4 December 2013, Issue 3 www.everythinghorseuk.co.uk www.everythinghorseuk.co.uk December 2013, Issue 3 25
This month Daisy Jacksons mum Debbie lets us know exactly what its like 'Bringing up the Young Talented Rider'
Daisy’s obsession with horses started very young and I guess I have to take the blame as horses and dressage have always been part of my life.
It has, at times, been a roller coaster of emotion, not just for Daisy but for all the family. The highs have been amazing but the lows can be painful. Dressage is such an emotional sport as you have to have a strong bond with your horse. He becomes your partner, friend, teacher and pupil and you worry about him as if he were your child. This can be hard when it is your own child acting like a parent themselves and feeling their pain when things out of your control happen.
I will start with the acquiring of Daisy’s first pony who was a snowy white Welsh Section A gelding Drumaddie Dish Dash. He was bought from a friend as a 5 year old when Daisy was just 2. At the time I competed in dressage, ran a livery yard and riding school and Daisy was used to being at the yard with me whilst I was either riding or teaching. Both Daisy and her older brother, Tom, rode but I always let them choose how much or how little they wanted to do and neither of them were pushed into horses. I was however hopeful that both my children would be sporty as I knew this would be my best chance of keeping them on the straight and narrow!
Daisy loved, not just the riding but the whole aspect of horses, she would stand with me in the arena and pretend to teach up downs (rising trot) to my bemused clients, she would muck out, groom and tack up. She was fiercely independent and hated me to help her! She and her friends were the ‘Purple Pony Girls’ who dressed themselves and their ponies up in their favourite colour! I organised summer camps where they enjoyed lessons and stable management sessions and had pony sleepovers.
When Daisy was 5, her father and I divorced which left us financially struggling to keep a pony. I couldn’t contemplate separating Daisy from her best friend especially as this was something that had happened to me as a teenager and had a huge effect on me at the time and probably always will. So we went without and I even pawned my grandmother’s engagement ring, which had been left to me as a family heirloom, to make sure that Dash stayed in the family even though at times it seemed impossible.
Daisy rode every day after school (her choice) and worked towards her first dressage test which she performed aged 8. It was a walk and trot test. She won with 73% which fuelled her competitive streak and she got the bug! Dash was not the easiest of ponies; he was safe and reliable but hated being on the bit! Daisy had to work for every second of submission!
Daisy and Dash
The turning point came for Daisy probably when I first took her to Olympia. She was very young to sit through the entire World Cup Qualifier but she did and she did so in silence and awe. She was around 8 years old and I never forget her having tears in her eyes and telling me that she was going to ride at Olympia one day.
After a couple more years with Dash, Daisy was getting so tall that we decided to look for a bigger pony. We ended up with a 15.2hh Welsh x Hannovarian schoolmaster named Spyder. Again, like Dash he was very safe and reliable. He didn’t have so much of a problem with submission but he really enjoyed shall we say, a slower pace in life! So Daisy quickly learnt how to ride the lazier
ype of horse! It was at this point that she Joined BYRDS which in simple terms, is dressage for children. It was at this time we decided to look for a dressage trainer that could teach Daisy inbetween her lessons with me as she was a serious little thing, where horses were concerned and after all time was running out if she wanted to get to Olympia! So, we were put in touch with Nicola Buchanan. At the time we knew that Nicola was an accomplished Grand Prix International rider but we had no clue as to how amazing she really is! Nicola hadn’t really taught any children before Daisy so she gave her the same sort of lessons that she would give to an adult. Daisy loved them! For her, fun was hacking and having a gallop up a hill or laughing on the yard with her friends but lessons were serious business and she didn’t want to waste a moment not learning or achieving.
After Spyder, Daisy went on to ride Sarah and Rebecca Eccles’ schoolmaster, Sam, who she competed at medium level. It was during this time that we found out the devastating (at the time) news that Daisy had developed the spinal condition Scoliosis. Daisy was experiencing neck pain and after passing out during a routine neck examination it was discovered and she was referred to the spinal unit at Southampton hospital. I badgered the consultant for a prognosis but was told this was impossible as Scoliosis is such an individual condition and impossible to predict. All we could focus on is that at worst Scoliosis is highly debilitating and life threatening.
Scoliosis is hereditary and comes about when the spine instead of growing symmetrically with natural curves becomes asymmetric and starts to twist and rotate. This affects the rib cage which rotates with it and internal organs which in extreme cases can be crushed. We knew all too well about the effects as Daisy’s Aunt has the condition very severely and has endured 7 life threatening operations. During the procedures the lungs are deflated and vital organs taken out of the body. If Daisy’s spine continued to curve we knew that she would have to have operations which takes the flexibility out of the spine and would put paid to any dressage career for her. With this knowledge I spent a year researching the condition, talking to surgeons in the US to see if there were less invasive procedures and spending most days, unbeknown to Daisy crying for what might be. I persuaded Daisy’s consultant to do special X-rays for us which he very reluctantly agreed to which were sent to the US. The surgeons there have procedures and diagnostics well in advance of ours and they were able to predict one year on that Daisy’s spine was almost mature and the curves would only progress a small amount more.
We had to keep monitoring but in April 2012 we cracked open the champagne as Daisy was officially signed off from the hospital as her spine had pretty much stopped growing. The scoliosis does affect her. She experiences pain in her back, neck and shoulders, sometimes severely enough to affect her breathing. She struggles with straightness on the horse and has to work with her physiotherapist Clare Howard, to stay supple and as symmetrical as possible. The pain was far worse when she was growing as her spine was actively curving which was often painful and stiff. Now her spine is stable it is just a case of her looking after herself as much as possible and taking pain relief when necessary which is not always possible when you want to have a career in dressage.
Here is an X-ray of Daisy’s back when her scoliosis was discovered. It went on to curve a further 5 degrees or so. It then stabilised before the curves got too severe.
You can see she has a lumbar curve (at the bottom) and then a compensatory curve at the top so her spine is slightly S shaped. This causes the rib cage to rotate along with the spine which can be quite painful. Daisy is lucky in that her curves stayed small. We saw many children at hospital appointments that weren’t so fortunate.
Bringing up the Young and Talented Rider: Being Mum to Daisy written by Debbie Jackson
Daisy and her First Pony - Dash