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“Starting from the ground up is hard. A year or two from now – when I'm established, back in the ring doing bigger things – I do believe I can look back on it all as a blessing in disguise,” Cathleen Driscoll tells World of Showjumping about finding her way back from a life-changing accident.

In February 2024, when we last spoke with Cathleen, she was ranked 60th on the Longines Ranking as the 9th highest ranked female rider in the world – a remarkable achievement for anyone, let alone Driscoll who did her first FEI classes in July 2021. This time around, however, she has achieved something that can’t be measured in numbers or rankings – Cathleen has recovered from a traumatic brain injury, exceeding all medical prognoses.

In June last year, Driscoll’s promising career came to an abrupt halt after a fall at a show in France. “It did change my whole outlook on everything,” the now 33-year-old tells about the impact the freak accident had on her. “The accident happened in Deauville, in the jump-off for the Grand Prix. My horse fell at the first fence, I landed on my side and hit my head. I don't remember any of it, but from what I've been told, I had seizures in the moment. I was put in medicine induced coma and airlifted to a hospital in Normandy, where I stayed in the intensive care unit for two weeks.”

“I had four brain bleeds in the frontal lobe,” Cathleen explains. “The prognosis the doctors gave in the beginning was very bad. When I first got to the hospital, it was more or less only about keeping me alive. When they took me off the meds that had me in the coma, they told my friends and trainers that were there that there was a 60% chance I wouldn't wake up. However, I did wake up – and that was kind of the first big hurdle. I woke up in eight hours, paralyzed in the right leg and left arm. It took two weeks for me to be able to stand up, and it was about two months of having to relearn how to walk. I had to re-learn everything; how to walk, how to talk, how to use my hands… everything was from the ground up.”

After being in Normandy for two weeks, Cathleen had a medical plane transport her to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, USA. “I was inpatient there for one month and then outpatient for a month. With the paralysis in the leg, I was given a 30% chance of being able to walk again. It was a very negative looking prognosis in the beginning, and it's been more or less remarkable that I am where I am now,” she tells,

Prior to the accident, Cathleen had a string of good horses, and she was riding on the U.S. team, competing in Europe. “I was supposed to go to Dinard and do the five-star – everything was looking like I was on track to have one of my best years. The accident really put it all to a halt. However, it allowed me to see things from another perspective.”

Cathleen’s odds of survival were small, and the chances of returning to the saddle even smaller. However, the accident gave Cathleen the push to set out on her own – a dream and goal she had always had. “One of the outcomes was a decision to go out and start my own business,” she explains. “The job I had at Plain Bay with Katie and Henri Prudent was amazing, and it’s hard to envision stepping away when I had an amazing string of horses and a super team, but this injury opened another door.”

“I am still keeping up with all the physical therapy, vision therapy, the other rehab and exercises outside of the hospital environment,” Cathleen tells about her current condition. “I started riding again pretty early on. About a month and a half after the injury, I was taken to a therapeutic riding center in Atlanta, and that was my first time back on a horse. By January, I was doing small jumps, trying to ride a few horses every day.”

Today, Cathleen is fully back to jumping and did her return to show ring in the beginning of June. “I had a soft return to showing in the one meters – I had to start somewhere. The fact that I don't remember the accident, and that I don’t have any emotional relation to it, is good. As I'm riding now, I think people were concerned that I would be scared and that I would carry that with me. However, without actually remembering the worst of it, I can now pick up and move on pretty easily. Over the summer, I am hoping to be able to get back in the ring up to 1.40m. Heading into the fall, I'm looking to try and strengthen my string of horses. I would love to be able to do FEI classes again by next year.”

“The amount of support I have had from the equestrian community has been touching,” Cathleen concludes. “My close friends – the ones that were there on the ground with me – were a huge part of the recovery in the beginning. In addition, there were so many people that reached out and offered to help, who wanted to step up and be involved – it has been extremely heart-warming.”

18.6.2026 No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.