Getting Back on the Horse

Para equestrian Stephanie Quintrell has her sights set on a world’s first.

Supported by five other fearless women, Stephanie will ride for up to nine hours a day from Argentina to Chile, ascending and descending up to 4,400m of difficult terrain across the Andes.

She hopes her challenging ‘Ride to Independence’ will inspire others to go and have their own adventures and to show the ‘impossible can be possible’.

Six years ago, Stephanie experienced a sudden and severe neurological illness. Diagnosed with complex Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), fixed dystonia in the right hand, dystonia in both feet/ankles and Fowler's syndrome, Stephanie was left with no ability to bear her weight independently and to rely on a wheelchair to get around.

“Going from an active, full time working mum and a keen horse rider, to being fully dependent on a wheelchair, with complex health issues and requiring 24/7 care to support with everyday tasks, was life changing,” said Stephanie.

“For the first couple of years, I grieved for the life my family and I had lost. Everything seemed impossible, especially being able to ride again. I had ridden and owned horses since a very early age and I resented the body that wouldn’t let me get back on Bubba, my horse.”

Finally, and with the help of her husband Jon, she got back in the saddle. It was the start of a new chapter in Stephanie’s life, one in which she was determined not to let her disability dictate what she could and couldn’t do.

In 2023 she became the world’s first wheelchair user to ride horseback across the Pyrenees mountains from France to Spain.

Now she’s aiming to become the world’s first wheelchair dependent person to ride by horseback across the Andes as part of ‘Ride to Independence’ in February next year.

To find out more, read Stephanie’s inspiring story in the latest edition of Living with Disability or visit https://www.equine-para-adventures.org/