Post by ely511 on Sept 24, 2012 8:04:08 GMT 1
From my post in General Horse talk:
I met this amazing young man last week at a fund-raiser for him. I found it entirely humbling. Both his incredible resourcefulness and ability to pursue his dream in the face of the most terrible disease, and the power of horses and riding as therapy.
If you can help in any small way to enable Michael to achieve his goal of riding in Rio that would be wonderful.
Michael Murphy is a 16-year-old para dressage rider. He has a degenerative disease which leads to muscle wastage and loss of sensation. He competes in the most disabled section in dressage competitions and was the youngest in the world to win a 2* international. Unfortunately he was 2 months too young to be considered for selection for the Paralympics this year.
Apart from achieving all that, he is a most articulate and charming young man. I attended a fund-raiser for him because he is hoping to go to Rio and he even braved a room of about 30 North London women - not something for the faint-hearted!
Do have a look at his website:
www.michaelmurphy.org.uk/home.html
If you look carefully at the photos you will see that he has dog balls on his reins to remind him that they are there. He has no sense of touch and is likely to drop them without realising otherwise.
I find it all quite humbling and certainly puts my worries in perspective.
I met this amazing young man last week at a fund-raiser for him. I found it entirely humbling. Both his incredible resourcefulness and ability to pursue his dream in the face of the most terrible disease, and the power of horses and riding as therapy.
If you can help in any small way to enable Michael to achieve his goal of riding in Rio that would be wonderful.
Michael Murphy is a 16-year-old para dressage rider. He has a degenerative disease which leads to muscle wastage and loss of sensation. He competes in the most disabled section in dressage competitions and was the youngest in the world to win a 2* international. Unfortunately he was 2 months too young to be considered for selection for the Paralympics this year.
Apart from achieving all that, he is a most articulate and charming young man. I attended a fund-raiser for him because he is hoping to go to Rio and he even braved a room of about 30 North London women - not something for the faint-hearted!
Do have a look at his website:
www.michaelmurphy.org.uk/home.html
If you look carefully at the photos you will see that he has dog balls on his reins to remind him that they are there. He has no sense of touch and is likely to drop them without realising otherwise.
I find it all quite humbling and certainly puts my worries in perspective.