When Chloe Smith decided she needed a horse of her own, she sat her parents down, connected a PowerPoint presentation to the TV, and demonstrated in detail why buying one made sense.
She was 11. That might seem young to craft an elaborate proposal, but she was already a veteran, having used a similar approach two years earlier to persuade her parents to get a dog.
A horse was a different matter, though. Ms. Smith had already decided horses would be her life. “Horses are me./I am horses,/This is the way it is,” reads part of a poem she wrote in fifth grade that a local newspaper published.
By the age of 25, she had purchased a Berlin farm with a barn housing 18 horse stalls — a business she hoped to run the rest of her life. On the afternoon of June 5, she and her horse CruZe were in Groton coasting through routine jumps while a friend recorded video. At one jump CruZe faltered, throwing her from the saddle. CruZe died in the accident and ended up on top of Ms. Smith as she lay on the ground. She died from her injuries several hours later at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
“I am so grateful to have such a brave, kind, intelligent partner in this sport,” she had posted on Instagram just six days earlier in a 13th birthday message to her beloved horse.
“More than that, I’m grateful to have cruzey as my pal,” she added. “He makes me smile every day and spreads laughter to all who know him.”
For years Ms. Smith wanted to run her own horse business, a venture that came together in April. Her furniture arrived from storage the day before she died, allowing her to sleep in her own bed in her new home for the first time.
“And that lasted 24 hours,” said her father, Jim Smith, a partner in the Boston public policy firm Smith, Costello & Crawford. “The good news is that she got to the mountain top. She dreamt of that farm. She dreamt of training kids to ride. She dreamt of taking care of horses.”
Everyone who met Ms. Smith quickly realized she loved her animals fiercely and fully. Christmas cards featured Ms. Smith gathered close in a family photo with her dogs, Maple and Biscuit, and her horses, CruZe and Frankie.
“Animals were like her babies,” said her older sister, Hayley Gray of Lynnfield. “They mattered so much to her.”
While attending Swampscott High School before the pandemic, Ms. Smith decided to spend her two last years as a remote student, which allowed her more time in horse barns.
A brief stint at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she planned to focus on equestrian and equine studies, ended in 2020 when she returned home during the pandemic lockdown.
From then onward she concentrated on reaching her goals to own a business, keep competing in equestrian events, and be a riding instructor.
“She was in the best place in her life and living her true dream,” her sister said of Ms. Smith’s final weeks, owning the Berlin business. “It all came together less than two months before her death. Although that’s horrific, a lot of us are taking some comfort in that she achieved it. We just expected that she would be doing it for another 50 years.”
Years ago, a high school teacher told Ms. Smith she’d need a different career to pay for her horse-loving hobbies — advice she ignored.
“If she heard no, she would find a different way to get to where she wanted to go,” her sister said.
Ms. Smith, her family said, believed in herself, her principles, and her unique abilities.
“Chloe was one of one,” said her brother Tristan, who was elected last fall to serve on the Lynn School Committee. “She was extremely driven, extremely independent, and she knew firmly where she stood as a person and a professional.”
She spent years volunteering monthly for a food pantry, collecting donations and items. She attended every No Kings rally she could find.
And in her Facebook post after the November 2024 presidential election, she was as unstinting in criticizing the incoming administration as she was unwavering in supporting those she believed would become more marginalized.
“To my trans friends, my women friends, my gay friends, my friends in deep red states, my minority friends, my immigrant friends, my less fortunate friends: I will be here for you, and I will not stay silent about it,” she wrote. “I will be a safe space, as will many others.”
Chloe Christina Smith was born Dec. 21, 2000, a birthday she and her sister shared, 13 years apart. Ms. Smith was the youngest of four siblings.
Growing up in Swampscott, she became enamored of horses as a girl when she spent time at a horse camp in Florida, said her mother, Abbe Young Smith.
“She ended up with this beautiful farm with an acre of lavender on it,” her mother said. “She wanted to have a beautiful wedding venue there. She wanted to get married there and stay there her whole life.”
Even as a teenager, Ms. Smith “would always forge her own path,” said her brother Andrew, elected last fall to the Salem City Council. “Chloe was always kind of an old soul, wise beyond her years in a lot of ways.”
Ms. Smith drove back to Swampscott, sometimes through rush hour traffic, for every family gathering, for campaign events, and to lend a hand with nieces and nephews.
“She was really responsible,” said Andrew, who added that at Christmastime, his sister arrived “with a ton of gifts for everybody’s animals. She was always thinking of them.”
On her 25th birthday, she observed her “first quarter century on earth” by posting her “main takeaways” on Instagram.
Among them: “Your kindness is a virtue, don’t be naïve but don’t be stingy with it,” and “take time to be loving to your horse today, they notice.”
Ms. Smith had a way with words and “was incredibly sharp and witty and fierce,” said Patryk Tusinski of Shrewsbury. They were a couple for two years and “fell in love really quickly,” he said.
“Nothing could have prepared me for Chloe Christina Smith, and the way she would forever change my life for the better,” he wrote on social media three days after she died. “From the very moment I met her, I was overwhelmed by her fierce and pure love.”
Whether with family, relationships, or work Ms. Smith put in the time — including 10 or 12 or 14 hours a day in the company of horses, whose stalls she cleaned daily.
“This was her love and her passion,” her father said. “When your kid can live her passion, it’s a great thing. She didn’t have enough time, but she did enjoy every minute.”
In addition to her parents, siblings, and boyfriend, Ms. Smith leaves her grandfather, Gary Young of West Palm Beach, Fla.
A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday in Clifton Lutheran Church in Marblehead. Burial will be in Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn.
Photos and videos fill Ms. Smith’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, chronicling increasing expertise as a rider, as a riding instructor, and finally as a business owner.
On May 8, she wrote: “I’ve been a bit preoccupied with this whole farm ownership thing!” There was “something so surreal” about the experience.
“I’m taking it all in,” she added, “and enjoying this dream come true.”
Bryan Marquard can be reached at bryan.marquard@globe.com.