YOUR HORSE MAGAZINE meets DARREN ASHTON
Living with a life-changing degenerative disease isn’t easy, but this hugely competitive disabled rider isn’t letting it hold him back, finds
WHEN LIFE THROWS you a curve ball, hit it out of the park. That is the mantra of 25-year-old Darren Ashton who, despite being diagnosed with a degenerative condition seven years ago, is making the most of every opportunity given to him. Now wheelchair-bound, sports-loving Darren finds freedom in the saddle and competes nationally in Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) dressage. “I was doing wheelchair basketball, but I didn’t find it fun because I was playing against children who were a lot smaller than me,” explains Darren, who suffers from Friedreich’s ataxia, an inherited disease that causes progressive damage to the nervous system. It has left him with a weak core and limited use of his legs. “One of the parents was chatting to my mum and suggested I try riding with the RDA. Her daughter rode to help with her core balance and it rang a bell with me.” Darren contacted a local RDA centre in London where he rode for a year before his family relocated to Trowbridge, Wiltshire. “I was on a waiting list for a year after we moved, but finally started riding two years ago. I’ve gone from being led around the arena to riding independently and competing in dressage at the regional and national RDA championships two years in a row,” he says.
Darren rides weekly at Saxon Group RDA, a volunteer-run group based at Widbrook Equestrian Centre in Bradford-on-Avon. Watching him ride confidently unaided, it’s hard to imagine he needed two side walkers and a leader when he first started out. “I had no core strength and nearly wobbled off going round a corner the first time I sat on a horse,” remembers Darren. “I used to have two people holding me on, one on each side, while being led. It took me six months before I was strong enough to ride by myself.” Darren currently rides 10-year-old Welsh section D mare Caellyn Haf. They compete in RDA dressage tests, which consist of walking 10m and 20m circles and performing a free walk and halts. The judges look for accuracy in the movements and activity in the walk. “Caellyn is forward going but quiet and gentle, and doesn’t need too much leg,” says Darren, who rides with a long whip in each hand to back up his leg aids. “I’m so confident in Caellyn and I know that she isn’t going to do anything stupid, like race off or try to get me off. She really looks after me.” Caellyn wears a double bridle with special looped reins, which mostly works on the snaffle bit and allows Darren to make subtle aids that Caellyn is responsive to. He also uses Acavallo stirrups for extra grip and a rubber band to help hold his feet in the stirrups. “Riding is something I can do by myself,” muses Darren. “When you are disabled and get on a horse, you’re equal to an able-bodied person. Caellyn becomes my legs. It’s really improved my core strength and posture too. “The condition affects each person differently, but at the moment it affects mostly my hand-eye coordination and my legs, making them weak.”
Darren is clearly benefiting physically from riding, but it’s what it’s done for him mentally that has had the biggest effect. Before he was diagnosed in his late teens, Darren played a lot of sports including football, basketball and golf, and having to stop all of those was a hard pill to swallow. “All I wanted to do when I was young was play football,” says the avid Arsenal fan. “I played constantly and then it had to stop, suddenly. It hurt me for years and years.” Not long after he learned of his condition, Darren fell into a dark place. “We didn’t know what Freidreich’s ataxia was and when we began to realise what the effect was going to be, it was a bombshell for the whole family,” explains Darren’s father, Steven. “For six years he was depressed, suffered from anxiety and almost agoraphobic because he’d become very self-conscious.” The light at the end of the tunnel came when Darren started riding. “It was a pretty big thing for me to get that core strength back in my upper body,” Darren says. “Riding enables me to be competitive and have the chance of winning. It has forced me to go to lots of competitions and different places and talk to loads of different people, which really helped with my anxiety.
“What riding has done for Darren mentally is phenomenal”
I’ve learnt that I haven’t lost my competitive edge, that I’m resilient and whatever gets thrown at me, I can deal with it. Instead of focusing on the bad, I focus on the good.” His family has seen a huge change too. “I didn’t realise how much difference riding could make to Darren mentally,” muses Steven. “At the beginning it was all to do with what riding could do for him physically. But what it’s done mentally is phenomenal. He’s a totally different person now.”
Last year, the story of Darren’s inspirational journey reached RDA headquarters and, as a result, he was presented with the RDA Rider of the Year award at its glitzy Gala Awards evening. “It was all to do with the journey Darren had made in such a short space of time,” explains Steven who admits to being unbelievably proud and very emotional when watching his son receive the award. “It’s what the RDA is all about — it’s what you can give to each individual simply from being around horses.” Darren puts a lot of his riding success down to his trainer and mentor Kady Chatman, a volunteer at Saxon Group RDA. Former army officer Kady is as competitive as Darren and the pair share plenty of banter. “She knows how to get the best out of me,” smiles Darren. “It isn’t just a case of being led around the arena,” adds Steven. “He’s now independent and there’s an aim and ambition to his riding. Kady zoned in on him, saw there was something there and pushed him.” Kady is equally as positive about Darren. “The group nominated Darren because he embodies everything the RDA stands for,” she explains. “The progression he’s made is phenomenal. But more than that is the progress he’s made personally, coming to terms with his condition, what he can do and the enjoyment he gets from riding.” So, with a national award under his belt, and championship attendances to match, what’s next on Darren’s to do list? “I’d like to look into para dressage,” he ponders, “and do some para trial days. Even if I don’t get in, I’d just like to experience it.” With his newfound zest for life, anything is possible for this inspirational young man.