Assisted suicide: Letter from injured UK horse riding star Caroline March reveals heartbreaking mental health struggle after injury

Social media post announces Caroline March’s death after equestrian struggled with spinal injury. Photo / Caroline March / Twitter

WARNING: This story discusses suicide and may be distressing.

A horse rider who suffered a life-changing spinal injury wrote “I’d rather have a short life that’s full of what I love doing” in a letter before her death in an apparent assisted suicide.

Caroline March needed major surgery after being knocked unconscious in a fall during a cross-country event at Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market in Norfolk on April 16, 2022.

Her quality of life remained affected by the injury she sustained, despite having had extensive physiotherapy and travelling to the US for experimental surgery.

The 31-year-old had been a professional rider up to four-star level, but had to give up eventing because of her injuries, even though she had undergone “successful” spinal surgery on a fractured vertebra.

In a Facebook post announcing her death on Saturday, the rider said she had thrived on “adrenaline hits” and spontaneity, but could no longer do the things she loved.

She said: “Assisted suicide is always something that I believed in and have always said that if anything happened to me and I was forced into the predicament that I couldn’t have the quality of life that I wanted, that would be the route I’d take.

“Not going to lie, never imagined it would come to fruition, but here we are. No one can truly understand what I have to go through.”

March said she had always wanted a family of her own and would have given up “everything in an instant” to have one.

She added: “My utmost respect for anyone who hasn’t only made a life after injury, but those that have flourished.”