Ashley McBryde is on the mend after suffering injuries from a scary accident that occurred late last year. But the memories of that incident, which almost took her life, still haunt her, to this day.
Fans will recall, in September of 2021, the country music artist, 39, fell off of a mare while riding on horseback at a ranch in Montana. She has since opened up about the near-fatal blow, telling Gayle King of CBS Mornings that she went back to the ranch to revisit the horse that threw her after she was discharged from the hospital.
“The horse’s name is Jenny, and I got to go visit her this week,” McBryde previously shared. “I thought it was to tell her that I was okay. She doesn’t care if I’m okay, but it was to make sure that I knew I was okay.”
Now, McBryde is sharing even more details about the horrific horse accident.
In a brand-new video as part of her Made For This YouTube Series, McBryde looks back at the moments that led up to her fall and recalls what she experienced after she got hurt. She also opens up about the extent of her injuries that resulted from the unexpected misfortune.
“We had thought we’d get up early in the morning, have a cool breakfast, and go over to Bart and Wendy’s [Morris’] to ride horses. And we did. They were wonderful,” McBryde, who was in town to play a show that week, says in the more than 20-minute video dubbed Back In The Saddle.
The ride, booked through the Oxbow Cattle Co., and arranged by McBryde’s hair/makeup assistant, Dayna Slaughenhoupt, who had been celebrating a birthday, saw the group going across bridges and through waters. But McBryde says she was thrilled to be taking on the adventure.
“I really wasn’t nervous for any of that stuff,” McBryde says. “These horses work together all the time, and they work with these humans all the time. So it’s kind of a situation where you could put a toddler on the horse, and it still could have ridden across this river, no problem. But I thought it was really cool.”
For most of the day, McBryde was riding on a horse named Blue, but in the process, she switched to a younger horse – Jenny. It was during the swap that the staff failed to shorten the stirrups. Unfortunately, it was too late. McBryde had already gotten on the steed.
“It seems like that’s not a big deal,” McBryde recalled the error. “It’s a huge deal.”
Moments later, Jenny took off with McBryde in the saddle. That’s when the “One Night Standards” singer did what she only knew how to try and slow down the horse. Sadly, she lost her footing in the stirrups.
“What I did was stand up on the left stirrup and put my hand on the saddle horn so I wouldn’t get hit in the chest a bunch of times. Right? Cause that would suck. I don’t know if it’s because of how fast she was running, it’s really hard to know, but I leaned a little too far. Bart said from his point of view, I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t do anything to make it worse. But the fact remains that, according to physics, if you’re going that fast, standing on one leg and leaning in that direction, you fall.”
After falling off the horse, McBryde was “unconscious” according to Wendy, one of Oxbow Cattle Company workers, who conducted life-saving measures on the star until emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics arrived at the scene.
“There was blood behind her head, and she was not breathing effectively,” Wendy recalled in the video. “I immediately assisted her breathing and gave her mouth-to-mouth, and did that for a couple of minutes until she started breathing on her own, and I was assisting her, holding her airways so that she was ventilating. A little while after that, Ashley opened her eyes. And that was a huge sigh of relief. Huge relief for all of us there.”
“I remember the hospital a little bit. And I remember waking up on the bus that night. I think it was that night. It was very dark in my room,” McBryde emotionally remembers through tears. “I went to stand up, and of course, I was really whoozy. I was a little confused. I remember thinking, crap. I don’t think I made it.”
In the first days of her injuries, McBryde suffered a concussion. She couldn’t walk and later learned she broke her pelvis. She had to postpone some of her shows to allow herself to recover. Her doctor gave her mandatory orders to rest for two weeks and preferred that she take 30 days off her feet. But that did not happen. Against medical professional advice, she only rested for less than a week and resumed her touring schedule.
“I don’t know what that is. It’s wired in us. But, ‘You have to go do that thing that you do,’ was heavy on my brain and my heart…. This is what I do. If I can’t do it, I’m not really sure what I am,” McBryde reasoned. “I think a lot of us feel that way. But, yep. I was like, ‘I’m doing a show.”
Despite going against her doctor’s orders, McBryde says through everything that has happened, she has learned a life lesson.
“It’s okay to let someone see you hurt,” she says. “It’s okay to bet on yourself when you’re not at 100 percent. Surround yourself with people that won’t allow you to walk up an incline or up a flight of stairs without assistance. Give yourself friends and a support system that will feed you that will help you do everything you can to the best of your ability when you’re really in a really sh—y, vulnerable spot. Always shorten your stirrups.”
Today, McBryde is lucky to be alive. And her career couldn’t be brighter. In December, the Arkansas native, who recently won the CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year, will soon become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry.
More recently, she has earned her fifth and sixth Grammy nominations. McBryde is up for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” with Carly Pearce. She is also nominated for Best Country Album for Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.
The 65th annual Grammys takes place Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023, in Los Angeles.
