FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. — A lifelong competitive horseback rider suffered a traumatic brain injury and was hospitalized after police say she was intentionally run over by a woman she'd had a fight with. Now, the local horse community is showing up to support her recovery.
On July 13 around 9 p.m., the Frederick County Sheriff's Office received a report that a woman had been injured in a hit-and-run near the intersection of Black Ankle Road and Unionville Road in Mount Airy, Maryland. When deputies arrived they found 35-year-old Jami Cornell laying in the road. First responders immediately began life-saving measures.
Through an investigation, deputies identified 38-year-old Chelsea Kendall of Union Bridge as the driver of the car that crashed into Cornell, and said Kendall left the scene before they arrived.
Kendall was arrested later the same day and charged with first and second-degree assault and failure to stop at the scene of an accident involving bodily injury.
Cornell has been competitively riding horses since she was 12 years old, according to her mother, Fran Cornell, and her community is showing up strong to support her recovery, as well as the family. Some of the riders have offered to help care for her horses until Jami Cornell has recovered enough to do it herself.
"My daughter knows people from everywhere ... and people are reaching out all over the place and asking what they can do," Cornell's mother, Fran Cornell, said.
At a show hosted by the Carrol County Western Circuit, organizers donated half the proceeds from a 50/50 raffle to Jami Cornell's medical expenses, and an upcoming show in Pennsylvania will contribute money from T-shirts sold to the family.
"It is incredible, the amount of support," Fran Cornell said.
According to her mother, Jami Cornell has ridden in the Open and Adult first division competitions for the last four years, winning about seven saddles in the International Barrell Racing Association (IBRA) for Maryland, which qualifies her for the national finals in Indiana, starting Sept. 26.
"Jami's main goal is her horses," her mom said. "She shows all year round -- she is constantly riding."
Fran Cornell described her daughter as someone willing to "give you the shirt off her back." In 2021, due to COVID, Maryland IBRA did not have enough money to buy saddles for every division winner, and there was an adult rider that would have won her first trophy saddle ever. To make sure she experienced that moment, Jami Cornell volunteered to give up her own saddle to the first-time winner.
As of Monday, Fran Cornell said Jami Cornell is expected to leave the ICU soon, if her breathing and stimulus tests come back with certain results. She'll continue seeing a lung therapist.
"She listened to some recordings that people have sent, and I read her a few more cards," Fran Cornell wrote in an update on Gofundme, which has raised $9,000 towards expenses so far. "April at the barn made her a picture which I will take to her when she changes rooms."
