Sadly, she passed away on Tuesday.
What a funny, smart lady she was!
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Carter and I have been friends for over 40 years.
Her passing was shocking… I had just talked to her a week before. She evidently fell, hit her head, and died on Tuesday. No one found her until Thursday.
I have a lot of Carter stories…we did some pretty wild things together, she could be quite the party girl!
The dressage community has lost a really good judge…she never played politics, she used the scale, and what an eye she had. The horse she earned her gold USDF medal on was one she bred, raised, and trained.
I talk about telling Carter stories, but really she was the best storyteller, and so blooming funny.
But the last four years were a real struggle for her: mental health/high blood pressure/ heart palpitations. She dealt with anxiety, depression, loneliness, fear. She was on so many medications…each with their own side effects. It’s a real issue with modern medicine of having to see a specialist for every different part of the body. The health care system has forgotten The Whole Person.
The world just seems so much different now without Carter in it.
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I’m sorry for your loss, @Kemosabe. I scribed for Carter several times. I even know her real first name! Sitting with her was always a great experience from both the dressage perspective, and from the just plain fun one. She will be missed, for sure.
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Her imitation of Hilda was first rate!
I had the pleasure of judging once where both she and Hilda were also officiating. She could out Hilda Hilda!
Sorry for your loss.
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Not many know her real first name!
Last night on FB the outpouring for her was amazing. And I thought: I wish she knew how many people respected and adored her. Maybe that would have helped her mental health issues.
By the way she was only 72.
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She was an amazing mimic! I watched her do Nico Meredith (the announcer) reading the morning news out loud and she just nailed it.
She could also recite dialogue of various characters in the Hobbit films. Her Gollum voice was freakishly perfect.
The last few years she kept saying, “I just want to be happy.”
It’s heartbreaking.
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I didn’t know Carter Bass persona!ly, but have shown under her judging several times. I had such respect for her fairness and knowledge. The dressage world has lost one of the best.
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Aside from the real loss to the dressage community, this is another reminder of the dangers people who live alone face. When I was living alone and they were screwing with my BP meds, they took a slow approach to increasing the dose as they were concerned about my BP bottoming out and my passing out, home all alone.
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Oh, that is awful. Hugs and jingles to anyone who knew her. She sounds wonderful.
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I didn’t know her personally, but I benefited from her judging many times. She will be sorely missed around here.
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So very sorry for you and the dressage community, @Kemosabe and @dotneko and everyone. Your words have really brought her to life, and she sounds vibrant, funny, amazing. Jingles.
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Our healthcare system leaves much to be desired but the real lesson here is having friends close by (especially those with medical knowledge) to keep in constant contact. Even without health issues, we need to have close connections when we live alone. Anyone can trip and fall.
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Oh, I’m so, so sorry to read this. I’ve both scribed for her and ridden in front of her and always found her comments spot on and walked that fine line between being accurate and being encouraging when they needed to be.
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Thank you @dotneko for starting this thread. I wish Carter was here to read the comments and realize how much she was liked and respected.
For several winters Carter and I and two other friends who were very good riders would spend a week at a guest ranch in Arizona: we called it Letting the Inner Cowgirl Out. We always had our own wrangler (young, eager cowboy) and we’d go off into the wilderness twice a day or help round up some errant cows.
Our favorite place to ride was up in the San Rafael Valley: we had to haul the horses in to get there, but it was miles of open prairie rimmed by mountains. You could gallop forever.
One time the wrangler hauled the horses and us to the San Rafael as a storm was coming in. It was cold. He said, “do you want to wait until the storm passes?” We said, “no.” He handed us long yellow slickers to put on that were men’s sized and Carter quipped we looked like yellow M&M’s.
Off we go, letting the horses lope a little before opening up into a gallop. Then the wind hit, and the hail, and then the rain. We kept going, because how many times do you get to ride in this incredible Valley in a storm? We stopped in a grove of trees to watch the storm move on. Carter, wiping water from her face and tipping her hat to get the hail off of it said “that was the best dermal facial scrub I’ve ever had.”
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What a great story! I couldnt imagine doing that!! Glad she had friends to share that experience!
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