| Hobbies |
Outside of training and competition, she loves to travel and fish. She also considers herself a movie buff, favouring Westerns and action flicks. (Paralympic.org.au, 23 August 2024) |
| Injuries |
In February 2022 she began experiencing heart problems while in Germany. Upon her return to Australia, she discovered she had sustained a heart attack and spent time in hospital. She returned to competition in April 2022. (Facebook profile, 29 Apr 2022)
In December 2019 was injured when her horse First Famous fell and landed on top of her. She sustained multiple fractures to her pelvis, pubic bone and spine during the accident. She underwent two operations, which included inserting steel plates across her sacrum, spine and pelvis. (Facebook profile, 29 Apr 2022, 01 Sep 2021; eqlifemag.com.au, 07 Aug 2020; eurodressage.com, 23 Dec 2019) |
| Impairment |
She had a horse riding accident at age 28, which resulted in her tibia splitting and crushing into the bottom of her foot. Six weeks after the injury she slipped and fell while her leg was still in a cast damaging her leg once again. It took years and 20 operations for her to learn to walk again, with less than 15% movement in the joint after having her ankle fused and Achilles tendon cut. She continued to compete in national and international grand prix events after her injury. (paralympic.org.au, 2016) |
| Other information |
INJURY RECOVERY
In December 2019 she sustained multiple fractures to her pelvis, pubic bone and spine after her horse First Famous fell and landed on top of her. She spent several months in hospital and says she struggled mentally to recover during her rehabilitation. "Coming home was the most exciting experience. To come home and have your animals around you again. I remember the first time I could touch my horses, it was really emotional. I thought to myself, 'I'm not going to let this beat me. There are people out there in worse situations than me, and I refuse to let this beat me'. I started my own rehab at home and it was going well and then I went backwards. I thought it was just normal pain I was going through, but it turned out when I went back to the surgeon, that where he put the steel through to hold my pelvis and sacrum together - because I'm not in alignment, one hip is now a lot higher than the other hip - there was too much movement and the bone wasn't healing. The surgeon put some massive big steel plates across my sacrum, spine and pelvis to hold everything stronger together. It was a bigger operation than the first one and set me back a long time. I'm older, I don't bounce like I used to. And mentally it has been a bit tougher this time. I've definitely had to dig a lot deeper with this recovery." (Equestrian Hub Podcast, 24 Jul 2022; Facebook profile, 29 Apr 2022, 01 Sep 2021; eqlifemag.com.au, 07 Aug 2020; eurodressage.com, 23 Dec 2019)
HORSE
She believes First Famous is the most unique horse she has competed with. "She is one of the most special that I've had. She was a find. She was five when we found her in Germany and she had only been to three young horse competitions. She's an incredibly intelligent mare, amazing to ride and my other horses were good. We had several very good FEI horses that we've either bred or are trained but there are not many which have the V8 supercar engine that she's got." (equestrian.org.au, 22 Jan 2016) |
FEI Database
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