The first thing Amy Yoste remembers about her devastating horse-riding fall last spring was the rush of dust as her mustang bucked. Suddenly, she was on the ground, her wrists taking the full force of the fall at her Celina home.
“I thought maybe it was just dislocated,” she says. “I could feel the lump, but I kept hoping it wasn’t that bad.”
Maybe not as bad as the kick from a horse that had lacerated Amy’s kidney months earlier, but this injury was severe enough to also require surgery.
The 58-year-old data engineer had shattered her left wrist so severely that doctors later deemed the fracture “catastrophic.”
Still cradling her broken arm, she told her friend, “You’re going to have to take me to the hospital.”
And there was no question where she wanted to go: The newly opened Methodist Celina Medical Center was just a few miles from her home.
“I told her to take me to Methodist Celina just down the road,” she says, relieved she wouldn’t have to travel 20 miles to get to the hospital like she used to.
THREE-MONTH HIATUS
Methodist Celina had just opened less than a month before Amy broke her arm, and it had been three months since she had been on a horse. A doctor had just cleared her to ride again after another horse kicked her while she was at a neighbor’s house.
That time, Amy suffered a kidney injury and had to call an ambulance and travel 25 minutes to the next nearest hospital because Methodist Celina was still being built, barely five miles away from her home.
Fast-forward to April, and Amy was eager to return to riding after fully recovering from her kidney injury. She hopped on her horse Holmes, who had just returned from training. She could tell he was energetic, but she brushed it off. Moments after climbing into the saddle, the mustang bucked violently.
“I jumped off because I didn’t want to land on my back,” she says. “I thought maybe I’d land on my feet. Instead, I landed on both wrists.”
Despite the pain, Amy didn’t want an ambulance and walked into the emergency room under her own power after her friend drove her there.
“I remember thinking, I can’t believe I’m walking in like this,” she recalls.
What surprised her most wasn’t the pain — it was the way the staff worked around her injuries rather than asking her to work around their equipment.
“They brought the X-ray machine to me,” Amy says. “I didn’t have to get out of bed. That was huge.”
Amy doesn’t hold a grudge, but she now rides Davita (top photo) and not Holmes (above).
SHATTERED WRIST
After more imaging, the staff called Jason Davis, MD, orthopedic surgeon on the medical staff at Methodist Celina, who wanted to speak with Amy before surgery.
She still remembers the moment he walked in, sat down beside her, and leveled with her: She had suffered a comminuted fracture, where the bone doesn’t just break in two but shatters into three or more pieces.
“Her wrist was crushed and displaced,” Dr. Davis says. “We were going to try to put the pieces back together and give her a functional wrist, but I had to be realistic.”
Amy recalls her disbelief and fear as the doctor shared his diagnosis.
“This is a very serious break. This isn’t run-of-the-mill,” she remembers him saying. “I didn’t think it could be that bad.”
The surgery lasted three hours, leaving Amy with a plate and nine screws in her left wrist. Amy went home the same day, but her challenges were just beginning.
During her recovery, Amy needed help caring for the many animals on her property.
LONG ROAD BACK
Recovery wasn’t just physical — it was emotional. There were moments when fear crept in: Would she ever lift hay bales again? Or ride? Or feel the same strength in her hands?
“I still have some pain and not as much flexion as before,” she says, “but considering everything, I’m really happy with the progress.”
Even chores became a test of patience.
“I couldn’t lift anything heavy: Feed bags are 50 pounds. Hay bales are 50 pounds,” she says. “I had to ask friends to help, and that’s hard for me.”
But the biggest question, the one she asked even before the swelling had faded, was simple: “When can I ride again?”
Six weeks after her fall, Amy finally climbed back onto a horse, this time a mare named Davita — and the world felt right again.
“It’s like church for me,” she says. “I get so much peace out there. Especially on trail rides. It’s like everything else melts away.”
For Dr. Davis, seeing patients return to what they love is the best part of his work.
“That’s the sweet spot,” he says. “She’s literally back on the horse and doing what she loves. Truly, I didn’t know how well her wrist would do — but she’s resilient.”
Amy holds her horse Holmes in the stable at her property in Celina.
CARE CLOSE TO HOME
Amy says her gratitude for Methodist Celina goes beyond the treatment she received that day.
“In the past, I had to ride in ambulances 20 to 25 minutes away,” she says. “This time, it took minutes to get care. That closeness gives me peace of mind.”
As for why Amy keeps riding horses after everything she’s been through — the kick that injured her kidney, the falls, the fractures — her answer is simple.
“I don’t think I’ve experienced anything as magical as riding my horse,” she says. “That’s why I keep getting back on.”
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