Woman Without Arms Fatally Injured When Her Horse Is Spooked

FORT WORTH, Texas - A woman who could swim, play the drums and even change a baby's diaper despite being born without arms died after she was dragged by a horse that spooked while tied to her waist.

Stacey McInroe Conner of Stephenville suffered severe head injuries and died Wednesday at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, family members said.

The 22-year-old college student was feeding her 2-year-old filly, with the horse's lead rope tied around her waist, before the accident.

``Something spooked the little horse and she just took off, dragging Stacey,'' said Conner's mother, Lometa Reed.

Friends and family said Conner never let her disability prevent her from pursuing a variety of interests.

In November, she parachuted from 13,000 feet, strapped to a friend, and skied for the first time in December. She could swim, ride horses, fish, play drums, and used her feet to change the diapers of a friend's squirming baby.

``Even though she was handicapped by having no arms, she just couldn't accept that she couldn't do anything like anybody else,'' said Leon Manley, principal of Stephenville High School.

``She actually wrote with her feet,'' Manley said.

Conner's disability was blamed on a virus her mother contracted while pregnant.

The child learned to swim while still a toddler and later excelled at soccer. She played the drums with her feet in the high school band and learned to ride on a Shetland pony.

``About the gutsiest lady I ever saw,'' said Darrell Allison of Fort Worth, a family friend who knew Conner since she was a child.

Conner would have graduated next year from Tarleton State University, where she was majoring in accounting.