A YOUNG woman who was told she would never walk again after a horrific car accident is attempting to take part in the 2012 Paralympics.

 
Keen horse rider Rowan Caley, from St Johns, was 19 when she was involved in the car accident which broke her neck and left her paralysed from the neck down.

Now 29, Rowan has defied the doctor’s prognosis, is back riding again and is even aiming for a place in the Great Britain dressage team at the Paralympics.

Rowan crashed into a tree near to the Poortown S-bends in Peel on a wet January night in 1999.

She recalled: "It was outside Ballalough farm. The car went up a tree and I had come out the back windscreen. Juan Lace who lives there came out but he thought that the driver had run away. I was further down the road and he heard me, brought his car out and shone the lights on me so that no one would come and squash me."

She suffered a broken and dislocated neck in the accident and was taken to Noble's Hospital in Douglas before being flown by air ambulance to Southampton Spinal Unit.

 
In Southport Rowan had to have an operation to graft skin from her hip to her neck and was put in a protective body jacket to keep her head and neck still.

 
She said: "They put a halo around me and screwed it in to my skull. It was attached to a vest so I couldn’t move my head.

"I was in intensive care for about two weeks and on a ventilator for a few days and then I was allowed up and about to be pushed around in a wheelchair because I couldn’t move."

After the operation doctors told Rowan that she was paralysed from the neck down and would never walk again.

She remembered: "I think the first thing I said was ‘will I ever ride my horse again?’ That was more of a concern than what they had just said.

 
"They said I wouldn’t walk again but we always thought it was a ‘might not’. Even when I started getting a bit of movement in my legs they put it down to spasms."

Rowan spent six months in the spinal unit where she underwent daily physiotherapy sessions.

She said: "It got you out of bed instead of just lying there; you had to get up for your physio. You couldn’t lie in bed and feel sorry for yourself."

She credits her parents with keeping her positive throughout the time she spent in hospital. She said: "My mum and dad always kept me positive. It was hard but either my mum or dad would be around most of the time and I’ve got a son as well who was just turning two at the time, so he was also back and forward."

 
Despite the poor outlook Rowan did begin to regain movement in her body and amazingly began to walk again.

 
She explained: "It was a shock to my spinal chord rather than it being fully severed so that’s why I can now walk again. It’s an incomplete injury."

 
Rowan was an experienced horse rider before the accident and had ridden from a young age along with the rest of her family.

After six months in hospital Rowan was finally allowed home to the Island where her parents were keen to get her riding again.

She said: "My mum was dying to throw me back on a horse. They threw me up and I just went down to Tynwald Mills and back again. It was brilliant, a really nice feeling, but it was also horrible because I couldn’t ride like I used to."

Although the car accident left Rowan so close to permanent paralysis she was fearless about the danger of riding. She said: "You have to fall off lots to be a good rider.

"I did come off once when my horse thought he would have a race. He ran off and I couldn’t stop him. I just got so tired trying to pull him up that I just flopped off. I fractured my jaw after he kicked me in the face."

Despite the car accident reducing her lungs to half capacity and leaving her with weakness down the right hand side of the body Rowan is fiercely independent.

She said: "I used to set myself certain goals. I never used to be able to tack up my horse myself or anything like that, so I set myself goals like being able to put the saddle on myself. I can do all that now; I can tack him up and everything so I’m quite independent.

"I can’t go out for a jog and I can’t go up and get my horse in myself if he’s at the top of the field, but you don’t want people to do things for you all the time."

A keen competitive show jumper before the accident, Rowan was keen to get back into the sport. She said: "To start with I just used to hack about. I wasn’t completely ready for a while. I wanted to try show jumping again, and I did try it but my balance just isn’t quite there."

With show jumping out of the question Rowan’s mum was keen to focus her daughter’s competitive attention elsewhere.

Whilst watching the Paralympics in 2008 she spotted the dressage event and suggested it to her daughter.

Rowan remembered: "She didn’t want to push it because she wasn’t sure what I would say. I’m quite proud and didn’t want to be thought of as disabled. I sort of thought about it and thought why not. It was something to get competitive about."

She started training and now regularly attends competitions in the UK. She is hoping that these competitions will lead her to her ultimate goal of competing in the 2012 Paralympics.

However this is not without its difficulties. Rowan’s own horse is too inexperienced to be used for dressage and with the difficulty of transporting a horse on and off the Island she is forced to borrow horses when she competes. This can leave her at an obvious disadvantage to her fellow competitors.

Rowan explained: "It’s hard to borrow or use someone else’s horse because you don’t have a relationship with them. When you do have your own horse you have a bond with it. You know what they’re thinking and they know what you’re thinking. You know how they work."

It also affects her training in the Isle of Man. She said: "I have training once a week with a local trainer with my horse but because he is only a novice horse, I’m training him as well as me."

Despite this Rowan has recently come fifth at the Riding for the Disabled National Championships on a horse she hadn't ridden until 20 minutes before the competition.

In order to qualify for the Paralympics team Rowan must complete the World Class Programme before hopefully being selected. She is currently in the second of three stages. Rowan is hopeful that she will be selected but admits it would be more likely if she could get a suitable horse.

She said: "I’ve got to get the right horse under me. When I go to these competitions and see the horses that these people are riding they’re top class horses, so I’ve got to find something like that. It’s not just me it’s about the animal as well."

Rowan has received sponsorship from a number of companies in the Island including corporate service provider Intertrust. The company made a donation which went towards the travel costs involved with attending competitions in the UK.

Despite the dramatic challenges Rowan has faced in the last 10 years she remains modest about her achievements. She said: "I don’t have to pinch myself to believe I’ve come this far. Anyone can do it if they put their mind to it if there is something they want to achieve.

"I would have wanted to do well at show jumping or eventing beforehand so I’ve just had to change the way I do things.

"If you watch the Paralympics there’s people with no arms and no legs and they just get on with it.

"I think it’s just stubbornness. I’ve always been stubborn, so it must be a good thing. I don’t like people doing too much for me."

Ultimately for Rowan the best thing about horse riding is the freedom it gives her.

She said: "I think the main thing about being on a horse is that people don’t know you’re disabled. I can’t run anymore but I can go fast on a horse!"

To sponsor Rowan contact her at Rowie@manx.net.