Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990 TAG: 9006210120
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Don't give Katie Monahan Prudent an are-you-nuts look, squeeze her hand, shake your head and tell her she really ought to stop showing horses just because she had brain surgery after a fall 3 1/2 months ago.
"I'm not the kind of person who uses four-letter words regularly, but that brings them to the tip of my tongue," Prudent said of well-meant advice she has received since her injury.
But Prudent, a former Olympian and 1986 gold medalist for the U.S. Equestrian Team in the world championships, doesn't coat the words with surliness. She simply doesn't understand the motive of those who urge her to quit the sport she has performed for 30 years and dominated in the 1980s, winning 33 major events - more than any other rider.
The surgeon who performed the 4 1/2-hour operation at the Wellington Regional Medical Center in Palm Beach, Fla., suggested Prudent dismount permanently. After all, he had just relieved pressure on her brain, the result of a head-first fall off Special Envoy in the Winter Equestrian Festival in Palm Beach on March 2.
"I didn't listen," said Prudent, a Middleburg, Va., equestrian who also quit taking precautionary anti-seizure medicine about three months before she was supposed to. "You have to live your life. If I was afraid to get hurt, I'd never get in a car, never walk down a street in New York at night. This is my field. It's what I do; it's what I love."
Prudent, who began riding as a 5-year-old, was on a horse's back three weeks after the operation - about the time her doctor had told her she would be leaving the hospital.
At first, she said, she just walked the horse, then moved on to trotting and cantering. She started showing again in late April, about 1 1/2 months after the fall.
Her best finish in a Grand Prix since the injury has been fifth in Upperville, Va., two weeks ago. She finished third in the $10,000 open jumper competition Wednesday night and is scheduled to compete in the $60,000 Grand Prix of Roanoke on Saturday.
Her husband, Henri, said he spent the night of the surgery wondering if his wife - the American Grand Prix rider of the year in 1982, '86 and '88 - would survive the operation. Now, he has passed the point of worry. He simply marvels.
"I think it's amazing," he said. "But this is Katie."
And that might be Katie at the 1992 Olympics. Because of the injury, she missed the trials for this year's world championship, so she has set her goal to make the '92 U.S. Equestrian team. The last time she was an Olympian, in 1980, was when the United States boycotted the games held in Moscow.
At her Middleburg stable, she has a partner to help her reach Barcelona, Spain: Nordic Venture. Prudent calls Nordic Venture her "best horse ever," but she said she is not showing him now because she wants to train him to peak in '92.
"Finding an Olympic-caliber horse is like finding a person walking down the street who has the potential to be an Olympian," said Prudent, who said her skills matter less than the horse's when it comes to winning championships or medals. "So much goes into this sport that doesn't go into other sports, because you're dealing with another living being. A person can be the best rider in the world, and if they don't have a good horse who's at his peak, they're nowhere."
Special Envoy, who gave Prudent her unforgettable ride in March, was horse of the year in 1988 and "one of my best horses," Prudent said. But one of his front legs caught the rail on the last of three 5-foot fences at the Palm Beach course that Friday in March.
"He went to his knees, then he righted himself," Prudent said. "But when he hit his knees, I just kept going."
She landed on her head, then got up and walked out of the ring. She did not scream for medical aid.
"I told them, `Leave me alone, I'm fine,' " Prudent said.
Moments later, though, she fainted and was taken to the nearby hospital. There, doctors found that her brain had rotated slightly when her head hit the ground, causing a blood vessel to break. The leaking blood exerted pressure on the brain, which can cause permanent damage.
Prudent said that from the time she fell to the time she was operated on, only about an hour had elapsed.
"They opened up the skull," she said matter-of-factly, as though speaking of someone else's experience, "flushed out the blood, and put the skull back. And just because of the short amount of time, pressure had not built up on the brain."
Prudent said she has no permanent effects from the injury, only some dizziness early on and a problem with depth perception after she started jumping again. And she said she doesn't remember anything from the time she fell until when she woke up after the operation.
She partly blames herself for the accident, saying she wasn't in top shape because she'd taken time off to have a child, Adam, who now is 5 1/2 months old.
Before taking a midafternoon break on Wednesday to slosh with Adam in the hotel pool, Prudent reflected on her first serious injury in 30 years of riding.
"It was kind of a freak accident," she said. "If I'd have been a little fitter, I may not have fallen off.
"[The doctors] said to Henri, `She might not be able to talk, might be paralyzed.' But I think I'm as normal as everyone else."
by CNB