Horse Illustrated Magazine

Riders4Helmets, the equestrian helmet awareness campaign launched in 2010, has announced an eBay store to raise funds for Courtney King-Dye’s medical fund. The auction will be open until Dec. 20 and includes equine art, riding apparel, jewelry, horse feed and more. To view the auction, click here.

King-Dye sustained a traumatic brain injury when a horse she was riding in March of 2010 slipped and fell. She was not wearing a helmet at the time, and since beginning her recovery, she has become an advocate for helmet use.

While she has made a great deal of progress in her recovery and has begun riding again, King-Dye still requires extensive speech and occupational therapy.

Riders4Helmets, a campaign launched to bring attention to the need for helmets in all equestrian disciplines, reports that King-Dye’s insurance only covers 60 therapy sessions annually. She requires more than 200 sessions, which leaves her with high out-of-pocket costs.

“I have to thank everyone once again for helping so much in my recovery,” King-Dye wrote on her blog at CKDDressage.com. “My insurance capped long ago, and I still need the therapy. The fundraisers that people have done in the past have been amazing. And now they’re doing one in Texas and riders4helmets is doing an eBay store, and they are being done completely without any suggestion from me. Just people who wanted to help me and were willing to take on a huge amount of work to do so unprovoked. And the donors, my goodness. If my body knew how to make tears, it would.”