SWAMPSCOTT — Chloe Christina Smith’s family knew she had touched many lives through her work with horses, but they did not fully realize the extent of her impact until they stood among the hundreds of mourners who came to honor her this week.

An estimated 1,600 people attended Smith’s wake Sunday at Solimine Funeral Home in Lynn, many waiting hours in line to pay their respects to the 25-year-old Swampscott native who died earlier this month following a horseback riding accident.

The outpouring continued Monday, when Clifton Lutheran Church in Marblehead was filled for her funeral Mass, and additional mourners watched the service from a livestream in the church basement as a procession of mourners accompanied her final journey.

“It really started with an unending, constant stream of people at the wake, which was something that we were not fully expecting to that extent,” her brother, Tristan Smith, said. “Folks waited a very long time just to come pay their respects to my family and to Chloe.”

The days following her death introduced the Smith family to parts of Chloe’s world they had not fully seen, particularly the equestrian community she had built through years of riding, learning, and teaching.

“We’ve met so much of the horse community,” Tristan said. “The people she rode with, people she learned from, people she taught. Many of her former students actually came, and her current students who lost their teacher. It really does speak to all of the lives that she touched.”

Chloe’s passion for horses shaped the course of her life, despite her family having no previous connection to the equestrian world.

“She definitely followed her own course,” her father, Jim Smith, said. “None of us in the family has any connection at all to equestrian activities whatsoever … but that’s all she wanted to do.”

Her dedication led her to leave Swampscott High School after her sophomore year and complete her education online, allowing her to spend more time riding and training. Despite taking an unconventional path, she was selected as the commencement speaker for her program’s graduating class.

After attending Sweet Briar College, Chloe returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic and committed herself fully to the life she envisioned. Her family later purchased a farm in Berlin, where she lived, cared for horses, taught lessons, and built a future centered around the animals she loved.

“She worked seven days and seven nights, and she ultimately convinced my wife and me that she was worth investing in,” Jim said.

Her work was demanding, but it was exactly where she wanted to be.

“She was a beautiful girl, but she got her hands dirty, and she loved it,” Jim said. “She would literally, truly, actually rather clean a stall than clean her bedroom.”

Her kindness extended beyond the barn. Her father said she had a gift for recognizing when someone felt uncomfortable and making them feel welcomed.

“If she were in a room and one person didn’t quite feel comfortable, she would go to that person and make that person comfortable, and that person would become a friend,” he said.

That same thought appeared in a message Chloe wrote on her 25th birthday.

“When you’re in an environment familiar to you but new to someone else, that’s your cue to be a friendly face and an extended hand.”

The impact she had on young riders was evident in the children who came to say goodbye.

“Probably 30 or 40 little girls came through. Their parents brought them, and the little girls were just emotional,” Jim said. “That was their teacher.”

The lessons Chloe shared with her students reached beyond horseback riding.

“Take time to be loving to your horse today, they notice. Take time to be loving to yourself today, your horse will notice that, too.”

Tristan said the attention surrounding his sister’s death has been difficult to understand, but he believes the response reflects the way she chose to live.

“I think so much of it is how she lived and what she did with her time here. I think that’s really inspired a lot of people,” he said. 

“At the end of the day, Chloe really was the center that sparked all of this outpouring,” Tristan said. “The only reason that it was as all-encompassing as it was, was because she was at the center.”

For Jim, the greatest comfort is knowing that his daughter found happiness in the life she worked so hard to create.

“When your kid is that committed to her passion and willing to work at it, then as a parent you do your very best to support it,” he said.

“If you had a choice between your kid being brilliant, rich, handsome, or happy, what would you select?” Jim said. “Everybody would choose happy. And she was happy.”

In the words Chloe left behind on her 25th birthday:

“You are here to experience life, not master it. Pay attention, learn as you go, let yourself live a little, love a lot, and have a great ride.”