October 14, 2024 
“Getting back [in the show ring] feels great. It’s been a long and hard 17 months…”
That was Jonathon Millar’s message to me several days ago. He had sent me some videos of him jumping a horse in a show jacket, and it took me a minute to figure out what exactly I was looking at.
It was his comeback. I was watching a video of his comeback.
The videos of him jumping in a 1.15m class marked his return to the show ring after his horrific brain injury and skull fracture that nearly killed him only 17 months prior. In a photo of Jonathon and his mare Lollipop with a pink fifth place ribbon, his smile reads, “I did it.”
Jonathon and I had just come off of a long interview for my new podcast, Horse Person, and I admit to feeling pretty overwhelmed after that recording. To hear the details of his experience, of being nearly brain dead, of being comatose for weeks, of the long months of grueling rehabilitation, the doubt, the unknowns… even just listening to him describe it felt exhausting. How can this happen to a human being who is sitting here, speaking to me, retelling it?
But there was a knowing in the way Jonathon told the story; a knowing that the only way to get out of this predicament was to go through it. So, just like you’d expect from a lifelong athlete, he pressed on.
Listen to Caroline Culbertson’s interview with Jonathon Millar on Episode 2 of Horse Person, streaming now on Spotify, Apple and Podcast Republic.
In our interview, Jonathon and I discuss the way that his identity shifted during this time. “The rehabilitation became who I was,” he said, retelling how off-kilter he felt to suddenly have a mind and body that didn’t obey his orders, that held onto long-lasting pain on one side (which has now subsided).
He talked about how returning to riding was the first time he felt that identity piece shift back into place, but that he knew that the hard work still lay ahead of him.
“Getting back on was the easy part,” he said, but who said he’d regain the ability to jump a course, to see a distance, to balance the powerful stride of his showjumping horses? It was an uncertainty that loomed large.
He also describes being taken aback by the support of the horse community.
“Someone came up to me in Publix and told me they’d been praying for me every day,” he recalled. “I had no idea that it touched so many people.”
From the support of the community to the Kevin Babington foundation to the Millar family, Jonathon’s return to the ring marks a milestone that many of us in the horse community are excited and relieved to see.
In a final text to me after our interview, he told me in no uncertain terms that he’s ready to turn the page. “I would like to concentrate on where I am going rather than backwards,” he said.
Onward, Jonathon.
Don’t miss my interview with Jonathon Millar on Episode 2 of Horse Person, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Horse Person is streaming now on Spotify, Apple and Podcast Republic.
This episode is supported by WeRideTogether.today , a nonprofit organization on a mission to make the youth and amateur sport environment safer for all athletes. Go HERE to take the pledge mentioned in this episode’s Ringside Chat segment.
