‘Keep the messages coming’ – injured Olympic event rider responds to support by squeezing friends’ hands

US Olympian Liz Halliday is making “steady improvements and wowing her medical team” – and responding to messages from well-wishers by squeezing her friends’ hands – after she sustained a head injury in a fall during the USEA American Eventing Championships at Kentucky on 29 August.

Liz was riding nine-year-old gelding Shanroe Cooley in the advanced final when she fell at fence 21b and was taken to the University of Kentucky medical centre, where she underwent surgery to relieve the pressure from the swelling on her brain. Shanroe Cooley was not injured.

Liz’s friends and family posted two updates to her social media over the weekend.

On Saturday, they said that there had been an “incredible outpouring of love and support for Liz as she starts the long road to recovery”, and that she was going above and beyond by lifting her arms and legs when asked to wiggle her fingers and toes.

They also said they had started to read out messages from the eventing community and “she responded by squeezing our hands to let us know how grateful she is to everyone who is sending their well wishes”. They asked for people to keep sending written and voice messages and to use the hashtag #KeepFightingLiz, as her mantra has always been to keep fighting.

In Sunday’s update, connections of Liz Halliday expressed gratitude for the messages received since her injury.

“We are reading to her and playing voice messages for her around the clock and have hardly made a dent in the list,” said the statement.

“We put a pair of reins in her hands today, and she is gripping them tight to keep the contact. When we pull on the reins, she pulls back. We know she is dreaming about getting back out to gallop cross-country again,” added the update, which said the words “resilient”, ‘focused”, “fierce”, “strong” and “tenacious” have emerged as themes about Liz in the messages.

“Please keep the messages coming, along with the positivity and prayers,” the statement said.

Liz made her Olympic debut at Paris this summer, finishing 19th.

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