STRENGTH through adversity. A positive mindset and determination to get back to teaching and into the saddle - all of these come to mind in conversation with dressage rider, Rachel Dowley.

A HSI level 2 coach and a member of the High Performance dressage development squad, she was a member of the high-performance pony eventing squad in her younger years, but began to specialise in dressage when she started to ride with her neighbour, Irish international dressage rider Anne Marie Dunphy.

At that time, Dunphy had retired her Grand Prix horse, Egano S and Rachel was lucky enough to have him for two years as her junior horse.

She had great experience aboard the schoolmaster, doing her first Prix St George and Inter I with him, as well as winning her first Advanced national title with him.

After completing her Leaving Cert, Rachel decided to travel to Germany and train with German dressage trainer, Conrad Schumacher. She brought her own four-year-old Cadens with her.

She spent one year in Germany, before returning home to go to Trinity College and study English and Psychology. Once she had earned her degree, she went home to Co Kilkenny to establish her own training and competition yard at home in Carrick-On-Suir.

Rachel went on to win several national titles and produced amazing results. She currently has two special seven-year olds, GFL Nava and GFL Flashdance, which she has produced herself from the beginning, and thinks they may have what it takes.

Everything was going to plan until last summer, when an accident riding at home stopped her in her tracks. She spoke to The Irish Field this week about her recovery and all the special people who have helped her.

“It was on July 17th last year, I had a very sharp, naughty four-year-old, who had been challenging all the way along. I felt she was improving and then one day she just got me. She bucked me off and I landed unfortunately. I broke several vertebrae and a chance fracture of T11 was unstable, that was not good.

“They tried to send a helicopter, but it was too foggy to land. Then we heard the ambulance scorching past the front avenue. It was awful. Thankfully, I had a great girl, Hazel, working for me that day and my parents were also around. One of my best friends is a trauma surgeon, so he was one of the first people I called.

“They brought me to UHW (University Hospital Waterford) first for eight days waiting for a space to become available in the Mater and then they brought me there.

“I was completely immobile, I had a neck and back brace, I couldn’t move, feed myself, brush my teeth, nothing. I was in a huge amount of pain.

“When I got to the Mater, I met my surgeon and they did their thing. Then we began on the long road to rehab.

“I was very lucky, earlier that spring I had taught Davy Russell’s kids for their Bar one and two for the Dublin Horse Show, and he was very helpful. He put me in touch with Sean Deegan, a spinal physio in Clonmel, and I have been attending Sean’s clinic ever since.

“I was so lucky really. The surgeon said she rarely sees those kinds of injury that don’t result in paralysis, so it’s rare to be able to treat what happened.

Homeward bound

“Three or four days after the surgery, they told me that, as soon as I could manage stairs and get to the loo on my own, I could go home; so I had that down within 12 hours; I couldn’t wait to go home. Because of the other broken vertebrae in my neck, I couldn’t do rehab for the first six weeks. After the six weeks, I was allowed to start walking in a pool, and start physio.

“After another six weeks, I was allowed to start moving towards swimming and strength and just sitting on a horse again.

Rachel Dowley's first day back riding after her spinal injury on Rubix Kube, her sister's former 5* event horse

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“I couldn’t say enough good things about my family and friends, about how good they have been to me. For example, just before I got hurt, Alice Copithorne had started training with me with her event horses, so she took some of my young horses and she sold them for me.

“Taylor Dean, who runs the aqua treadmill in Carlow, took my advanced horse, Insticator BS. She had been looking after him for me, and in the end she bought him for herself.

“The other person to mention is Ellen Lonergan, she is a young rider, she had leased my old horse Cadens and together they won loads of things, she returned and kept Flashdance and Nava in work, and kept the show on the road. She has been amazing.

“Back at the beginning of October, another former pupil, Ali Barrett, came down for the weekend and supervised the endeavour of loading me on to my sister’s former five-star horse Rubix Cube, who is now 21 years old, he was elected as the rehab pony. For the first six weeks, I was just bobbling around on him, hacking about, just walking.

“It’s been amazing so far. I’m told I have an incredible surgeon, because I am way ahead of the original timeline they set me.

“These days, I’m working horses properly. I can’t do horse after horse after horse, like I used to, but I definitely feel like I’m working Flashdance and Nava properly. They are back making progress, as opposed to me just exercising them.

“I am riding with significantly shorter stirrups and, unfortunately, I expect that to continue for a while. I found sitting to canter very difficult, that is much improved, but I still find sitting to the trot is nowhere close to where it was.

“I have lost a lot of the mobility in my spine, unsurprisingly. I don’t know if I will ever get back to where I was. My spine is now held together with rods, so I’ll never get back to the full mobility I had. Absorbing movement is still a work in progress.

“I have to be aware of managing everything. I have to be more supple. The pain is no joke, so that has to be managed also. I find swimming really helpful, as well as heat and saunas. The biggest issue now is because the rods and screws prevent movement through my spine. The soft tissue and muscle try to compensate for the shock absorption and then it spasms.

“I was lucky, I have pals who are friends with Bubby Upton and she called a couple of times. She has been through something similar and was very helpful. She recommended gel saddle savers and that has made a difference.

“She and my surgeon also insisted on an air jacket, it doesn’t look great, but it does give you a bit more confidence when riding one that may start to act silly, you feel you have an extra bit of protection.

“I’m taking it as it comes really. I’d like to qualify the two seven-year-olds for the National Championships at the end of the year in Ballindenisk. I’m happy to focus on training for now, until I’m a little bit more effective, I don’t feel under pressure.

Back to business

“I was back teaching about three weeks after my surgery. My clients have been fantastic. They would come to me and I’d just sit in the corner and teach, I didn’t have to stand or walk. Now that I’m back driving since Christmas, I’m doing a lot more.

“My loyal friends from Thomastown Riding Club have been fantastic. There were flowers waiting for me when I got back from the hospital, which was so lovely.

“Now it’s onwards and upwards; GFL Nava and GFL Flashdance both did six-year-old age classes last year with Ellen, so I don’t think they missed out too much.

“My big goal is to think Nava would be ready for a Prix St Georges at the end of this year.”