Philippa and Lord Louis
7-18 September 2016 sees the Summer Paralympic Games in Rio and with South African Racing playing a very special support role for a very special rider.
Paralympian Philippa Johnson-Dwyer is representing South Africa at her fourth Paralympic Games on her horse, Lord Louis. A brave and inspirational woman, Philippa was 23 years old when a horrific car accident killed her brother and fiance while Philippa suffered spinal cord injuries that left her paralysed down the right hand side of her body.
Philippa was a keen horsewoman who learnt to ride at the age of 4 at her uncle, the late Bill Johnson’s yard and when doctors told her she would be unable to ride again she says, “For me, it just wasn’t an option.” Not only did she learn to walk again, on New Year’s Day 1999, Philippa got back on a horse, even though her father had to lead her round to begin with.
Motivation
Motivation – ‘My dogs and my horses’
Asked what kept her motivated, Philippa answers, “My dogs and my horses.” She also credits fellow GB rider, Deborah Criddle with providing her with inspiration. “She said, ‘if you can see your way over these obstacles, life will present you with the most exquisite gifts. and it is so true. Everyone is given the option of choice – you can either choose to lie down and die, or you can choose to find your way around your obstacles. It doesn’t matter how you get around them – you can go over them, under them, round them – but if you do, life will actually just present you with the most spectacular gifts.”
Cape Town-based occupational therapist Lisa Hare assisted Philippa in using riding therapeutically to recover from her accident and with Lisa’s help, Philippa not only rode, but started competing again and just a year later, Philippa entered her first competition since the accident — and won! Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, Philippa fell trying to mount her horse unassisted and broke her back, which saw her benched in a fibreglass cast for 6 months. Again doctors advised her against against riding again, but she would not listen and competed in her first para-equestrian competition with the South African team in 2002.
In 2004, Philippa joined a small team of riders travelling to Europe to train and qualify for Athens and found her dream horse, Benedict, in Belgium. It was love at first sight and she moved heaven and earth to purchase him and then made her move to Belgium a permanent one in order to continue training and riding him and they qualified for the 2004 Games.
Realising her dream
Philippa Johnson-Dwyer
Paralympic competitors are classified into Grades, according to their level of disability. Because Philippa has regained some use of her right leg, but cannot use her right arm at all, she is classified as a Grade III athlete, which includes individuals usually able to walk without support, athletes with moderate unilateral impairment, or moderate impairment in four limbs, severe arm impairment, total loss of sight in both eyes or intellectually impaired.
Six years after her accident, Philippa and Burgeons Benedict won double silver medals at the XII Paralympic Games in Athens, placing in both the Individual championship dressage Grade IV and the Individual freestyle dressage Grade IV. “That medal in Athens I can tell you took everyone by surprise, me included because I’d only actually been on the international circuit by that stage for about a year.”
Gold
Four years later, Philippa became the first South African rider to achieve gold at a Paralympic Games, when her and Benedict claimed first place in the mixed dressage championship Grade IV and made it a double by winning the Individual Freestyle Test Grade IV in the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. She comments, “I think for any athlete in the world to medal for your country in an Olympics is great, but for that gold medal it’s amazing. We had had such an incredible year – my wonderful Benedict and I – every single competition he’d been to that year, he’d won it. You sometimes start to worry is this a little too good to be true, but we were completely set up for it, we’d done the work and all our dreams came true.”
In 2012, Philippa qualified and rode at the London Paralympic Games on Lord Louis and is riding him again at this year’s Games in Rio. She comments, “I have to say that heading to Rio is actually a better feeling than heading to London. London I had a new horse, he was young, he was 7 years old. I’d only had him for 4 months. I still stand by the decision to take him because I think it was an incredible experience for him, but he’s now had 4 years of training under his belt and he’s all of a sudden deciding that he understands what his job is and lucky enough for us it all seems to be coming together this year.”
Sponsorship
In middle of the qualifying process, Gold Circle came on board as a sponsor for a trio of para-riders trying to qualify for Rio, Philippa, Shani de Beer and Tamsin Mbatsha-Bouwer. “I tell you what, for us Gold Circle was a godsend because Shani & Tammy came over to us to train for 3 months and they literally did it on goodwill because we didn’t have sponsors then. It wasn’t cemented that anyone was coming on board and while they were actually with us in Europe, Gold Circle stood up and said ‘OK we’re going back them.’ Not only is it amazing to get that type of sponsorship, but you’re also looking at a cross discipline sponsorship here. You’re looking at people who are in racing actually stepping outside the box and having the courage to back a different discipline, which to me is just mind-blowing.”
Unfortunately the other two riders did not qualify, but Philippa and Lord Louis made the cut and are currently in Deodoro. They have done both their country and their sponsors proud by finishing 5th in the Team Test on Sunday, 11 September and will take centre stage in the Individual Championship Test this afternoon at 2pm (7pm South African time). They will also be competing in the Individual Freestyle on Friday, 16 September at 9am (2pm local time).
Proudly SA
Asked why she still rides under the SA flag, Philippa comments, “It is sometimes very difficult, I have had numerous countries approach me to ask me to ride for them and yes on a lot of levels, especially on a financial level, it would make my life so much easier, but at the end of the day when that South African flag goes up and you hear your national anthem being played – you can’t beat it.”
We wish Philippa, Lord Louis, their team and all their supporters the very best.
