A Story About a Petite Young Rider and Her Big Paralympic Dream
By Amy Herdy
She found the trainer, and then she found the horse, and now 26-year-old Ellie Brimmer has her sights set on competing in the 2012 Paralympics in dressage.
“It’s a great opportunity to compete,” Ellie said. “So few people have that opportunity, especially when they have a disability.”
Born with cerebral palsy, Ellie began riding at age 2, and has tried most everything–hunter-jumper, fox hunting, even polo. Then three years ago she fell in love with dressage, and so she began working with 56-year-old Sabine Rijssenbeek, an internationally known equestrian and trainer originally from the Netherlands.
From the start, Ellie said, Sabine had an energy and enthusiasm that was infectious.
“Sabine is very much about confidence,” Ellie says. “She encourages you to not be conservative, but to be brilliant. Some trainers are too conservative, especially with special needs riders. She was never afraid of pushing me.”
Sabine, who in her 20s was selected for the Moscow Olympics (but did not compete since the games were boycotted), says she began working with special needs riders decades ago back in the Netherlands, where she helped a young blind man learn to ride.
“It’s amazing,” Sabine said of how some horses will react with a special needs rider. “This young man sat on this horse, and the horse changed completely,” becoming softer, she said. Fueled by that memory, Sabine was determined to find the right horse for Ellie, who because of her cerebral palsy has trouble with her seat.
“It affects my left side,” Ellie said, “giving me tight muscles in my left leg and left hand, and some core weakness. It’s really being able to sit straight on the horse that’s the challenge. I can’t use my left leg, well, minimally, and since my left hand muscles are tight, sometimes it pulls up. So contact can get uneven.”
The challenge, Sabine said, was to find a horse that was advanced enough for Ellie’s level of competition, and yet one who was forgiving. She decided the best bet was to go to a trusted friend in the Netherlands, and so last May, off she and Ellie went.
“She tried 20 horses in four days,” Sabine recalled. “Some of the horses were not young but they did not accept Ellie at all” which added to her stress, Ellie said.
“It was overwhelming,” she said. “It was my first trip to Europe. And there was a lot of pressure, being in a foreign country, having people watching me ride.”
And then a 12-year-old, 16.2 hand bay Holsteiner gelding with three white socks and a white stripe on his face was brought out, and the pair instantly hit it off, even though Ellie is only five feet tall.
“He was really sweet,” she recalls of meeting the horse called Carino H. “He just tried really hard to figure out what I wanted. He didn’t overreact.”
They brought him home to Minnesota, and Sabine began working with the gelding. “I worked with him to be calm,” she said, “and also be very confident. I had to slow him down–slow down his energy.” As soon as his quarantine was up, Ellie and Carino H went to their first show, the Midsummer Dressage Show in Lake Elmo, Minn.
“It was pouring rain,” Ellie recalled of that day. “The footing was terrible. We could hardly warm up. But he was such a sport about it.”
Sabine said she was certain they would do well, and told Ellie so before the show. “The horse was in perfect shape, and she was in perfect shape,” she recalled. “I told her to enjoy it and trust the horse. She knows how to make that horse competitive. They both can do it.” And they did–qualifying for national championships at their very first show. And Ellie is more optimistic than ever. “We’re still getting to know each other, but I’m really excited about the future with him. He continues to get better and better.” She says she owes a lot to her coach, Sabine. “Sabine says, ‘Go in there and be forward. Just really go for it.’ She also reminds me to reward the horse, so they can work hard, but they’ll enjoy it.”
And there’s one message from her coach that Ellie says is her focus:
“Life is boring if you don’t push yourself.”