Pastor dies in horseback accident

Pastor Rodger Hall. photo provided Pastor Rodger Hall of Christ's Church of New Beginnings in Sisters died after a horseback riding accident on Wednesday, June 2.

According to his son Shane Hall, the pastor, a Western riding enthusiast, was riding at his daughter's home in Sunriver when the horse crow-hopped, snapping Hall back in the saddle; the horse's hindquarters may have struck Hall in the back of the neck.

Hall stayed in the saddle for about five seconds, but his arms had fallen to his sides and he was not moving, Shane Hall reported. The pastor fell from the saddle.

Hall's neck was broken at the C1 and C2 vertebrae; it is not clear whether the injury came from the initial bucking motion or from the fall. It is possible that Hall suffered a stroke in the saddle.

In any case, Shane Hall said that his father essentially died there on Wednesday, though he was kept alive on a respirator until Sunday.

Shane, though shaken and saddened by the death of his 65-year-old father, said that his end was a fitting one for a cowboy preacher.

"This was the cowboy preacher who died with his boots on," Shane said. "It's the guy who rode his horse straight into glory."

Accounts to benefit Hall's widow Sue have been set up at the Sisters branch of Bank of the Cascades and at the US Bank branches in Redmond and Bend.

Shane said that he will return to Oregon from his church in Oklahoma to take the reins of Christ's Church of New Beginnings. With assistance from his brother Joel, Shane Hall will continue his father's work.

"It's real hard, but God's given us the strength to get through it," he said.

The church has grown to a congregation of about 70, Shane Hall said.