Instructor and event rider Anna Welch of Pownal suffered serious injuries while training a horse on July 18. Contributed / Photo by Paige Lund of Spotted Vision Photography

Popular horse trainer and event rider Anna Welch of Pownal suffered serious injuries after a horse she was riding spooked, reared up, lost its balance and fell on top of her during a training session July 18, according to Welch’s friend and fellow equestrian Lauren Leavitt of Cumberland.

Welch, who suffered a broken jaw, fractured pelvis, a spinal fracture and a hairline fracture at the base of her skull, underwent a multi-hour surgery at Maine Medical Center the day after the accident. She won’t be able to walk or put weight on her legs for an estimated six weeks and is expected to be in a neck brace for 12 months, according to her husband, Matt Welch.

She has moved out of the ICU but remains in the hospital.

“She’s finally feeling better enough to look at her phone and start getting back to people who have been messaging her, but it’s still going to be a super long process,” said Leavitt, who helped organize a fundraiser via gofundme.com to support the Welches.

The success of the fundraiser underscores Welch’s presence in the horse community. The original goal was $35,000, but the organizers decided to increase it when they learned more about how long Welch’s recovery would be. They later bumped it up to $50,000, blew past that goal, and now have increased it to $100,000. As of Monday morning, the page had generated over $57,000 in donations, 11 of them for $1,000 or more.

Leavitt, who met Welch when she started horseback riding at age 4 at a farm where Welch was a trainer, said many of the donors are members of what she describes as the small but close equestrian community in Maine.

“I would say we’re all very supportive of each other, because we know how hard it is to have horses and ride. Riding is a really tough sport,” she said.

In addition to being “super physical,” said Leavitt, it is also “one of the few sports where your partner is its own being. Your horse has its own personality, and it has its own opinions and its own feelings. They can be having an off day, just as we can be having an off day.”

Jo Williams is one of Welch’s clients. The two met when Williams bought an off-the-track thoroughbred – a former racehorse – and needed an experienced trainer to work with the horse.

Williams’ horse, Mima, is in a “totally different place” these days thanks to Welch.

“She’s a happier horse, she’s got this really good foundation of training now, we’re just seeing amazing progress. And I really attribute all of that to Anna. I don’t know how I would have done it without her,” she said. Williams called Welch a mentor, coach and a friend.

Alicia Torrey, a co-owner of Scarlet Day Farm in Gray, has known Welch for a decade and called her a kind and safety-focused instructor. Scarlet Day Farm is one of the locations where Welch trains and gives lessons.

“She’s a wonderful instructor, very knowledgeable, very focused on safety … and so thoughtful in the way that she approaches her training,” said Torrey, who emphasized that the accident didn’t have anything to do with Welch’s skill, and that she was just very unlucky.

“This is a high risk sport and it can happen to anybody,” Torrey said.

According to one study from the Journal of Neurosurgery, between 2003 and 2012 equestrian sports were responsible for over 45% of sports-related traumatic brain injuries among adults, beating out contact sports like football and soccer.

Welch, 54, was born in Boston and grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts, according to information provided by Welch’s husband. The couple met in Crested Butte, Colorado, in 1995 and moved to Maine three years later. They recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They have lived in Pownal for 22 years.

Welch became interested in horseback riding when her grandfather gave her a pony, named Duke, at age 5.

Welch spends her winters training in Aiken, South Carolina, which is where her cousin and the co-host of the GoFundMe page, Lindsey Elwell, lives.

“Her body is working hard to repair itself, and doctors are happy with her progress, however, this is going to be a long, slow, tedious recovery,” wrote the organizers of the GoFundMe fundraiser.

You can donate to the fundraiser by going to gofundme.com/f/support-anna-welchs-road-to-recovery.