A dressage rider who suffered a heart attack last year and lives with “excruciating” nerve pain as a result of diabetes has vowed to “never give up riding”, as she returns to competition.
In 2013 Emma Richardson, 52, “smashed her leg badly” in an eventing accident, and within three months developed type one diabetes. When Emma returned to the saddle that year, she bought 17hh thoroughbred gelding Toska and took up dressage.
Emma told H&H that as a consequence of the diabetes, she developed neuropathy (a type of nerve damage) in her feet, and in 2015 she underwent a pancreas transplant. Although at first this was successful, the transplant failed two years later and her diabetes returned, and the pain from her neuropathy became “excruciating”.
“The pain can be so bad some days that I can’t walk or put shoes on, and I need help getting on and off Toska. I’d ridden all my life and suddenly I couldn’t do the things I’d always done, and I lost my confidence,” she said.
Despite her health concerns, Emma continued to compete but in January 2022 she had a heart attack.
“I was told my heart is healthy, but I suffer with low blood pressure and because of the pain I’m in, the doctors think it triggered something and my heart went into orbit,” she said, adding that she now visits a heart specialist every six months.
Emma returned to competition in May last year, but eventually the pain in her feet led to her being sidelined for another seven months.
On 20 May, Emma and Toska scored 64.84% in the elementary at a British Dressage show at Little Mill Equestrian in their first competition back this year.
“When I came out of the test my daughter Chloe said it was the best test we’ve done,” said Emma.
“I was so happy to be back, I enjoyed the warm-up, the test, all of it. I never thought I’d get back out again. Chloe is a massive help and gives up so much of her time to help me, and my husband Robert helps me on and off Toska. It’s very much a team effort.”
Emma, who is competing again in a fortnight and is training towards medium, said that “horses are her life”.
“This year I said I’m getting back in that saddle,” she said. “It’s about adapting. I struggle with ulcers on my feet and sometimes they need to be bandaged so I bought bigger boots to go over them. I’ll never give up, and I always keep smiling and laughing. It’s the best cure.
“There’s so many people worse off than I am and I feel so lucky I can keep riding. My husband jokes if we’ve got to get a winch out in the stables, we’ll do it. My steps keep getting higher each year.
“There’s a few of us around the same age that compete, and we all have our own problems, and we say to each other ‘Come on, you can do it’. Being on a horse makes you feel so normal, they don’t know – and that judge at C doesn’t know you have a problem, you’re just like everyone else – and that’s what keeps me going.”
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