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Devon’s in Sight Silva Martin


head first on his neck as she fell, then also on the ground, where she went into a seizure. Fortunately she was wearing a helmet, but her injuries were neverthe- less severe. The girls at her barn called for help and she was taken immediately to Del


O


Ray Medical Center in Del Ray, Florida, where it was discovered that her brain was bleeding. She was in and out of consciousness for days, and when she final- ly woke up, the extent of the difficulties she would face became more apparent: double vision, dizziness and headaches, and the inability to stand or walk. “I’m a very driven person and I’m not very good at resting!” says Silva from her home in Pennsylvania. “The name of the game with recovery is to rest up.” Silva spent a couple of weeks at Del Mar, then when her condition was stable


she was transferred to Pennsylvania to continue her rehabilitation at Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital. A renowned facility for treating brain injuries, Bryn Mawr is located in driving distance from Windurra, the farm in Cochranville, Pennsylvania, that Silva owns and runs with her husband, Olympic eventer Boyd Martin. “I’m so lucky to have all the people around me—everyone who prayed for me and helped me financially. But also my girlfriends are amazing; they’re al- ways by my side, in the hospital and at home. My family came over from Germa- ny, too. I had people take me to Bryn Mawr five days a week. It’s a fifty minute drive so it’s a hike, but they’re the best. I enjoyed the therapy and improved so much at the beginning.”


No Stranger to Challenges Silva knows a thing or two about struggling through hard times. After dealing with a devastating barn fire in 2011, just weeks later she encountered the un- timely death of her father-in-law and then her own father. She says, however, that recovering from her head injury was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. It also gave her a new perspective.


TOP: The skyline at Dressage at Devon. ABOVE, RIGHT: Silva in 2013 at Devon riding Zoran, a KWPN horse owned by Bonne Stedt.


n an ordinary day in March of 2014, just after winning team gold for the U.S. at her first Nations Cup competition in Wellington, Florida, Silva was schooling a horse at her Florida home base. When the horse stumbled unexpectedly, knocking her forward, she hit her


When Silva Martin rides down the centerline at Dressage at Devon this year, she will have beaten the odds, no matter what her score. While Silva was fulfilling all expectations by bringing home blue ribbons from Devon last year, just months ago nobody knew whether she would ever sit in the saddle again.


Warmbloods Today 31


for


Amber Heintzberger


Amber Heintzberger


By Amber Heintzberger


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