London 2012 Paralympics – Companion horse

Our first day of our epic Paralympic weekend started at 5am with the train to Kings Cross (we are getting used to this routine). However, Ali must have been half asleep because when the person at starbucks asked her name for her cup she said ‘name? oh Ali’. So on her cup, they called her Naim! And then shouted ‘Naim’ when it was ready. Off we went to Greenwich park on the Docklands Light Railway giggling each time we thought of them shouting ‘Naim’!

Before the Olympics, I didn’t get dressage and couldn’t understand why points were awarded to a horse walking around a rectangle but now I get it and find it mesmerising the different movements they do, especially when the Paralympics have no feeling in their legs, one athlete didn’t have either leg. Some of the horses are scared by the crowds and have a companion horse in the arena, I’d like to be a companion horse, Ali is my companion horse.

What I loved about the Equestrian was that they gave you the information on why the athletes are disabled, some through illness, some through riding incidents, one was a stunt person and one person was poisoned by insecticide! All had day jobs too, I thought being an athlete was their job, but one was an anaesthetist, one an orthopaedic surgeon… The arena was smaller than what it looks like on the TV, I really liked the glass sheds and the flower beds. Sadly the Australian and Italian athlete was disqualified as their horse just wouldn’t calm. They left the arena in tears which was heart breaking.

We witnessed our first GB gold, for Natasha Baker and got to sing the anthem. Unless other events, applause scares the animals so instead of clapping, we had to wave. Singing the anthem gave me goosebumps, a once in a lifetime experience. 

After lunch, we went to the Olympic Park to see swimming. It’s so nice to see the familiar beige and purple games makers, I missed them in between the Olympics and Paralympics. We were in seat 1, so directly in line with the medallists. The roar when Ellie Simmons overtook the gold athlete was deafening, it went up to a whole new level. I shed a tear! Gold! And we got to sing the anthem again J The Italian anthem was one of the favourites, so many people singing along, it’s really quite jolly. 2 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze and 1 gold for Ireland. An amazing day, so pleased we were part of it.