BOOTH Emma

Date of Birth: 8 Jun 1991

Age: 30

Gender: Female

Sport Class: GIII

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Equestrian	Team Test to Music AUS Australia	13
	Individual Test - Grade III	8
	Individual Freestyle Test - Grade III	5

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Equestrian Park	Dressage Individual Test - Grade III	Finished
	Equestrian Park	Dressage Individual Freestyle Test - Grade III	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Rank	Event	Year	Location
Paralympic Games
5	Individual Championship Test - Grade II	2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA
9	Team Test to Music	2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA
World Equestrian Games
4	Individual Test - Grade III	2018	Tryon, NC, USA
5	Individual Freestyle Test - Grade III	2018	Tryon, NC, USA

Occupation:

Sports Science - Deakin University , Australia

Languages spoken:

She learned how to ride at age 11 after she won the chance to ride a pony for a year. "A well-known television show 'The Saddle Club' ran an Australia-wide competition in 2002 to win a horse for a year. The prize included a pony, lessons, agistment, vet bills, tack and covered all costs for 12 months. There were thousands of entries and for some unknown reason, out of all the children in Australia I was lucky enough to win." (paralympic.org, 01 Sep 2016)

She decided to take up Para equestrian dressage while recovering from her accident in hospital, after her father's boss gifted her an iPad. "I started Googling things like Paralympics, Para sport, Para equestrian, Para dressage. It really was only a few weeks after my accident that I started to recover quite quickly. At that point I just knew that I was going to give riding a go no matter what. That feeling of riding again was incredible. I was lucky enough to have modified saddle and people to assist me on to the horse. It was my touch with normality again. I wasn't nervous, it was just pure excitement." (ridewithnolimits.com, 05 Jul 2016; horsepowerwarehouse.com.au, 18 Jun 2014; paralympic.org, 22 Sep 2020)

To compete at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (equestrian.org.au, 22 Nov 2017)

Australian equestrian riders Andrew Hoy, Stuart Tinney, Heath Ryan, Megan Jones and Grace Bowman. (paralympic.org, 01 Sep 2016; paralympic.org.au, 18 Sep 2016)

Philosophy:

"Work hard, practice as often as you can afford and set goals big and small so you're always achieving something." (paralympic.org, 01 Sep 2016)

In 2017 she received the Against All Odds Award from the International Equestrian Federation [FEI] Awards Gala in Montevideo, Uruguay. (weeklytimesnow.com.au, 27 Dec 2017; equestrian.org.au, 22 Nov 2017)

In 2015 she was named Athlete of the Year by Equestrian Victoria in Australia. (Facebook page, 28 Aug 2018)

General Interest

Classification
GRADE III (FEI, 19 Aug 2021)

Type of Impairment
Spinal Cord Injuries (ridewithnolimits.com, 05 Jul 2016)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (ridewithnolimits.com, 05 Jul 2016)

Impairment Details
She has paraplegia following a car accident in 2013. "I sustained multiple injuries, including a severe knock to my head which caused a bleed on my brain, a fracture to my occipital bone at the base of my skull, a punctured lung, a fractured clavicle, a fractured sternum, a compound fracture to my left ankle, and life threatening abdominal injuries which required immediate surgical attention. My spine was also shattered and my spinal cord severely damaged." (ridewithnolimits.com, 05 Jul 2016; paralympic.org.au, 03 Mar 2014)

General
RELATIONSHIP WITH ZIDANE
Ahead of qualifiers for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro she purchased her current horse, a Danish warmblood called Zidane. She had spent several months looking for the right horse but says she and Zidane had an instant connection. "Finding the right horse in general is hard, so a Para dressage horse is twice as hard. A horse for Para needs to be a great listener. With my limited movement in the legs mean it has to depend more on my voice rather than my body. [Zidane] had only done able-bodied dressage, he'd never done Para dressage but the qualities that I look for in a horse - he is just willing, he's intelligent, quiet, loving. He's just got every quality that you could want. Within the first two minutes of my first ride he just knew exactly what I was asking, what I wanted and it just clicked." (paralympic.org, 22 Sep 2020; World Horse Racing YouTube channel, 27 Dec 2019; Facebook page, 03 Aug 2021)

CAR ACCIDENT AND REHABILITATION
She was involved in a car accident with fellow Australian equestrian athlete Courtney Fraser in April 2013. She underwent life-saving abdominal surgery and had a further operation to repair her spinal column in the wake of the accident. She returned to competition in 2014. "My first time back on a horse was pretty amazing. I had been in hospital for about four months, I hadn't been out of my chair or a bed for six months, so then being able to get into the saddle and feeling a horse moving underneath me was pretty liberating, it was very exciting." (ridewithnolimits.com, 05 Jul 2016; paralympic.org.au, 03 Mar 2014; horseandhound.co.uk, 10 Apr 2013; equestrianlife.com.au, 2013)

EDUCATION
In 2012 she began studying veterinary bioscience at Monash University, before switching to exercise and sport science at Deakin University a year later. She made the decision to change courses in order to achieve a high enough grade average to be able to study veterinary science one day. (horsepowerwarehouse.com.au, 18 Jun 2014)

EARLY DAYS
In 2011 she accepted a job in Germany riding and training horses for international dressage rider Holger Shultze. (paralympic.org.au, 2016)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

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