Helen Kearney » admin

Pre Games Thoughts – Rio 2016

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 21:52:33 +0000

I watched Rocky (my horse) leave yesterday to start his journey to Rio and I felt quite emotional. It kind of hit me, I am going to my second Paralympics something that I couldn’t have thought of happening about 8 years ago.

In 2008, I saw Eilish Byrne go to Beijing representing Ireland and I thought, I want to go to London in 2012 but more than just going I wanted to win a medal there too. With a disability like Friedreich’s Ataxia, time is not on your side and I felt like London was going to be my only shot.

I have worked hard to be in the position to go again but I really really want to pay tribute to the people around me, I couldn’t do what I do without the support. My mam and dad are the best, I don’t tell them much or maybe at all but they’ve given me so much, I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I also want to acknowledge my great grooms who put up with me Rosemary and Lydia, my trainer Heike who has thought me more than I appreciate and so many others.

Friedreichs Ataxia is a shit disability to be left with but getting to ride the horses, watch them progress and compete at this level has given me more than I can say. I really want to express my gratitude to everyone that supports me. I don’t always admit it but I love what I do and I feel lucky to have gotten the opportunity to do it.

I didn’t admit it to many but I was gunning for a medal in London. I had a point to prove, to myself more that anyone. To win another would be amazing, the icing on the cake but cake can really nice without icing too. My class is so competitive this time and even since London the standard has upped. I am delighted to be able to compete at this level to strive to improve on my London performance and I don’t know if I can achieve medal success again but I hope to make everyone proud.

Goodbye to Mister Cool

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 18:39:58 +0000

In April of this year I had to make a heartbreaking decision to put Mister Cool or Charlie as I always called him to sleep. He had a freak accident out in the field and ruptured his superficial tendon. It happened when I was away at a Paralympic’s Ireland camp in Limerick in March.

My mam phoned to say Charlie was lame coming in from the field and asked what should she do, I dismissed it at first because Charlie could be dog lame with a small stone in his foot, he was a total drama queen about pain and if he ever had any problems he tended to act like he needed to be put down but then once he was better after a day or so everything would be forgotten.

After a little examination the vet scanned his leg and told me that it wasn’t good. Competitively his career was over and he needed a lot of rest with the best case scenario would be that he would sound enough to go in the field and maybe gentle hacking in a year of so. As you can imagine I was really upset hearing the news and couldn’t bear the idea of putting him down so we set to work minding him better than a baby, bandaging, cold housing, keeping lots if pain meds in his system etc. It quickly became clear to me that Charlie was very uncomfortable and it was horrible to watch him suffer. For anyone that knew him he was never a happy hacker and even he recovered I couldn’t tell how he would adjust to a totally different life to what he had before, so with all that in mind I said goodbye to my special little guy.

He was a very special horse who challenged me lots, drove me a little nuts but a horse who gave me so much. He taught me so much and he owed me nothing. I owe him so much and just couldn’t be selfish with him and keep him because letting him go was hard.

RIP Mister Cool

Finding a new horse!

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 19:34:32 +0000

I am not as good as I should be at keeping my Facebook Twitter or blog page on my website updated so I am just going, here is the first of many (hopefully)

I am sure lots of people are aware that I did pretty well at the Paralympics in London and from my point of view myself and my horse Mister Cool achieved as much as we could. Given that we won a silver and two bronze medals I was pretty pleased with our best. After the Paralympics I realized that I needed to look for a new horse, to once again strive to be the top. I wanted to push myself, whether I won or lost I wanted to challenge that comes with a new horse.

I looked around for quite some time and found a very talented horse in December 2013. He was a 8y.o dutch bred gelding by gribaldi so he definitely had the breeding. Like every new partnership it had its ups and downs, one day I would think we were on the right track and next I wouldn’t be so sure but being determined or perhaps stubborn I persisted. By September 2014 I had a number of falls off him (luckily I wasn’t hurt) and decided that he wasn’t the horse for me and I sold him. He was very talented and quite possibly one of the most talented horses I could work with but I just couldn’t seem to click with him so I went back to the drawing board. Pictured below is RLE Be Smart aka Alfie

Even though I had to make the decision to sell Alfie I was really fortunate to have Mister Cool still who competed internationally in 2013 and 2014. Despite my failed attempt with Alfie I was very keen to move on and find something new. It is hard to find a good dressage horse is Ireland so I did a few trips to England and Germany and luckily I found a fab horse in January 2015 who I knew I wanted as soon as I saw and sat on him. I’ve never had the feeling of sitting on horse and just knowing I really wanted him. In fact when I first sat on Mister Cool, my London superstar, I thought he was the worst horse I had ridden but my coach saw something in him and I decided to listen to her, boy am I glad I did.

The beautiful horse I found is Rock and Roll or Rocky is his stable name. He is a 11y.o Hanoverian. His walk was super but more importantly his temperament is fab. I have never seen a perfect horse and speaking objectively his downfall is he can be a little lazy but from my point of view there was way too much to like there so no need to dwell on his downfall. Pictured below is Rocky the first day I sat on him, he is my black beauty, how could I not like him.

How 2013 was for me!

admin — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 11:27:57 +0000

Wow, I haven’t written in this in a long time! Unfortunately I am only getting around to this because I have a broken thumb and it is one of the few things I can do. It has been over a year since I wrote in this and I am not too sure what to talk about or where to begin but I am sure I’ll come up with something.

2013 has been a different year for me in lots of ways.

Training – One of the biggest changes for me is the level of training that I did in 2013 in comparison to 2012. In 2012 I did very little that wasn’t horsey or Paralympics related. I was very eager to do my very best at Paralympics and I got totally wrapped up in doing as much as possible. I rode 6 if not 7 days a week and did a proper training session with Heike once a week which didn’t leave me a whole lot of time for anything else (but for that knows me I still made it to Ballymore for the facebook special). In lots of ways my strategy payed off but it can also be said that I became too concerned with the games and winning a medal. For 2013 I scaled back, I felt like I knew what to do get Mister Cool going and I took at least one if not two days a week of riding. I was happy that Heike had taught me really well how to get the best out Mister Cool so we only went over to Heike a handful of times to get a quick refresher course before big internationals. Instead I tried to spend more socializing and generally doing different things, I even fitted in a nice holiday to the states.
Competitions – Each year the game plan is try and fit in three big internationals, one in March/ April, Hartpury in July and the big one is August which is either Europeans, Worlds or Paralympics depending on the year. I started the year going to Deauville in March and it went really well. I managed to come 2nd in all three classes finishing in between two GB riders. On the first day I was 0.2% of the winning score with a few mistakes so I feel really enthusiastic the second day. I was delighted when I got a good score that beat the girl that won the previous day but the girl who came third came up and just passed me. The competitive spirit in me felt a bit gutted because it would have been great to beat 2 GB rider but overall it was a great competition for me. I went to Hartpury in the UK in July but I did not get one so well, Mister Cool got a big fright in the main arena and he got very tense in there so I made the call to withdraw him. Luckily he re-deemed himself at the Europeans where he was impeccably behaved. He did 3 great tests which were all 70%+ scores but unfortunately the scores were not good enough to earn me a medal, I just missed out finishing 4th on both occasions. Mister Cool did some of the his best tests so as you can imagine I was disappointed to come away without a medal but we were just in against some very strong competition and thats great to see in lots of ways too.
Media Stuff – Thanks to my success at the Paralympics I have gotten a chance to do lots of cool media stuff. It has shown me a totally different side of my sport. I scaled back a bit on the training side of things and I have filled my time doing all sorts of media stuff. After the games I got a great chance to do some promotion and one thing that was really enjoyable was visiting different schools and seeing people so enthusiastic about sport since the Olympics and Paralymics. In some small way it makes me feel that what I do and have done has an impact and the idea that I could potentially inspire someone to go on and achieve their goals is pretty rewarding.
Plans for the future – On the competition front, everything is pretty quiet until next year. I will just quietly fit in some training over the winter months to keep Mister Cool and myself going. I am hoping to try and get my HSI Level 1 done next year so maybe I can improve my teaching skills and potentially help someone improve their riding. PEI had a training day for people wanting to become para judges day not so ago which was very good and has inspired me to get my bum in action to the beginners judges training with Dressage Ireland and see where it goes too.

Paralympic Games

admin — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 17:49:06 +0000

What can I say, this has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life. To come away with three medals was way more than I ever could have anticipated. Going to the games, I felt there was potential in me to medal individually, my horse had shown consistent form and my European medal in 2011 left me in a good place. However judging is very subjective and I hadn’t gotten the marks in Hartpury that I was hoping for, 8 weeks prior to the games.

On Day 1, the team test I was on near the end of the class. Even though I said I wasn’t thinking about it too much, I was conscious of marks and placings and I wanted to do the best that I could. When I was warming up, my key rivals had not gone yet but there was a Brazilian rider leading with 71%. I heard this and though oh boy, someone that I wasn’t familiar with leading with a big score I’m snookered. However I came out with 72% and 3rd place so I was pleasantly surprised.

This score was a PB in the team test but there was things I thought could have been better. The test was not as fluent and as I would like and I felt a bit confused going forward, should I try and repeat this test or should change a few small things and try to improve but take the gamble that the judges may or may not like it as much. In the end I knew I would come away happier if I changed a few things and had a test that felt better to me regardless of what others thought.

Mister Cool felt great on day 2, he was more submissive and he lit up great with the crowd. I don’t think I will forget walking out the exist and Kate turning to look at the scoreboard and telling me that you got 76%. This was a huge PB for me. Kate, Heike and my mam were in tears and I was speechless. Everything happened pretty quick after that, I was pushed through the mixed zone, had the medal ceremony, got rushed back to the village for an interview for the RTE news but one thing I can remember is when I was down off the horse after the test is my mam passing her phone, my dad had sent a text ‘She done it’. It was simple and to the point but there was something really real about it for me.

The other thing I remember is before the medal ceremony being told that the Irish team were unofficially in bronze. Even though I had won the silver, I felt more excited about this. I always keep on top of scores and statistics but I hadn’t being paying attention to the team score, probably because we were not going in with a chance of a team medal. Secretly I hoped that we could make it to 6th but I though this might be a challenge so I kept that too myself. To come away with Bronze was just incredible. I never though that winning a team medal would mean so much to me.

Day 3 was the freestyle, I had a new floor plan and new music which I was hoping would go over well but I didn’t know. I was very happy with how it went. I felt that I lined up well with the changes in music and thought that the whole thing worked well. However to me, it was not quiet as good as the previous day, but that didn’t matter because it was still amazing to get a Bronze. Maybe I’ll only get to do one great test and I think that the Mister Cool & I picked the best time to do it.

Pre Games thoughts 2012

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:51:27 +0000

I haven’t written in ages, for one my time seams to taken up with various different bits of prep but the other reason was because I didn’t know what I wanted to say.

This is just a quick post to let you know how its all going. The last time I wrote in this was after a big competition in Deauville, France. After I came home from Deauville, I mainly just concentrated on training away at home. In particular I concentrated on bringing my horse frame up as it has been a recurring comment from the judges, that his poll tends to be a bit low at times. I went to a big competition Hartpury in July and I didn’t get on as well as I hoped. I was quiet disappointed that my scores were not a bit higher but when I was looking back at it I think that I brought Mister Cool up too much. In doing so I knocked a few other things out of sync. Even thought it did not go to plan in Hartpury for me, I learned a lot. I feel that I have a clearer idea of how I want Mister Cool to go. If I didn’t try something new I would wonder what if when it comes to Games time.

Everyone keeps asking me if I’m all set and I never know how to answer that question. With horse I don’t if you ever feel all set, there is always something I would like to improve but overall I feel happy that I have put in as much work as I could and that I have gained a good bit of competition experience with Mister Cool. Win, lose or draw I feel happy that I did everything that I could to prepare for the games.

Good news I think

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:55:21 +0000

So I had my first attempt at producing a score for Irish selection and it went pretty well. I managed an aggregate score of 70.78%, a full 3% above any of the other Irish riders.

The Irish selection policy dictates that horse & rider combinations with the highest percentage scores from one competition (Deauville, Moorsele or Mannheim) will be selected for the Paralympics. The really tricky thing with this policy is that all 3 events are quite close together which leaves very little recovery time for horses and riders. PEI our governing body had a difficult decision to make and they decided that they would send us to Deauville and Moorsele. Traveling to both these competitions meant that horses were only home for 5 days and riders were home for 8 days. After getting on well in France I have decided not to go to Moorsele. All the other Irish are going to Moorsele to try to improve there scores and secure one of the spots for London. Its a gamble not going to Moorsele but I managed to produce a solid score which I’m quietly confident with.

Deauville is a really nice venue and the competition there was really enjoyable The first day went really well for me. I wasn’t on until late which is annoying because its nice to be on early and relax for the rest of the day but nevertheless it went well. I rode my test, got my score and placed 2nd. This was pretty good, I was less than half a percent behind the winner. Later that evening I got my test sheets and I realized that my score was added up wrong and I had actually won with 71.76%. I was really delighted, I had managed to beat not just one but two of my biggest rivals. It was disappointing to miss out on the national anthem being played but it was a great confidence boost to win.

Day 2 was not as good, I managed 69.8% which was a good solid score but my test was as good as the previous day, I got nervous and didn’t do myself justice but it was a good lesson for me and hopefully something I won’t repeat. The Freestyle went much better for me, no matter what I was going to ride on and the judges seamed to like that. I got 73.25% and there was lots of room for improvement.

For now I am taking it easy and hoping that my performance will secure me a spot for London!

Quick Update

admin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:59:36 +0000

This is just a quick update because I haven written anything in ages. I am off to France in the morning. Mister Cool left Sunday evening, rested in England today and he will set off for France this evening.

This my first attempt at selection for the Paralympics. Each riders results at this competition will be used to choose the team for London. I am trying not to think about it too much and just go out and do the best that I can. I hope to write another update with good news soon!

January update

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:32:55 +0000

The new year has gotten off to a great start. Yesterday, February 1st we got the official word that Ireland has qualified a team for Para Equestrian Dressage at the Paralympics. The whole team have put in huge work this year and it looked good all year that we would qualify but getting the official notification is nice to say the least.

So lots has happened since Christmas, I now have a degree so I can’t call myself a student any longer. I passed all my exams from Christmas and I managed to get a 2.1 as well.

I also decided to get laser eye surgery. I went for an appointment in early January and I made the decision there and then to go for it. I had it done a week later. My sight was not too bad but I needed glasses riding. They were a pain between getting dusty or dirty never mind when it rained. I tried contacts and I had to concede that they weren’t for me. So far, so good, I have it done 2 and a half weeks and I think my eyes are nearly perfect. They say it takes a fews weeks for it to come totally right but I definitely think I’m on the right track!

I had my first team training camp of the year in Kildaton which was really good. We had judge Henneke Gerritsen who gave great insight into what judge look for and she was also complementary about Mister Cool so I was delighted. Two weeks later I did my first competition of the season and I scored 77% which was a great boost.

Now that Ireland have qualified I now have the task of making sure I get one of the places. I just keeping my head down and training away! Heres to a successful 2012!

My European Bronze, 2011

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:04:02 +0000

Below is a video showing some of the highlights of 2011. It was my first year with Mister Cool and we finished the year at the European Championships claiming an individual bronze for Ireland

This video contains snippets from 3 big internationals I went to in 2011, namely Deauville, Hartpury & Europan’s in Moorsele