About Hannah Dodd.pdf - Horse Deals

Hannah Dodd
International Para‐Equestrienne
Hannah riding ‘Lucifer’s Dream’ (aka ‘Luce’)
Age: 17
Disability: Sacral Agenesis (a rare form of Spina Bifida)
Current competition classification: International Para‐equestrian – Grade IV
Contact Hannah: phyllis_dodd@hotmail.com or Mobile: 0418 485 551
Hannah’s ‘Highlights’
• International competition experience
• Hartpury Dressage Festival CPEDI *** 2006 ‐ 7 th , 8 th , 9 th
• Millfield Young Riders Dressage CPDIJ* 2006 – two 1 st ’s,3 rd ,4 th ,5 th ,6 th
• RDA UK Dressage Nationals 2006 – 2 nd and two 3 rd ’s
• National competition and results/achievements
• Victorian and National Young Riders Dressage Champs 2008 ‐ 9th overall in the Elementary, 3rd in the Medium, 2nd
in the Medium Freestyle, 3rd in the FEI Junior Test and 2nd in the Thoroughbred Classic.
• QLD Young Rider Championships 2008, 4th in the elementary, 3rd in the medium and 7th in the freestyle.(just 3
days out of hospital!)
• National Young Rider Championships 2009 – 4th in the Elementary, 6th in the medium, 4th in the FEI Junior
• RDA Dressage Nationals 2005 – 3rd Grade 4, 2006 – Reserve Champion Grade 4, 2008 – Champion Grade 4 section A
and B
• 2009 Australian Para‐Equestrian Nationals – Reserve Champion Grade 4
• State Competition and result/achievements
• Sydney Royal – Girl Rider 10 and under – winner
• PCA NSW Equitation Championship – Under 13’s runner up and 3rd place
• RDANSW Dressage Championships – 2005,06,07,08 Grade 4 Champion – 08 also Section B Champion
• NSW Young Rider Dressage Championship 2009 – Reserve Champion Elementary Horse, and 4th in the Medium
To see Hannah in action, please visit ‐ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaTtFb9K8y4

Hannah’s Journey…
[Introduction and ‘early years’ as told by Hannah’s Mum, Phyllis]
Birth the 12 months
Hannah was born in April 1992, a much longed for little sister for her two older brothers. The joy of Hannah’s
arrival was quickly dampened by the concern we had for Hannah’s health and future.
It was immediately apparent that she had a battle ahead of her – her right foot was 180° to the rest of her leg
(essentially facing backwards). In addition to this, it was discovered that Hannah’s right tibia was substantially
shorter than her left as the right leg had no calf muscle.
At three months of age,
Hannah underwent the first of countless surgeries. The initial surgery to correct her right ‘club foot’ required
the severing and reattachment of all tendons and muscles to allow for the realignment of her foot to it’s
‘rightful’ position. Following this surgery, Hannah remained in plaster until she was nine months old.
At four months
Hannah began suffering from numerous urinary tract infections and a large amount of reflux into the kidney.
After many tests it was discovered that she had a ‘horse shoe’ kidney, with two urethra’s going into the one
kidney. There was also a malformation in her bladder making it half the size of a normal one.
My Husband and I started looking for answers by visiting speacialists at Camperdown Children’s Hospital,
where it was suggested that Hannah have Urine Bags attached to her permanently, as her kidney was failing.
This was not a procedure that we wished to subject Hannah to, so we looked into every alternative option
available. In our search we found a doctor in England, Professor Mundy, whose opinion was that the
procedure they wished to perform on our little girl was barbaric and inappropriate for such a young child.
Professor Mundy recommended a student of his based in Australia, Professor Farnsworth, who performed a
kidney release; where the urethra’s were brought to the surface which stopped the reflux of toxins into the
kidney and allowed the kidney to regenerate. Hannah stayed like this for 6 months.
At fifteen months,
Hannah was operated on again. This time she underwent a seven hour operation to construct an attachment
to her bladder out of her bowel, to make it the full size. At the same time as this her doctors performed
microsurgery on Hannah’s urethra’s to straighten them to reduce the reflux into her kidney.Even after these
major surgeries Hannah still had numerous infections and spent the majority of her first two years of life in
hospital hooked up to IV’s and machines to purify her blood and to get the sustenance her body couldn’t get
by itself.
At two years of age,
We introduced Hannah to horses as both our sons, Phillip and David rode, it was apparent right from the start
that Hannah loved horses. The walks ‘round the paddock in front of the boys saddles with Brian and I holding

her were the one of the only times we’d see her rare smiles and it was where we heard her laugh the most.
Along with her happiness also came strength and at two and a half years old, Hannah took her first steps.
At age four
Hannah started riding on a lead, but without assistance from us. This was a very challenging thing was
because her deformity on her right side unbalanced her and she could only last a few circles on the lunge
before predictably falling off to the left. After many bumps and bruises and months of persistence, Hannah
finally managed to pull of riding by herself, she did this by riding with her right stirrup leather two holes
shorter than her left to accommodate her shorter right leg. Once this obstacle was overcome, there was just
no stopping her! We enrolled her at the local pony club our boys went to and while some of Hannah’s doctors
were not happy with her riding because of the possible danger, Professor Farnsworth encouraged it, saying it
would give her strength in her legs that not even physiotherapy could provide, as well as a sense of normality.
His advice proved correct, as every appointment we went to she would boast about her latest achievement.
At age six,
it was recommended that Hannah have more surgery done on her right leg ‐ this time a bone graft to try and
correct the angle of her ankle and the rotation of her foot. It was a two hour operation with three months in
plaster, after which she had to go through months of painful and frustrating rehabilitation therapy to learn
how to walk again.
Unfortunately, about six months after the operation, the progress made started to reverse itself, and it was
recommended that Hannah go back into a caliper or AFO (ankle foot orthotic) to stop her “rolling out” when
she walked and putting strain through her hips and back. This decision was not met with enthusiasm by
Hannah!
From about eight years of age,
Hannah was achieving and participating in school and extracurricular activities along with (and often
surpassing) her peers despite the continued need to wear her leg brace and many hospital stays. At this time,
additional extensive orthopedic surgery was recommended. This resulted in the transplantation of major
tendons from her foot to force rotation of the joint to the correct position. As with the surgery of two years’
prior, the progress from this surgery and additional rehabilitation was temporary.
I cannot begin to explain the feeling of watching your child struggle with pain, knowing there’s nothing you
can do to prevent it or stop it, I can remember listen to my baby girl scream and cry herself to sleep at night
when the morphine wasn’t strong enough, I still do. There is nothing more terrifying than the heartache and
gut‐wrenching fear I get every time Hannah gets sick, because I know I can do nothing but comfort her and
wait until the doctors find the problem, the old fears from the days of almost losing her as a child resurface
and it scares to death every I walk into a hospital.
[Hannah continues her story]
10 years old
2002 was one of the most trying years of my life ‐ it was one of beautiful highs and painful lows.

The high was winning my rider class at the Sydney royal against able bodied competitors and coming 3 rd in my
zone team of 4. I can’t even begin to explain how happy that day made me ‐ I still count it as one of my best
achievements. Unfortunately my joy was short lived as three weeks later, while getting ready for another
horse show, I put on my new jodhpurs (that I had bought for the royal) only to find that they were 3 inches too
short for me! I didn’t pay too much attention thinking it was just an unusual growth spurt, but this was just
the beginning of a long and painful series of events.
Ten days later, while getting ready to go to school, I had just done up my shoes and stood up, only fall like a
cement brick. I tried and again and again. Mum, hearing the bangs of me hitting the floor came to ask what
was wrong, only to find me in tears, saying “mummy I can’t use my legs!” Mum took me straight to Sydney
Children’s Hospital where I was admitted and taken for tests. I had a full body MRI, a CT, Blood tests and brain
scans to try and find the problem only to be told there was none. I was kept overnight then sent home.
A week later, the spasms started. I cannot describe the pain ‐ I liken it to having fire shot through your entire
body like lightening. I became confined to the lounge, as even the smallest movement would set off an attack.
I would scream at night as the pain worse then and would sleep just from pure exhaustion.After two weeks of
this mum took me back to the hospital with the help of my brother David, as I could not move by myself
anymore. Again I was admitted and taken for tests and once again my doctor’s registrar said everything was
normal (for me) but kept me in hospital for pain management.
And so I passed the next six months like this – completing year 5 by correspondence, and seeing my friends on
the weekend when they had the time to make the trek out to Randwick. I really do need to acknowledge and
thank my best friend Annelise, who would come and sleep with on the weekends giving my parents a much
needed break.
It wasn’t until November that I was seen by my neurosurgeon Doctor Stenning, who again ran all the tests and
finally found the problem. With my huge growth spurt at the beginning of the year I had managed to snap off
the ligaments attached to the bottom of my spine and had wrapped around the unprotected part of my spinal
cord affectively strangling the nerves that controlled my legs and rubbing against them causing the pain.
After the problem was found I underwent my longest surgery to date. I spent nine hours in theatre, where the
doctors unwrapped the ligaments and reattached them to where they were supposed to be while at the same
time they tried to repair some off the nerve damage.
It took me two weeks to recover from the surgery, and then the long road of physio and rehab started me on
the way to walking and functioning normally again. After only 3‐4 weeks I was walking around on a walking
frame for a hour each day, which left me exhausted and tired and grumpy but happy at the same time. I was
getting back to being me, until one day after having a steak knife dropped into my foot I realized I had no pain
sensors on my feet and hands and lessened pain sensors on the rest of my body. Also my circulation to these
parts was reduced, sometimes leaving them blue even in the middle of the day.
11 years old
I spent Christmas in hospital with my family and returned home in late January. After nine months in hospital
it felt like heaven. My first port of call was my horses. I wanted to ride again, and so much like when I was a

child my mum, dad and brothers helped me onto my pony Thozzie and walked me around the arena. I lasted
all of about ten minutes before I was too tired to continue, but I was happy
Every day after doing my walking exercises, I would ask to ride and every day I would last just a little bit
longer. It took me a full 5 months to be able to ride competitively again. As soon as I was able, I started
competing again and qualified for the NSW pony club State Equitation championships.
12 years old
This was the first time I had made it to a state comp and so I was ecstatic when I was awarded runner up for
the under 13’s! It was at this time I began to take an interest in Dressage and began competing in young riders
and pony competitions. The next year I again qualified for State Equitation and again was awarded Runner Up.
I also achieved 3 rd position overall in pony elementary at the Young Riders State Championships and 6 th overall
in the novice.
At age 13,
I was old enough to compete in Riding for the Disabled Association’s official dressage competitions and was
classified a Grade IV. This classification has the highest degree of difficulty in their tests.
This first time I competed at the NSW State Championships, I walked away with the State Championship and
my ticket to the National Championships in Victoria at the end of that year. The only problem was that at this
stage my pony was too old to make the trip and so we began the five month search to find my current partner,
Lucifer’s Dream.
I met ‘Luce’ through horsedeals and he seemed to be the gentleman I was looking for; so mum and I flew to
Coffs Harbor to ride him. I fell in love almost instantly and agreed to buy him before getting on the plane
home. Luce’s owner Helen floated him down a week later, and we began our partnership. This was only three
weeks before Nationals!!!! We had a few issues with finding which ‘button’ went where and, Luce had to get
used to me using a whip for my right leg. Despite all of this, we made it to nationals in Victoria and came in 3 rd
behind people easily 15 years older than me! I was so happy!
It was around this time that the subluxation in my joints became more severe, I have always had mild
subluxation in my legs particularly my bad leg, but now every movable joint in my body was subluxating.
Subluxation is an incomplete dislocation of a joint, the bones moves slightly and then I my case rotate or twist
pulling the tendons and ligaments , stretching them beyond painful limits. This happens in every movable
joint – fingers, wrists, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, and toes. Once the joint is subluxated I can’t use any part
of the limb below the point of subluxation.
14 years old
My performance was enough to get me noticed by the national selectors and I was invited to join the National
RDA Dressage squads as well as the Youth Development Squad being the youngest person to ever do so. Along
with this achievement, I was asked something I had dreamed of for years ‐ did I want to represent Australia
Internationally!? Yes, yes and yes!

So, in June of 2006, along with nine other athletes, we jetted over to England, where we bused to Hartpury
College and had 5 days to acclimatize to our horses before competing at the Hartpury CPDI *** where I came
in 7th, 8 th and 9 th against Paralympic, World and European champions! Again, I was the youngest person this
time by a good 20‐25 yrs! Following Hartpury, I then competed in the Millfield Junior CPEDIJ* where I won
both of my Grade tests, came 3 rd and 4 th in the international riders comps and 5 th and 6 th overall. We then
returned to Hartpury to compete in the UK RDA Championships where I claimed a 2 nd and two 3 rd ’s.Two weeks
after returning home, Luce was struck down with severe colic and had to be operated on. He came out of the
operation fine thankfully, but this left me without a horse for Nationals ‐ again! We then went on the hunt
again for anyone who would be willing to lend me a horse that was Medium/advanced trained. It wasn’t easy,
but eventually 2 weeks before Nationals we found a horse ‐ Karen Lever’s Kokket. Kokket and I were awarded
runner up after finishing close 2 nd in every test behind a former gold medalist!
15 years old
2007 was not a good year for Luce and I, as he did not come back from the surgery well and we were left
wondering what had happened to our sweet, kind gentleman of a horse. After 6 months of bad temper and
temper tantrums, (which left some people wondering if my mum really loved me or not!) we called in a physio
for Luce and found that some of his muscles had been damaged in the operation, right about where my leg sat
when I was riding! The mystery was solved! So after being given some stretches to perform every time before
I rode things started to pick up and my sweet natured horse I love came back. however at the end of 2007 I
started to get severe headaches that eventually caused me to go blind from light sensitivity I had to wear dark
sunglasses 24/7, and the smallest of sound hurt, it was discovered that I had an infection in the lining of my
frontal lobe, so after a month on medication treatment I was almost back to normal but I lost my peripheral
vision and most of the hearing in my right ear, the loss of my vision made it virtually impossible to see the
arena markers when riding and also upset my balance, but after a lot of adjustment I managed to cope but it
wasn’t until 2008 that we really shone.
16 years old
We began with the combined Victorian and National Young Riders Dressage Champs where me and Luce
finished 9 th overall in the Elementary, 3 rd in the Medium, 2 nd in the Medium Freestyle, 3 rd in the FEI Junior Test
and 2 nd in the Thoroughbred Classic.
Following this, I was unfortunately hospitalised for a month with peritonitis, but we quickly were back on track
with some wins and high placings around Sydney before I was again hospitalised for 10 days before the
Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
On the Monday of the long weekend, Mum, Luce and I set off to the QLD Young Rider Championships, just 3
days out of hospital! We were quite the ‘team’ and picked up 4 th in the elementary, 3 rd in the medium and 7 th
in the freestyle.
After Queensland, we returned to Sydney for the NSW Young Rider Dressage Championships where we
claimed 3rd overall in the mediums, 6th overall in the elementary, a 5th in the Medium Freestyle, and a 3rd in
the FEI Junior Test (that I had to do without a right leg because they took away my whip!)

August then brought RDA State Championships where we retained our State Champion title for the 3rd year
running, as well as picking up the Section B champion on a horse I complete on behalf of his owners,
Yarralonga Golden Boy (kobi).
It was then on to Nationals down in Victoria, where I won the Grade 4 Section A champion on Lucifer's Dream
and the grade 4 Section B champion on Peter and Fiona Zalfelds young horse Yarralonga Golden Boy.
After returning home i was again admitted to hospital for another severe kidney infection for 2 1/2 weeks.
17 years old
This year has undoubtedly been my best with Luce we got to the level of partnership where we worked almost
seamlessly and effortlessly, we learned to compensate for each other and reached new levels in our
performance. We gained top ten placings at Dressage NSW (DNSW) in the Medium’s, even managing to get an
=2 nd and 4 th place, I can’t explain the feeling to see some of the top adult dressage riders in the country and
having my name among them, it is beyond gratifying. Luce and I also achieved our fist large able bodied
championship coming NSW Reserve Champion Elementary Horse, I hadn’t checked the final score board so I
didn’t know until they announced it at the presentation, I was so happy I cried.
Despite some of the challenges it presents, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than ride and compete with
my horses.
Riding gives me the freedom to move without restriction, and it gives me the power to compete against those
older and more experienced than me and hold my own against them.
The greatest feeling for me is when I can stand with the place getters and know that I have overcame so much
to get there.
The other great thing is that when I’m riding no one can tell that I have a disability, with many observers and
competitors often looking shocked when they see me get off and have to use my sticks to get around.
Above everything else though, is the fact that I get to spend so much time with my two fantastic horses, who
aren’t just my partners, but also my two closest friends ‐ I love them more than anything in the world!
Thanks for taking the time to read about my journey so far.
If you would like to know more about my background, experiences, goals and dreams; or would like to support
me in my quest to represent Australia at the World Equestrian Games and the Paralympics, please contact me
via the details listed.
Hannah Dodd
2009
Contact Hannah: phyllis_dodd@hotmail.com or Mobile: 0418 485 551