The Comeback Kids Three stories of trial and triumph from the SCAD Equestrian team By Cady Voyer
Photo Credit Kate Morrison
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veryone loves a good comeback story; the kind where the hero was once knocked down, but is able to rise again with the help of friends and hard work. Every sport comes with a chance for injury and since horseback riding is a particularly high-risk activity, getting hurt is common. Current SCAD equestrian team riders Tatum Tatreau, Olivia Patsavas, and Tess Mrozcka are all comeback kids, and have three parts to their stories: the fall, the recovery, and the lesson.
The Fall Tatum, a fourth-year Equestrian Studies major and equestrian team member, sustained a severe ligament injury that took well over a year and half to overcome. She was riding an inexperienced five-year-old that launched her out of the saddle. She landed flat on her feet with her left ankle turned in. “I heard all this cracking and popping and I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t even walk out of the ring,” said Tatum.
Olivia, a fourth-year Fashion major, was riding a former SCAD horse named Red at the time of her injury. The horse had a reputation for being challenging, and threw her off the day before she was supposed to ride in her first Intercollegiate Horse Show Association competition. After the fall, Olivia did not know anything was seriously wrong. She got back on a different horse and finished the practice. Later, she went to go get ice for her hand, but ended up going to the hospital because it was broken in half. Tess, a third-year Graphic Design major, was riding her own horse at a show. She’d chosen to ride despite having sprained her ankle earlier that day on a different horse. After clearing her rounds, her horse bucked and Tess landed on a jump, sustaining a serious concussion.
The Recovery Tatum had to get an x-ray to prove that her ankle was not broken, but an MRI showed that she ruptured her anterior talofibular ligament. “It connects the tibia to the fibula,” Tatum explained.
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