‘No one can understand what I have to go through’
Ace horse rider’s moving letter explaining her death aged 31
A HORSE riding star who suffered a devastating fall left behind a heartbreaking letter before she died in an assisted suicide.
Eventing professional Caroline March revealed why she wanted to end her life in a Facebook message.
She said: “No one can truly understand what I have to go through.”
The 31-year-old was knocked unconscious during a cross-country event at Barefoot Retreats, Burnham Market, in Norfolk in April 2022.
She had been a four-star rider but her injury forced her to give up eventing despite surgery on a fractured spine. Caroline, from Colchester, Essex, revealed her despair at not doing “anything and everything” she once loved, having thrived on “adrenaline hits” and “spontaneity”.
She described herself as “independent”, a person who “hates asking for help”, while saying she wanted her letter to “silence the voices” of people who might challenge her decision.
Caroline, inset, whose death was announced on Saturday, wrote: “I’ve never understood society’s obsession with longevity.
“Alan Watts, a well-known philosopher, famously said, ‘I’d rather have a short life that is full of what I love doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.’ ”
She had supported assisted suicide if quality of life was impossible but said: “Not going to lie, never imagined it would come to fruition but here we are.” She added: “I could keep going but it’s a decision I’ve made which is the best route for me.” Her death was announced by Eventing News but it remains unclear how and where she died.
The website wrote she was much loved in the eventing community “for her big personality and fiery streak”.
It added that she “stayed wholly true to herself until the end”.