A 24-year-old soldier who died<\/a> at the Royal Windsor<\/a> Horse Show has been described as a \u201cbright light\u201d in tributes<\/a> paid to her.<\/p>\n Lance Bombardier Ciara Sullivan, part of the King\u2019s Troop Royal Horse Artillery<\/a>, fell from her horse after exiting the arena<\/a> at around 7pm on Friday.<\/p>\n Despite being given immediate medical treatment, she sustained serious injuries and died at the scene, Thames Valley Police said.<\/p>\n Her commanding officer said LBdr Sullivan, known as \u201cSully\u201d to her friends, was \u201can immensely professional soldier and an exceptional jockey\u201d and \u201ca bright light in any room she entered\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cShe approached every day within the troop with an infectious energy \u2013 the kind that lifted those around her without effort or intention \u2013 and was unfailingly present for her comrades in both the small moments and the hard ones,\u201d the officer added in a statement issued by the Military of Defence (MoD).<\/p>\n \u201cAn outstanding soldier and a role model to many she worked with. She was a fearless and gifted horsewoman, having ridden since childhood and having competed in the showjumping ring before joining the regiment; it was this natural courage that made her always the first to volunteer to ride the most demanding of horses.\u201d<\/p>\n She was also described as a skilled footballer and a natural leader and instructor.<\/p>\n Lance Bombardier Ciara Sullivan fell from her horse at the Royal Windsor Horse Show (Ministry of Defence\/Crown Copyright\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Lieutenant General Mike Elviss added: \u201cA fine soldier, she died doing a job she loved, surrounded by people who held her in the highest regard. A dedicated, committed and highly respected junior commander; she will be sorely missed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Royal Regiment of Artillery and the wider British Army is a lesser place without her.\u201d<\/p>\n LBdr Sullivan joined the Army Training Centre in Pirbright, near Woking, Surrey, in November 2020 before joining the King\u2019s Troop Royal Horse Artillery in June 2021.<\/p>\n She had been involved in multiple ceremonial operations, taking part in royal gun salutes in Hyde Park and Green Park, and working on the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and at the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla the following year.<\/p>\n LBdr Sullivan had recently qualified as an advanced regimental riding instructor and enjoyed training military horses, the MoD added. She offered riding lessons to the mounted gunners in her sub-section and was often nominated to instruct officers in the King\u2019s Troop.<\/p>\n A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that King Charles will be in touch with the family of the victim to share his condolences.<\/p>\n The King, who attended the Royal Windsor Horse Show, has shared his condolences (PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The King attended the event on Saturday. He was photographed wearing a tweed jacket, cream trousers and tinted sunglasses at the show.<\/p>\n In a statement, they said: \u201cWhile His Majesty and other members of the royal family were present at the arena at the time the incident took place, they were not made aware of the severity of the situation until later.<\/p>\n \u201cThe King was greatly shocked and saddened to have learned subsequently of the troop member\u2019s death, and will be in touch with the family to share his personal condolences.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thoughts and most heartfelt sympathies of the whole royal family are with the victim\u2019s loved ones and military colleagues at this time of grief.\u201d<\/p>\n Defence secretary John Healey said: \u201cLance Bombardier Ciara Sullivan was a brilliant young soldier who served our nation with dedication. We\u2019re all deeply shocked and saddened by her death.<\/p>\n \u201cMy thoughts are with Ciara\u2019s family, loved ones and colleagues at this devastating time.\u201d<\/p>\n Thames Valley Police said it was treating the death as unexplained but non-suspicious.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A 24-year-old soldier who died at the Royal Windsor Horse Show has been described as a \u201cbright light\u201d in tributes paid to her. Lance Bombardier Ciara Sullivan, part of the King\u2019s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, fell from her horse after exiting the arena at around 7pm on Friday. Despite being given immediate medical treatment, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2422458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[474722,183315,474719,474721,473972,474720,473186,398491,438784],"class_list":["post-2422457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-commanding-officer","tag-king-charles","tag-lbdr-sullivan","tag-military-of-defence","tag-royal-horse-artillery","tag-royal-regiment-of-artillery","tag-royal-windsor-horse-show","tag-sullivan","tag-thames-valley-police"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tributes-paid-to-soldier-24-who-died-at-Royal-Windsor.com2Fen2Faol_the_independent_us_8772Ffa7f92716e58d55b358595f4b04a53eb.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2422457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2422459,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422457\/revisions\/2422459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2422458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2422457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2422457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2422457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>