Skydiving showjumper gives blind rider chance of Paralympic dream

Britain's first blind showjumper today said she was the “luckiest person in the world” after being given her own £9,000 horse, fuelling her ambition to turn the event into a Paralympic sport.

Karen Law, 53, was handed the reins to eight-year-old Pearl at the Royal Windsor Horse Show on Saturday and now hopes the bond between her and the Belgian-bred grey mare will spur her on to greater things.

Miss Law was born with a rare condition that meant her eyes did not develop properly. At 15 she stopped showjumping and did not take to the saddle again until she was 42.

She said: “Saturday was the best day of my life. I’m worried I’m suffering from sleep deprivation because I don’t want to go to sleep in case I wake up and find it’s all a dream.

“I just think I’m the luckiest person in the world.

“There are quite a few para showjumpers competing and hopefully this is going to make people think, ‘I would not mind trying that’. The aim at the moment is to get more recognition and make it into a Paralympic sport.”

Miss Law, a healthcare assistant at an eye clinic, was given the horse thanks to the efforts of friend and mentor Dame Emma-Jane Brown, a former showjumping champion and disability campaigner. She had Miss Law try a number of candidates before, unbeknown to her friend, buying Pearl. She has raised about £4,400, skydiving from 13,000ft at Hinton Airfield, Northamptonshire, and donated thousands herself.

Dame Emma-Jane, 50, who was forced to retire in 1996 after developing an allergy to horses, said: “It’s not competing, but it’s the closest I’m going to get and the reward from watching Karen and others ride is amazing. Going to the national championships is the most incredible day of the year for me. People are laughing, smiling and it just makes everything worthwhile.”

Dame Emma-Jane added: “Karen’s career was being held back because she did not have a horse of her own. She is incredibly talented and courageous and jumps big fences at national and international level.

“She deserves to be able to compete on a par with the likes of Lee Pearson and Natasha Baker — our Paralympic dressage gold medallists — and one day compete in Paralympics itself.”

Miss Law, from Stockport, navigates the course using shouted instructions from a trainer. She is expected to compete in the RDA National Championships at Hartbury College on July 18.