Emily Skerrett is a para dressage rider with EDS with a long term aim of riding for the GB para team. She is currently trying to get sports funding to continue with this goal and would love votes from the EDS community! Vote here: marsmilk/fund2014/clubs/emily-skerrett-para-dressage I have had problems with my health and joints my whole life, but it took 26 years to get a definitive answer as to why - EDS. After having my first child, I went from being pretty mobile to bed bound on a morphine pump, only being moved position once a day on gas and air as well as the morphine. I thought that my life as I knew it was over. Riding was firmly on my list of things i did in the past and never again. I had the most gorgeous baby who was facing his own health battles being 2 months prem and on a ventilator. I also had a very supportive partner and somehow despite everything managed to stay quite positive. Nearly 2 years later against all medical advice I had another gorgeous little boy. This really left its toll on my body, leaving me with very limited mobility and lack of sensation in my right leg. I knew i wouldnt or couldnt put my body through that again, and i thought about new aims for the future. I decided to get my old horse back and just walk gently down the lane now and then. Within a few rides I was hit by the bug again and soon started to explore the world of para dressage. I havent looked back, my coach Mark Cunliffe along with Clive Milkins who coaches me from afar have been so encouraging and riding gives me this sense of achievement and physical freedom that I just dont get the rest of the time. I now permanently walk with crutches or use a wheelchair longer distances. I am about to have a total wrist and hadn fusion. i suffer from chronic pain and a whole range of horrible symptoms, like so many others with EDS. But para dressage is something positive that has come out of the disability. It provides me with aims and aspirations and the buzz that I can never get through most sports. It is also a welcome distraction from the pain as I am so focused on what I am doing. My aim is to be the first rider with EDS to ride for GB and to provide inspiration and also recognition of the condition and the difficulty EDS brings. I also want to pass on the message that however bleak it seems there will be something out there whether its a sport, art, music, something that will give you a break from being swallowed up by EDS and a chance to achieve your dreams .
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 07:34:33 +0000
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