There is no DIS in ABIILITY

Sunday I was able to sneak away to WindReach farm, near Whitby, to watch the musical freestyle portion of the International Paralympic Equestrian event. This was a CPEDI*... a lot of letters that signify it is an international competition, and a qualifying event for the World Equestrian Games coming up in September.

Sandy Mitchell, owner of WindReach, is an inspiration. He is seen here schooling with his own horse, Guinness Maskell. While struggling with a disability, he is in no way Handicapped -- and he has developed two WindReach farms to enrich the lives of people with disabilities of all kinds. One is in his native Bermuda, the other is here, just outside Whitby. Sandy has been very focused on this competition, held at his own farm, with the big goal of getting a qualifying score so he can ride at the WEGs. Delighted to report: Mission Accomplished, on both his horses.

I spent five years as National Coach of the Paralympic Team, and am still involved in coaching clinics with riders. And this event brought in folks from overseas, people I haven't seen in a couple of years, who were working on the event as officials or coaches, so it was a great little chance to reconnect.

Canada has a depth of talent in our Paralympic riders, and quite a bit of it was on display this weekend.

Lauren Barwick (who's wheelchair I slugged around in Portugal through ankle deep mud!!!) won both Silver and Gold medals in Beijing. She has matured into the most confident, graceful young lady, and she rides as well as you would expect a gold medalist to ride. She had her Beijing partner, Maile, along, as well as a younger horse. Lauren was disabled after a 100 lb. hay bale toppled off a pile and hit her in the back. The injury was both immediate and irreversible. But if you think being confined to a wheelchair slows her down, guess again. Not only was she riding two horses at this Qualifier, she drives the big horse-trailer rig herself -- fitted out with hand controls -- and when they are done in Ontario, she'll be heading to Colorado... She works with Pat Parelli, and tells me that she has an office with a window and a desk waiting for her at the Colorado ranch.

Here's a close up of some of the adaptive equipment she needs on her saddle -- the velcro straps and knee rolls prevent her leg from flopping and damaging the joints. The high cantle supports her lower back. The handle, well, that's there for emergencies!

These athletes truly define sport -- the obstacles they overcome on a daily basis and the dedication they bring to the competition - that is inspiring,

Riders at the Paralympics are graded by International Classifiers, with Physio backgrounds, following a very technical procedure. They are placed into one of 4 categories, with Grade IV being the most abled. Grade I and Grade II, for example, ride at the walk, and the trot -- but don't let that fool you into thinking they are riding walk and trot the way a novice rider rides it. Lauren is a Grade II, and if you take a look at her video from Sunday, you'll see how high the standard is!

It was wonderful to reconnect with my friend Mary Longden. She jets between Australia and the rest of the world, and quite literally wrote the book, on Riding for the Disabled, in her book Coach with Courage. Now she's got a set of three DVD's, Ride Towards Excellence, so of course, we had to have those! She posed with Valentine and the DVD's...

Congratulations to WindReach, for hosting the venue for this competition, and to all the people who worked so hard to make it happen. Great weather, and fantastic competition, made for an outstanding show. On the Worlds for those lucky selected riders, and another international competition under the belts of those up and coming riders hoping to go the Paralympics in London in 2014! Ride Strong.