Sparks of possibility. Chinks of opportunity. Inch by inch.

Such small talents, such small moments and such small steps are the essence of making something meaningful of our lives. Can we find those “sparks of possibility” in our lives? Can we seize those chinks of opportunity? Can we take those small steps today and tomorrow? Our lives rush by, and for many, lives are cut cruelly short. So every day is important, even if it is a wonderful day of sheer pleasure that a day off can become.

The Payoff

We can’t all be Olympic champions, but we can all get involved in doing things, and doing different things and stretching ourselves in tiny ways. We can all become more active participants and, as a result, probably achieve to an exceptional level in small areas. We can then feed off these achievements, helping all areas of our lives, and possibly creating the feeling that our time on this earth has been a little more worthwhile.

Equine Sports Provide A Huge Opportunity

The truly wonderful thing about equine sports is that they can genuinely be a sport for life, giving us an extended number of sporting days. A sport for life that also allows a longer than normal career for elite performers, and for all levels of performers allows a high level of performance and enjoyment despite a few ailing body parts.

Riding gives new legs for old which is a great “value for money,” life-enhancing deal for most of us and especially for those of us who need greater physical mobility for our mental health.

The value of equestrian sports for mental health is probably the biggest “good news story” that we need to sell far more vigorously.

An Inspiring Example

Irish businessman Chris Bryne, owner of the Coilog Horse Park in County Kildare, is an inspiring example of a performer who is currently benefiting from the extraordinary possibilities of equestrian sports. To be more precise: horse racing!

Chris is 52 and until 12 months ago hadn’t race ridden for more than 20 years. Even then he had only dipped his toe in the water with half a dozen “slow rides.” He was over 200 pounds, and his time was being consumed by his business. However, with the help of a sports dietician and riding out three horses each morning he is now 145 pounds and riding as a licensed amateur jockey in National Hunt racing.

“My life is transformed,” says Bryne. “I am fitter than I was 20 years ago; I am energized and motivated in a way that is having an obvious positive effect on my business life and my life as a whole. The stresses of business have increased hugely, but I am now coping 10 times better and am so much sharper mentally.”

Next year he has the goal of riding in the Punchestown festival, our biggest steeplechasing meeting of the year, in all three types of races, the bumper (flat) race, a hurdle and a steeplechase, with the additional aim of breeding, owning and riding a winner at the Festival. What a magnificent goal and what a great example of the benefits of horse riding.

Golden Oldies

Of course, despite the increasingly stringent rules governing fitness to ride, Chris is not the only successful older rider in racing. Last year, for example, just days before his 58th birthday, Josef Vana won probably the world’s toughest steeplechase, the 4¼ mile Velka Pardubice in the Czech Republic, which includes the world’s biggest steeplechase fence, the Taxis, among the 31 fences.

There are few who have the ambition to ride in such a challenging race at this age, but there are many who can aim towards elite performance in other equine activities. In most sports, the road to elite performance is tightly controlled by age and maximal development from youth—by your 30s you become a veteran. But in equestrian sports extraordinary heights are possible even into middle and old age.

 In recent times show jumpers Nelson Pessoa (born 1935) from Brazil, Ian Millar (1947) from Canada, Michel Robert (1948) from France and Ireland’s Eddie Macken (1949) have won championship grand prix classes in their 60s. While in eventing, Bruce Davidson (1949), Karen O’Connor (1958) and Philip Dutton (1963) from the United States, New Zealanders Mark Todd (1956) and Andrew Nicholson (1961), and Mary King (1961) from the United Kingdom all continue to defy the aging process at the very highest international level.

In dressage there are also numerous examples of older riders doing well. The great German legend Reiner Klimke won his last Olympic gold medal at the age of 52 and continued winning Grand Prix for several more years. One of the other outstanding older dressage riders was Lorna Johnson who rode El Farruco for Great Britain in the ’72 Munich Olympic Games at the age of 70 years! She even made the ride-off of the top 20 riders and finished ahead of the great Swiss champion Christine Stückelberger with Granat, who won the individual gold medal four years later. Christine herself rode in five Olympic Games and won a Grand Prix at the age of 50.

What is also interesting here is that there are both male and female elite performers being highlighted here. How wonderful to find a sport that is genuinely a sport for both sexes to compete against each other on a level playing field. It is a true sport for all.

 A Catalyst For Change

Taking that first extra or new step each day is usually difficult for us all—female and male, young and old. What we are doing in taking these steps is making changes and change is always difficult. What we need is a catalyst.

Let me give an extraordinary example. Steve Brown is a 29-year-old wheelchair rugby player who is course for a spot on the British team for the 2012 Olympic Games. He is inspiring simply because of his performance as an elite athlete in a hugely competitive sport. However, it is what he says about his shattered spine and paralysis, caused by falling off a balcony, that is the really inspiring part: “I can’t believe it took losing 2/3 of my body function to make the most of the remaining 1/3.”

Not the catalyst most of us desire but a catalyst nonetheless.

Horses are also a catalyst, and often an addictive catalyst. As a result horses enable us to learn to do more with our lives. A sport for all and a sport for life. New legs for old and a chance to develop those sparks of possibility, seize those chinks of opportunity and take those small steps today and tomorrow. Yes, we have an extraordinary sport. Yes we can. Yes we will…inch by inch, a step at a time.

Read more about Josef Vana in the new online magazine The Chronicle Connection.

William is an international coach and educational and motivational speaker. He is a Fellow of the British Horse Society and author of The DK Complete Horse Riding Manual, the world’s top-selling training manual. He found Karen and David O’Connor’s three Olympic medalists Biko, Giltedge and Custom Made and breeds event horses, including Karen O’Connor’s Olympic horse Mandiba and Zara Phillip’s High Kingdom. He is also the inventor of the Micklem Bridle, which is now approved for use in dressage by the FEI. www.WilliamMicklem.com