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When a rescue horse severely injured one Elgin resident more than a year ago, it was her own longtime steed, Big Red, who helped bring her back in the saddle and to where she is today.
According to Decotah Jackson, horses are all she has ever known. On horseback for the first time just two days after being born, Jackson said horses are all she’s ever known. She now works as a horse trainer, rescuer, riding instructor, trick rider and rodeo competitor at Bar D Performance Horses, 436 Mundine Rd.
Jackson was injured in December 2024 while evaluating a rescue horse for potential use in new rider training. The horse became spooked and tangled in a fence, and after Jackson dismounted to free it, the horse kicked her above the knee.
She collapsed, unable to stand, but managed to call for help.
“I called my parents. They came to get me and rushed me straight to the hospital in Bastrop,” Jackson said.
Doctors found a clean break in her femur that had rotated the leg. Jackson was immediately placed in traction — as any movement could have nicked the femoral artery — and transported to Austin for surgery.
Repairing the injury required a steel rod through her femur and four screws in her hip and leg.
Sixteen days later, Jackson was riding again.
Jackson said she has had many horses in her life, but the one that stands out above the rest is her 14-year-old gelding, Big Red.
“He was the first horse I ever bought with my own money,” Jackson said. “(We’ve) done everything together, from breaking colts, running barrels, roping calves, all the way to trick riding and Roman riding.”
Jackson trained Big Red to walk close to a fence so she could use it to lower herself off his back during recovery, though she was determined to climb back into the saddle unassisted from the start.
Three months after the accident, Jackson had returned to giving riding lessons, and by May she was performing trick riding at a show in Boerne.
The horse that injured her remains in her care.
