Veterinarians successfully repair a rare C6 fracture using advanced imaging and computer-assisted navigation.

On a lightly drizzly January morning Emilie Martorell could barely make out the distant snowy peaks of the Swiss Alps through the winter haze. Not that it mattered; she knew her horses would still enjoy their daily turnout, even on a wet morning, after a night tucked into their warm barn.

And they did. Like every morning, Martorell’s horses frolicked in their individual paddocks, throwing a few kicks and bucks as they galloped about in their winter sacrifice spaces.

That morning, though, David’Or took a bad leap. Just a few feet in front of Martorell, the 17.3-hand bay Warmblood bounded high into the air and came down on his forelimbs with full force—right onto a patch of thin mud. He slipped sideways and came crashing down on his left side, smashing his head and neck into the most horrific of positions.

Martorell—in complete shock—saw the whole scene unfold. Even worse, she heard it.

“There was a crack,” she says. “Suddenly, all the worst scenarios were running through my head at that moment. I don’t know if I screamed … but in my head I did. It was awful.”

David’Or—or, more affectionately, “Doudou” (literally “Soft-Soft,” a typical French nickname for plush animal toys)—had been Martorell’s heart horse his entire life. She’d fallen in love with him as a weanling and snatched him up, bonding with him and building an athletic career based on show jumping, eventing, and—most recently—full-time dressage.

But now, her Soft-Soft lay groaning in the light clay mud, unable to even try to get up. Martorell remained at his side.

“But then I told myself, ‘No, you have to pull yourself together!’ ” she recalls. “ ‘You have to get a grip and call the vet. You’ve got to get help.’ After that, I didn’t really have time to panic or cry