“Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, and don’t let anyone limit your dreams.” – Donovan Bailey. Verity has loved horses all her life. She started horse-riding lessons at the age of three and soon proceeded to compete in riding events. By the age of eight, her eyesight started to deteriorate. Verity continued equestrian jumping with determination until the age of fifteen when it was no longer safe. Her passion for riding never faded and she soon took up training as a dressage rider, a sport where she has excelled. Verity has represented Great Briton as part of the Para Team GB, competes and wins against able-bodied competitors and is currently ranked 12th in France at Able Bodied Elite Level. Her advocacy for people with disabilities has resulted in the right for people to bring their guide dogs on commercial flights amongst other achievements. She has also penned her autobiography “The Gropers Guide” to change perceptions about disabilities through her story. Verity has been part of several international campaigns and media features including CNN and Land Rover’s ‘Can and Will’.

Can you tell us about your journey of becoming an international dressage rider?V: I fell in love with horses as a little girl aged 3 -5 years before I started to go blind. I was fascinated by their beauty and gentility so it was not long before I convinced my parents to take me to the local stable yard to start riding lessons. When I was little my dream was to become the best show jumper in the world but I discovered ,as my eyesight started to deterioate at the age of 8, show jumping is probably not the most practical equestrian sport for a child who cannot see… However undeterred I continued jumping until the age of 15.
I was a little like a Kamikaze pilot as mounted on my Welsh mountain pony Easter, I galloped courageously, if not a little foolishly ,towards the jumps that, with time, were getting higher and higher. Easter and I were rather good, but I fear this was more to do with Easter’s intelligence and understanding and basic love of jumping than my actual ability as a rider. My parents would be at competitions ,their hearts in their mouths ,as I hurtled around the course. I think they were actually braver than me as, in spite of their concerns, they never voiced their worry believing firmly that it was for me to find my own limitations -it was for me to decide if something was too tough for me to tackle.
At 15 years old , with a heavy heart, I decided that my jumping days had come to an end . As the level of competition got higher so did the jumps making it more and more treacherous for me to compete safely. Not to be defeated ,and not wanting to give up competing in equestrian sport, I decided to find a discipline that would enable me to compete on equal terms with all comers despite my blindness.
It was at this time that I discovered the beautiful discipline ‘Dressage’. It is a discipline set on a stage that never changes with no jumps! We perform dance routines with our horse in a 60 by 20 metre arena upon which we pirouette , passage and piaf set routines for the judges to mark - It is like ballet with your horse and is judged on elegance, accuracy and beauty. I never really paid much attention to this sport when I was growing up as I always felt it was for ladies with expensive horses . I had no idea that, like ballet , it takes years of training and fitness to perfom such intricate routines.
We found a trainer in our region and the work began. Innocently I thought that it would be relatively easy to learn and perform - after all I was young, fit, eager to train. I spent the entire drive home after my first lesson fast asleep with exhaustion in the car. For the first time in my life I was truly learning how to ride, how to feel every stride of my horse using all my other senses. If I could train well and really learn how this beautiful sport was performed I felt that I had the chance to really ride to the best of my ability without my eyesight getting a look in. If I could count my strides and concentrate on the moment using all my other senses there was no reason why I couldn’t be good enough to win without having to compromise for my blindnesss.
I was very lucky to have a wonderful trainer who never made allowances for my disability- she simply pushed me to be my best and before long I was competing and winning against able bodied folk in local competitions. I was delighted! So at 18 my trainer entered me for the trials for the British Para team. Thus my international career began. I represented GB at the world championships in Denmark that year before forging ahead with my able bodied dressage career.

What is your most memorable championship and why?V: My most memorable championship to date was winning the French Equimasters Championship in 2017. I was proud to take first place on the podium with Uffa my guide dog at my feet . It was a competition at élite level against able bodied riders and I was so proud to have won against such fantastic competitors. It is a moment that I will always remember for as I held the championship cup I felt such a sense of happiness that all the years of hard work, training, blood, sweat and tears (and of course a lot of giggles) had truly paid off.

Can you tell us more about your book “The Gropers Guide”? Who should read this book?V: The Groper’s Guide is my autobiography up until the age of 18. It is a humorous. and hopefully eye opening ,insight into the hidden wonders of the unseen world. It follows my journey as a perfectly sighted child as I voyage into a new world with the gradual loss of my sight. I invite the reader to take my hand as I bump into and trip over the wonders of this new world and marvel as ,with ‘Alice in Wonderland’ ,things become curiouser and curiouser.
I wrote the book in the hope of changing people’s perceptions and concerns about disability through humour and inclusion. I hope that it will be a guide for anyone traveling a similar road or for those who are parents or loved ones of someone experienceng and living with a disability. The impossible possibles in my life are only made so by the support and spirit of those around me who with their humour ,courage and sense of perspective have allowed me to stride out and follow my dreams.

What challenges did you face during your school days? What or who motivated you to face those challenges?V: Like all children I faced several challenges at school both personal and academic. Up until the age of 15 I was in a regular mainstream school and was the only ‘blind’ child amongst the students. My personal challenge was not to let my blindness make me feel like a misfit - which to be honest I never did. I had lovely friends and perhas due to my parents uncompromising treatment of me as ‘normal’ I had very few problems fitting in.
I made sure that all the technology that I was given to assist me in the classroom, binoculars to read the blackboard and screens to enlarge the print plus the assortment of magnifiers , were made fun for all. I used to rent them out at my primary school to the boys who wanted to watch the school rabbits amorous games in the hutch in the school yard from the class room window . I tried to make unique chic through inclusion. I made the oddities that the hospital had given me as aids for school into the ‘cool ,must have accessories!
I would find sports day a challenge especially hurdles but with humour and a lot of bruising I generally got through without too much trouble. Academically ,at mainstream school, I struggled as in the mid 80’/90’s there was little practical classroom support so I was quite often left a little clueless in class as the teacher scrawled the days lesson on a blackboard that I had no hope of seeing.
Due to my academic development deteriorating through this lack of support my parents took the decision to send me to a spécial school for the blind and physically handicapped. This marvelous school gavé me the tools with which to actually learn and succeed academically. With small classes ,classroom assistants and super technology I was given the opportunity to concentrate on the lessons and not simply on where on earth the blackboard had vanished to.
On a personal level it was also a wonderfully eye opening place. I had never met other disabled people, I had only ever known me and my blindness and the lady in the wheelchair who worked in the supermarket. It was a revelation, we were all missing something, be it a leg, an arm eyes or our hearing but together we made a whole . It was a challenge at first to let go of my preconceptions but the lessons I learned at this school far surpassed the limits of academia. It taught me that team work and inclusion, acceptance and understnading and above all else humour are the tools with which we need to use to succeed in life.

What are your other hobbies?V: I’m not sure if I would call it a Hobby, but I am passionate about music and have been since I was a small child. I love writing music and performing music and have been lucky enough in my life to have recorded albums with different record companies as well as having written theatre shows. Although it is ‘a job’ it has never felt that way, so I guess it feels like a hobby as it is something I love to do in my spare time as well as professionally.
The school for the disabled that I went to when I was 15 truly gave me the confidence to become a songwriter as it taught me that one does not have to play a musical instrument with perfection -it is the broken note and the sentiment that creates the beauty. We had several bands at school and everyone was invited to Participate no matter what they could play and no matter what they had physically to play with. I was in a punk band and to stop me from falling off the stage they used to chain me to the drum kit ! So as you can see necessity is the mother of invention and innovation

What is your favorite place to visit? What do you love about that place?V: When I am tired, when I am stressed, happy or sad there is a place I always go. It is an olive grove not far from my mothers house in the South of France . I go there to sit, to walk ,to ponder, to reflect. I love it, it is so peaceful. I slip off my shoes to feel the earth between my toes and just absorb the tranquility. In every season its soundscape changes as do the smells, but in every season it is just as beautiful. It is a place that allows me to centre myself whatever the emotional weather. It anchors me, allowing me to reconnect with my surroundings and take a breather from sensory vertigo that can sometimes accompany blindness.
As a blind tourist the place I love to visit the most is a park in Barcelona. It is a tactile paradise in which Gaudi has carved the etchings of his imagination into the nature and sculptures of the park. I may not be able to see to appreciate the colours with which he fashioned this landscape but the vibrancy and originality of the structures and surpises they hold is always a joy to touch as there is always something new to discover.

What is your suggestion for families of children with disabilities to empower their children?V: My advice to families travelling this road is ‘be brave’. It takes courage to be blind and to live your life with confidence but it also takes an equal amount of courage to allow and facilitate those we love with a disability to forge their own path. I cannot imagine the protective instinct that a parent must have for their child in these circumstances and how hard it must be to supress their natural instinct to protect that child . However the biggest gift you can give is to allow the child to find their own limitations.
Some might say that my parents were somewhat cavalier in their attitudes when I was young but they made a conscious decision that as they were not blind themselves, they coudl not dictate the limits of what I could or could not do. It was for me to find my own limitation, a decision on their part which led me up more than one garden path … and down numerous rabbit holes but it enabled me to find my own feet and gain confidence in my own judgement. I am sure they had their hearts in their mouths on many occasions . Even now when I am an adult eyes have been raised when I announced I would be performing in a theatre trapeze show but as I said to Mum, ‘I get vertigo on a curb so a trapeze platform feels much the same!
I think poor old Mum ,who is not a natural horsewoman , still gets butterflies everytime I sit up on my beautiful black Olympic hope Daisy, a rather huge 1m73 German mare who is a little like the formula 1 of horses! I remember as a child when we first discovered that I was going blind mum saying to me that in spite of my eyesight I still could be whatever I wanted to be and do what ever I wanted to do in life. She did follow this with a rather humorous disclaimer saying ‘ I do however feel you would be wise to avoid becoming a brain surgeon, for the sake of the patients’. '

What tips/advice do you have for those in our community who are interested in horse riding?V: Horses are such a wonderful means to transcend your physical limitations. They are also such sensitive creatures that have emotional empathy and have provided me ,through out my life ,with a psychological and physical haven from my disability. Horses have allowed me to quite literally ride the storm of my blindness as when I am on the horse I forget I am blind, I stride out without consequence and am able for that time to concentrate on the présent. If you are a family or a disabled person with no experience with horses, my advice would be to see if there is a stable yard in your area that has a ‘riding for the disabled’ programme. This will allow you to see if horses are for you in a safe and supervised situation . If you find you love it then with passion and hard work who knows, you may one day find yourself representing your country in the ParaOlympics .Your other option would be to find a centre or person that practices equitherapy. Here in France I have created a charity ‘Équipe Verity’ to provide an equitherapy outlet for blind and disabled people and their nearest and dearest. Equitherapy is about connecting with the horse without necessarily riding. The goal being to provide confidence, emotional support and development through connectivity with the horse. I truly believe that horses have given me the confidence to live my life to the full and thé aim of my charity is to give back and share some of the magic that horses have graciously given to me.

Any special message for our community?V: As a child when I started to go blind, I wrote a little mantra that I would always repeat to myself if I felt frightened or nervous about what the future might hold for me. It is a phrase that I carry with me still and one that I always say to myself before stepping out into the competition arena with my horse Daisy, or before stepping out on stage to sing. It has always made me feel positive and strengthened my resolve making me feel that anything is possible. Perhaps it will help you too when you face a challenge when you feel apprehensive and need a little injection of’I CAN DO THIS!'. ‘When you go into the darkness take with you what you’ve learned, as the darkness will always be there but you can light it and watch it burn'