By Dongyun Kwon
A local equestrian is excited to fly off to Paris, France with her 7-year-old horse.
Healesville resident Bridget Murphy finally put her name in the Paralympics team for the first time in her life.
Murphy said she’s amazed and excited about it.
“When you started riding as a little kid, you always dreamed about representing your country,” she said.
“We all want to win the gold medal but we will just go over and do our best and give it a red hot crack just like Australians do, make the country proud, make the Valley proud and just do the best we can.”
Para-equestrian is an equestrian sport for people with a classifiable physical or visual impairment.
Para-equestrian dressage is the only equestrian discipline that is included in the Paralympic Games and is divided into five grades.
The grades range from Grade 1 which is for athletes whose impairment has the greatest impact on their ability to ride, through to Grade 5 for athletes whose impairment has the least impact on their ability to ride.
Each grade competes on its own but three riders form a team to represent their country.
Murphy and her horse Macey (Racing name: Penmain Promise) will be participating in Grade 2 and they will only do walk and trot tests, and may show lateral work in Freestyle Tests.
They have been training with their coach Monica Bird, who lives in Coldstream, twice a week and doing extra training by themselves whenever they have time.
“Macey is only 7 years old and, in the scheme of things, she’s quite young but we decided to start the Paris campaign as an opportunity for her to get experience,” Murphy said.
“She stepped up every time and kept getting better and better, and she got the score to qualify.”
The Paris Paralympics is the first Paralympics for the duo.
“This is my first Paralympic Games, but I’ve been riding since I was a kid,” Murphy said.
“I grew up going to the pony club and adult riders and then started in para-dressage in 2018.
“We were having a run for the Tokyo Games but Covid shut everything down and stopped that but we regrouped and are going to Paris soon.”
Murphy said she thanks the local community.
“It’s a very expensive sport and I’ve had a couple of big fundraisers and everyone was so supportive,” she said.
“My whole team is Valley-based, we lived here, the horse was bred here, the owners are here, and my coach is here.
“So, I feel the whole Valley is behind us, we’re just really excited to be on this journey, and I hope everyone enjoys it as well.”
