Wonderful to hear that despite having to cope with a current deterioration in her condition, our new Ambassador, Para Dressage Rider Mari Akhurst, is going from strength to strength in her bid to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
She has sent us an update on her latest achievements with her 2 4-legged team mates, Sky and Bear, and it’s clear that Team Mari is finishing the year on a high.
Mari is an inspiration, showing admirable courage and determination in working extremely hard to keep up her physical fitness and core strength, both of which help her to manage her condition and are so important for her balance and control when riding.
Always looking to challenge herself and encourage others, Mari has now added a new string to her bow in the form of public speaking. We have no doubt that with all she’s achieved she would excel at this. Please contact us () if you’d like Mari to talk at an event and we can pass the request on to her.
Read on for Mari’s news:
UPDATE:
Wow last month was a busy one I attended two competitions, got invited to the Bucks and MK Sports awards and got invited to the National Convention for the award presentations.
I competed Sky today and he was a superstar we got 72.7% and won the class!! Delighted as even more to come he was such a good boy as the warm up was slightly hectic. So he was just a bit tense and made one small mistake. But am I delighted with him and very happy. Long winter of hard training starts now; ready for next year.
I took Bear to a para winter qualifier yesterday to get the last two points we needed to qualify for the Para Dressage gold winter championships. He was a star and we got our best score this year in the Individual test and got the two points we need. Our marks are on the rise we scored just under 69% and we had a 5 so it will not be long before we are in the 70’s! The contact which has always been a weaker area was super we just need to work on keeping the activity now.
So that should be both horses qualified for Para Dressage gold winter championships just awaiting confirmation.
Mari Akhurst
Link (will open in a new tab):
- Check out Mari’s Facebook Page for more news and information here: https://www.facebook.com/MariDurwardAkhurstParaDressage/