Mary Lutz, 55; Directed Equestrian Group’s Work With Disabled

Mary Lutz, 55, director of competitive riding for the physically challenged at the U.S. Equestrian Federation, died Friday after being hurt when she fell from her horse on a trail in Bedminster, N.J., said Allison Kopf, a federation spokeswoman.

Lutz, who was wearing protective headgear while riding the black gelding, died after being taken to Morristown Memorial Hospital.

Lutz, who took her first horseback-riding lessons at age 9, started working in 1994 as an assistant for what was then the U.S. Equestrian Team at its center in Gladstone, N.J. She later became the federation’s director of endurance and para-equestrian programs.

She graduated with a bachelor’s in English and journalism from Fairleigh Dickinson University in her native New Jersey. She also had worked as a computer programmer, an instructor of therapeutic riding and a trail guide in Quebec.