Riders un Ltd.
Sam
& Zoe
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Thank you all for attending A Vision of
Dressage. As you observe where I am today, I want to shed some light on my past as well as illuminate my
vision for the future.
I grew up in Connecticut where I rode in Pony Club, having bought my first horse with my babysitting money when I was 13 years old. I contracted
diabetes at age 17, was totally blind by age 29, and underwent a kidney transplant at age 33. I took up riding again at age 34 at Camelot
Therapeutic Horsemanship in Scottsdale where I did flying lead changes, flying dismounts, and jumping. I had no idea I was capable of such feats
without the benefit of sight! Camelot opened up my eyes and opened up the world to me.
Sam and Sugarplum Vision a.k.a. Zoe
I went on to win the title Ms. Country Western Arizona in 1997 and, after
my reign, took up showing the gelding I was leasing. I won my first class because the other two riders, both sighted, ran into each other! I ended
the 1999 show season as year-end high point amateur, both English and western, on three open show circuits as well as seventh in the nation in
novice amateur stock seat equitation at the Pinto National Championships in Tulsa.
Not wanting people to think the only reason I was winning was because I had a push-button horse, in 1999 I bought Zoe, an unbroke three-year-old filly,
despite admonishment from a top trainer that it was a death warrant for a blind woman to have such a green horse. Within 18 months, my death warrant
and I had acquired enough points to earn her Pinto Register of Merit in both Hunter Under Saddle and English Pleasure, and I started jumping her.
We have appeared in Pinto Horse Magazine, as the cover/feature story in the June 2000 Paint Horse Journal, in the February 2001 Practical Horseman,
and in a segment on the TV show "Horses Today." I also got an inquiry from "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" who then rejected
the story when they learned that this blind rider can dismount from a loping horse bareback, but NOT while standing on the horse's back!
Blind equestrienne Sam Madden and Sugarplum Vision (Zoe) prepare to qualify for
the International Paralympic Dressage Team!
Zoe is the horse you see me riding today. She's a 5-year-old, double
registered Pinto and Paint chestnut tobiano mare that stands just over 16.1 hands. I chose her registered name to be Sugarplum Vision from the line in
Clement Clarke Moore's holiday poem: "...while visions of Sugarplums danced in their heads." A Sugarplum is a sweet treat reserved for special
occasions, and the reference to dancing implies graceful movement. Sugar refers to my being diabetic and Vision to my being blind.
I was sidelined from riding a good part of this year because in February I received the pancreas transplant I had been long awaiting, ending my
diabetes. A subsequent clotting disorder made My doctor outlaw me from riding while on blood thinners which, it turns out, will be THE REST OF MY
LIFE! He asked me how often I fall off - once a week? Once a month? Upon learning that the last time I did an unscheduled dismount was 15 years ago,
he amended the ban to say I can ride if I understand the risk and try to
minimize it. So no more of this daredevil jumping stuff! I'm switching my focus to dressage, the most elegant, controlled, and disciplined form of
riding, where Zoe and I can play in an arena by ourselves and not have to dodge a dozen other horses and riders.
Of course, I'm not just taking up dressage, I'm setting my sights high - to head to Greece as part of the 2004 international Paralympic dressage team!
To qualify, I will compete in USA Equestrian and other recognized shows against able-bodied riders and submit scores above 55% from seven dressage
tests, most equivalent to first level or higher, including a musical freestyle. I must compete on at least two different horses and perform
serpentines, voltes, and lead changes in order to make the Developing Riders list, the Advanced Riders list, and the Paralympic Trials.
In international Paralympic competition, I will compete against riders of all disabilities who are classified as a Grade 3. Grade one and 2 riders
walk and trot only; Grade threes walk, trot, and canter; and Grade fours have only a minor disability. In international competition, totally blind
riders are required to wear a blindfold because people have been known to be less than honorable in order to gain a coveted spot as a member of the
prestigious international Paralympic equestrian team.
I've enlisted the help of Eileen Earnhart in my training. I had previously been doing Paint shows, so we've been working on getting Zoe to move in a
dressage frame, more elevated and collected. Without a suitable method of orienting me to where I am in the dressage arena to ride tests, I've been
working in 20 meter circles, or roughly what I think are 20 meter circles, concentrating on keeping Zoe rounded and collected so it becomes second
nature to both of us. In horse shows I had been using voice cues for
transitions, which isn't allowed in dressage. So I often ride Zoe in the
round pen without reins to get her responding to my seat and legs, not my voice and hands. When I ride alone in the round pen, I use a dressage whip
in my outside hand to feel how close I am to the rail.
The first step in familiarizing Zoe with the dressage arena was to teach her that my inside leg is not a cue to perform an upper level lateral
movement over the arena perimeter! Then my boyfriend Ralph Carr, who coaches me on a daily basis, would call out when I was passing each letter
so I could learn my distances at each gait. I ride by feel and never count strides because if I'm not exactly on the rail or if my angle is off or if
my circle is too big or small, my striding will be off, too. I need to learn the feel of both the standard and small arenas because most of my
qualifying will be in the larger arena, while competition overseas will be in the smaller arena.
Riding the precision pattern work of dressage is difficult enough when you can see; try riding a circle or straight line when you have no reference as
to what "straight" is! Typically, "Living Letters" are used to orient blind riders to their whereabouts in the dressage arena. This involves
eight people standing at the perimeter letters and being directed by Mr. X in the center of the arena to sound off when the rider is headed their way. The trouble is, I don't have nine people with whom to practice; and I have
enough performance anxiety without worrying about recruiting volunteers at a show and entering the arena to do something none of us has practiced so
much as once! There's no clause that says if any one of the nine other people involved makes a mistake,
the rider gets to call, "Do-Over!"
The headset I use to hear Ralph's directions in rail classes at horse shows isn't suitable for the precision riding of dressage. It works great for
maneuvering around the ever-changing traffic in a horse show, but it is much easier to travel straight and negotiate through a prescribed dressage
test when aiming for a fixed sound. Otherwise Ralph could only react to something I had already done wrong and then communicate to me to correct
it, by which time I could be 60 meters down the road in the judge's lap!
So Ralph, who will still play Mr. X, designed an electronic system we call Alphabet-Eyes that will replace eight of the nine fallible Living Letters
with remote-controlled mini disc players, each announcing the letter it represents when cued to do so. I've received USA Equestrian Presidential
Modification to be able to use this adaptive equipment in dressage competition. The snag is that there are eight letters; and the cost of
components for eight units is more than a disabled rider with an equine mouth to feed can afford!
No challenge is insurmountable. Thanks to your generous contributions, we hope to be able to finish construction of Alphabet-Eyes in order to start
qualifying for the next international Paralympics and World Games.
My hope is that each of you will come away from A Vision of Dressage today
"seeing" that NO challenge is insurmountable. Each of us has the choice to regard life's challenges as formidable road blocks or simply speed bumps;
and if you do your best and believe in yourself, you can lasso the moon!
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