I don't just love riding; I love horses. I was in the field at my yard watching them gallop around and play the other day. That's what keeps me going, and sometimes it has to be something more than just winning.
From Lee Pearson
Whether I'm riding a horse or driving a car, I'm feeling them, judging what they're doing, trying to work out what I can take them up to.
I'm a gay disabled man who has become very successful. I don't get up in the morning and think I'm inspirational; I just get up thinking that I love horses.
My life's been surreal from start to finish.
The Paralympic Games actually turned my whole mentality around about disability. When you're in the Paralympic athletes' village and there are 4,000 disabled people, you stop seeing disability. Totally.
For me, Paralympic sport isn't about being the best human being. It's about being the best human being with that particular level of disability.
I feel lucky that I found my talent, not unlucky that I was born with a disability. When I'm on a horse, I'm more worried about what the riding hat is doing to my hair than what my bent legs and arms are doing. What riding has given me is respect.
Paralympics has always had to push the media into it being about sport and not focusing on the disability.
I think it's phenomenal and expected that Paralympians will take on able bodied people more and more. In dressage, it happens all the time. But there are very few adaptions, and they are never allowed to give you an advantage.
When people chat to me about my childhood and getting into horses, they're like, 'Was it like the birds sang and the sun came out? Was it an amazing experience?' I'm like, 'No, it was rubbish. I was frightened. I was pretty unbalanced, and most ponies took advantage of me.'
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