Erin Orford, pictured aboard LJT Nutbush at the 2025 LeMieux National Dressage Championships. Erin is also enjoying a successful first year of competitive swimming.
Medal-winning British rider Erin Orford has been smashing records in a second sport.
Erin, who was part of the gold medal-winning para dressage team at the 2017 European Championships, has always enjoyed swimming. This year, she decided to step it up a notch – and has had a super first few months competing in the pool.
“I always swam as part of my fitness, but I’d never done any racing or competed,” Erin told H&H. “It was always something that I was a bit curious about, just in terms of where I sat with the classification and what level I would be at.
“I didn’t really ever have the time to do it properly, and then I didn’t have a horse to ride for the first half of this year, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try something different while I was looking for a horse.”
Erin joined her local swimming club, Wycombe District, tried a couple of para sessions and was able to get classified in February.
“I did my first meet a couple of weeks later, and it just went from there,” she said.
“My coach knew there were a few British records that were within my reach. As soon as my classification was confirmed, he said, ‘Right, you can get these records!’”
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Classification is specific for each sport. Erin, who had both her legs amputated aged one and has shortened lower arms with four fingers on each hand, is a grade III para dressage rider and a S4 para swimmer.
So far this year, she has set three new British records and swum at national championships – and has since qualified for five more races at the upcoming national championships in December.
“It was meant to be that riding is the serious competition and swimming is for fun, but I’m irritatingly competitive!” said Erin, who also counts para dressage European individual bronze and world team silver among her medal collection.
“As soon as I start doing something, I want to be better. The first swimming meet I did, it was just so different, even down to the shouting and the noise – none of that I’m used to. It’s been really interesting, I have to control my breathing so much while being hyped up ready with my adrenaline going.
“It’s such a totally different feeling – I’ve grown to quite enjoy that different side and the hype to competing, and that it’s not subjective – you’re either faster or you’re not.
“For me, I’m racing against myself a lot, so it’s not racing as such, it’s a case of trying to be faster than I was last time. I get such a high like when you drop a time and you lose a few seconds. It is completely down to you, it’s you against the clock.
“There are a lot of crossovers between the two sports in that you can want it too much, try too hard, and don’t go as quick, so it’s been really interesting.”
She added: “I’m aiming for the para dressage World Championships next year with my horse, which takes priority. Swimming is going to have to fit around that at the moment, but it’s fun have other opportunities that challenge me in different ways.”
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
