IT’s Friday afternoon at the Al Shaqab horse show in Doha, Qatar, and the Irish para team have just completed their sound check for the next day’s Freestyle to Music test, the final day of international competition.

It is the first international of the year for the Irish team, and the enormity of the facility is not lost on the riders. Scores for the team of Michael Murphy, Kate Kerr-Horan, Rosemary Gaffney and Tamsin Addison have been mixed, but they were all to improve the following day, and they all relished the chance to compete on such a magnificent stage.

British born but qualified to ride for Ireland through his father, Michael Murphy (21) is juggling studying for a degree in Biology at the University of Warwick with competing at international level in Grade I competitions. Murphy was born with a rare progressive disorder called Dejerine-Sottas, a peripheral neuropathy, which means he has no reflexes, little sensation, low muscle tone and lack of motor control.

He began riding for therapy at the age of four with the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA). “I went through all the different levels with the RDA to compete at the RDA nationals and then started doing paras when I was about nine or 10,” he explained to The Irish Field.

At the age of 14, Murphy became the youngest para rider to win a two-star international, and, after being forced to take a break for two-year period when his horse went lame, he began riding for Ireland just last April and won at Bishop Burton in July with the chesnut Rohan.

“Roo is the horse that has brought me back so I owe a lot to him. He is very good at looking after me, I am very vulnerable up there and he doesn’t put a foot wrong,” he said of the lovely 17-year-old gelding.

“The university have been very accommodating and it means I can get down to ride the horses three or four times a week. I have to give a big shout out to my mum, who isn’t here, but she does so much organising behind the scene and does a fantastic job,” he said, adding that the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games is the main goal. “Hopefully I can help qualify Ireland for Tokyo … that is the plan.”

FOCUS

Another team member with Paralympic dreams and lots of championship experience under her belt is Co Wicklow’s Kate Kerr-Horan (26), who was best of the Irish team when finishing second in the Grade III class on day one in Doha with her new mare, Serafina T.

A force to be reckoned with in para dressage, Kate has a degree in Equine Business from Maynooth University, she is a Level 1 instructor and alongside her mum Pam, they run Broomfield Equestrian Centre, managing about 20 horses.

A suspected kick from a horse when she was just three and a half years old left her with paralysis of the left side of her body. Many surgeries later, Kate’s sparkle and determination has never faltered and training her new mare is currently to the forefront of her mind.

“I’ve been riding all my life. I used to do a lot of showing and then moved to dressage. I was at a show and Dara [Kearney, chef d’equipe] approached us and asked would we be interested in joining para,” Kerr-Horan explained.

That was in 2007, and she has been to four championships since then, all aboard the brilliant mare Arlande. But time ticks on and she has high hopes for her new eight-year-old mare. “She’s a proper dressage horse.

“She hasn’t much experience, and she’s never been to anything like this. She has a very high opinion of herself – if she doesn’t want to do something, it’s a job to make her do it,” she added with a laugh. “But she has coped very well.”

A good temperament is the most important thing when Kate is horse shopping. “When I get under pressure, my breathing gets very laboured and they have to be able to cope with that. Because my weakness down my left side, if they’re not honest, they won’t listen to my aids, because they are different to an able bodied rider.”

Although it was “really tough trying to juggle it all” she is glad to have the degree in Equine Business to “fall back on”, but the focus is firmly on horses, Paralympic qualification and running the business with her mother.

THE BRIDESMAID

Perhaps the most well-known para dressage rider in Doha last weekend through her work running the equine department at Kildalton College, Rosemary Gaffney describes herself as the “bridesmaid” of the Olympic Games.

“I have been the bridesmaid for the last two Olympics as a reserve rider, so hopefully this time I get to wear the white frock!” the inspiring Gaffney said.

Gaffney suffered two horrific horse falls five years apart, which meant she went from being an able bodied rider to competing in para dressage. “The first time I shattered my left knee. And then unfortunately in 2014, I had another fall. While saving my then bad leg, I put out my good leg and shattered it from ankle to hip.”

After a year of rehab for the leg which was broken in 10 places, she got back in the saddle. “Some say I definitely should be in a lunatic asylum and not as a rider, but it gives you a purpose to life and it’s super.”

Riding at this level and running an education department is hard work and she pays tribute to the staff at Kildalton College. “We have a huge course there, up to 80 equine students and that takes up a lot of time. I am very lucky, I have wonderful help. I have seen lots of names, I suppose one that comes to mind is (Captain) Geoffrey Curran, he was a student with us.”

She had a couple of difficult moments with the expressive grey gelding Bink in the Grade VI at Doha. “He kept seeing ghosts at one end of the arena and made it quite difficult for me. He has huge potential and is very talented but maybe is probably asking too much of a para who has power in neither leg so I may ask some of my able bodied friends to ride him,” she add, adding that her other mare will be aimed at the Europeans.

Gaffney had a special mention for her super groom Nicole Dunne Hurley, who came through the government funded equine education and training system at Cherry Orchard, before going on to become a student at Kildalton College.

CORPORATE LIFE

Tamsin Addison is another rider who has switched to ride under the Irish flag after a successful stint for her native Team GB. She has quite the story to tell, from battling with bone cancer at the age of 21, the painful recovery process to rebuild her arm; and leaving a good job as marketing director with Virgin Media to commit her life to horses.

“I keep telling my husband that horses is just a phase I am going through! A phase that started when I was five or six. I started life as an eventer, and then after my cancer I started focusing more on para dressage, that was when I was 21,” Addison said.

She is based just north of London in High Wycombe. “We moved there after I gave up my job to focus on horses full-time. I was a marketing director, so corporate life, so I went from shovelling one type of thing to shovelling a much more wholesome sort of thing. We have 22 in at the moment. We have liveries and we do rehab too. I have three of my own, but the rest are paying guests.”

She partnered her own stunning gelding Fahrenheit in Doha, and was delighted with his progress. “He had never been out before I bought him in Denmark and he has been on a steep learning curve since. There is still a lot to come.”

Riding at the highest level of para dressage, Grade V, she looks for a horse with a spark. “There has to be something that makes me think ‘I want to get out of bed when it’s cold and wet and grey, at four in the morning and ride that horse’.”

All four riders thanked trainer Donie McNamara and chef d’equipe Dara Kearney for their hard work.

After giving The Irish Field an hour of their precious time, the team hurried off to watch the five-star dressage before resting up for the final day. The para world is their oyster!