But, she kept training and getting stronger and stronger, Stone said, and before too long, she was better than almost anyone around.
“I could ride the worst horses. And that’s why I got thrown so many times. But I was never afraid. Ever,” Stone explained. “Because I’d get thrown and it’d hurt, but I’d bounce right back. I’d come home bruised and bawling, and my mom would ask me what I was doing to myself. But I was determined.”
Despite her parents’ concerns and hopes that she would go back to school, Stone never once considered quitting. When her family moved to Richmond, Va., she stayed in Maryland and continued training.
“When I was 19 or 20 is when I got really good and started branching out, traveling to different races,” Stone said.
Initially, her goal was to be a jockey and actually ride in races. But this was the late 1970s and early 1980s, so it was a much different time for women, especially in the male-dominated horseracing industry, Stone pointed out.
“There weren’t very many girl jockeys back then at all. There were maybe three good girl jockeys, and altogether, maybe 15 total. And they were all riding at cheap tracks,” Stone said. “It was still that mindset that women couldn’t do it, especially with the horses, because they’re so strong – when actually, it's not just strength you need, but finesse, too. You can get a lot more done talking them into it than forcing them, which women are a lot better at.”
According to Stone, the horse-racing industry was so misogynistic in its treatment of women to the extent that some girls would have to sleep with the trainers if they wanted to ride in races, something she says she never would have bothered with, but was something that always stuck with her.
“I really did wanna ride in races, but I just didn’t see any real future. I didn’t have the self-confidence, I think, because I was young. But I wanted to do it and I should have, because I did later on and I was good, and I would’ve been really good then,” Stone said.
Despite not taking that leap, Stone’s passion never faltered. She earned her trainer’s license when she was 27, which required, at the time, that an individual had been on the racetrack for at least five years, as well as a barn test with the actual horses and a four-hour written test, Stone explained.
That was also the year that Stone won her first race, something she recalls as one of her favorite memories of her time as a trainer.
“I bought a 2-year-old horse, a baby as far as racehorses go, for only $300 because he was injured. I healed him from being a sore backed horse, which no one could figure out why, but I did,” Stone said. “I had an acupuncturist – so we worked on his back for 8 months. That was the first time I bought a horse that had never run and didn’t look hopeful.”
The horse, a chestnut-colored thoroughbred named Cywan, ended up winning his first race that day, paying $100 for a $2 bet, according to Stone.
“He won a lot of money for us over the years, but he was mean, and big, and bad. Even the jockeys were afraid of him, because he’d run with his head really low down, and that scares the riders because they think they’ll fall on their face if the horse stumbles,” Stone explained. “But you’ve got to let them run in their own running style. The one guy just begged me to put a different bridle on him, so instead I got a different rider, because I figured if he was that scared then he shouldn’t be riding him.”
At the height of her training days, Stone owned around five or six racehorses and was making as much as $48,000 in just two months, she recalled.
“When you’re watching your own horse, it’s just so exciting. You work for months just for a two- or three-minute race. Your heart is just in your mouth,” Stone said. “Especially with my horses, who almost always ran good. Some horses run on the front end all the time, but some horses lay back and then sprint the last part, which is the best kind really.”
But, the lifestyle was never easy, with inconsistent wages and long, grueling hours. According to Stone, she worked every day of the week from the early morning until the afternoon, and she rarely got a day off, except for the occasional Sunday every two weeks or so.
“It was hard because you’re just trying to exist, while forking out tons of money on fees, hay, straw, and vet bills… I owned my own and trained my own, but I also worked at the racetracks. I would get up at 4:30 a.m., go to work, gallop for the guy I was working for, and when I got done there, I’d go take care of my own horses. It was a lot,” Stone said.
Stone traveled all over Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, and Florida during her time as a trainer, though when she bought horses of her own that had to be tended to daily, she couldn’t really go to the races that were far away anymore, so she would ship the horses in her trailer, while she stayed at home in Maryland.
She continued this lifestyle throughout her 30s, which is when she began actually riding in races, something she was quite successful at. For a time, Stone was not only an owner and trainer of racehorses, but she was a jockey, too – allowing her to utilize her dedication and extreme attention-to-detail in a way that truly fulfilled her lifelong passion of working with horses.
“I did it for 25 years and I would still learn new things all the time. The main thing is learning to watch, listen and pay attention to everything your horse does – in and out of the stall,” Stone said. “I watched the way they were standing to see if anything was wrong or different. That’s why a trainer is either great or bad – letting the horse tell you.”
As for the most challenging part of those days working as a trainer, Stone said that it had to be the times when she couldn’t figure out why a horse wouldn’t try.
“Whether it’s pain, which can be fixed, or if they just don’t want to run, which once in a while you can change, but you can’t make them a racehorse if they don’t want to be one,” Stone explained. “Some horses simply aren’t cut out for it. That’s the trick, to be able to look at their attitude and their background and be willing to give up sometimes.”
Though the pandemic hasn’t changed much of Stone’s everyday routine, since she does most of her rehabilitation at her house with in-home nurses and medical aides (she now even has a heated pool at home to do aqua therapy in), she still misses getting out of the house and has been getting a bit stir crazy.
“When I first got injured, I wouldn’t go anywhere really, because I felt uncomfortable being in the wheelchair in public,” Stone said. “I got to the point after talking to a therapist where I decided that I had to live my life again. So, after getting used to going out, I’m stuck at home again.”
According to Stone, while she used to only wear sweatpants or baggy clothes in public due to feelings of insecurity surrounding her accident, in recent years, she has found a renewed love of fashion, something that brings joy and confidence to her everyday life. She has a successful eBay consignment store where she sells new and secondhand clothing, as well as an Instagram page for her store (@caballo_couture1) that she hopes to build a following on in coming months.
And for long-term goals, Stone is not lacking in this area either. It is clear that she possesses a drive unlike most, one that keeps her propelling forward to chase her goals despite the major adversity she has faced in life.
In the future, Stone hopes to be able to move back to Baltimore and join her long-time friend, Suzanne Berger, in working and training horses at Saratoga WarHorse, a nonprofit organization that helps veterans with PTSD using equine therapy with retired thoroughbred racehorses. Berger, who has been instrumental in supporting Stone through tough times, has been a coach and trainer at the nonprofit for three years, after retiring from her position as the assistant county attorney for Baltimore County Government.
In order to achieve that goal, though, Stone must first overcome some major physical obstacles. She hopes to be able to walk again someday through the assistance of a wearable robotic exoskeleton machine, the ReWalk. This would allow her to get around much more easily, though it would require a lot of physical strength that she is still building up to through her extensive daily rehabilitation exercises.
Unfortunately, the ReWalk is extremely expensive, ranging in cost from $75,000 to $80,000, a price that Stone would not be able to front on her own. In order to get a device like this, Stone would likely have to go to court to convince her insurance company to pay for it – another big obstacle, especially considering the poor treatment Stone has received from her insurance company in the past. At times, her insurance company has outright refused to pay for her treatments, forcing her and her family to front thousands of dollars in costs for medical bills while they worked out the issues in court.
But, regardless, Stone says “it will happen.” And judging by the way she has willed positivity and progress into her life over the past ten years, there is not a doubt in the minds of anyone that knows her that this is just one more hurdle that Shelly Stone will leap across, hopefully someday soon – the same way she has met every challenge in her life with unbelievable courage and tenacity, even in the darkest of times.