The Brightside of Life!

This blog post is all about inspiration and determination both of which Bettina Eistel and her horse Fabuleax 5, encompass!

Bettina was born in 1961 in Germany, without any arms due to a drug, Thalidomide; which in the past was given to pregnant woman before they knew that it caused birth defects.  

Bettina has never let her disability stop her in life.  As she grew she learned to use her feet and toes as her hands and fingers. She decided at a fairly young age to start horse riding and her parents were brave enough to let her go for it. She had special riding boots made for her with cut-out toes so she could use her feet and toes as her hands and fingers whilst riding. Bettina manages to do all the normal things for her horse; she can saddle, bridle, hose down and even blanket him. She rides Fabuleax 5 by steering with her legs and holding the reins in her mouth.

So far Bettina and Fabuleax 5 have won two silver and a bronze at the European Championships in Portugal in 2002 and three silver at the World Championships in Belgium in 2003 and won two silver and one bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. Not bad for someone with ‘arms’ never mind without.  

One needs to also consider what sort of horse would let this kind of a rider be their partner. What temperament is needed to perform at high level dressage as well as take care of a disabled rider? I do believe horses have a 6^th sense when it comes to people, I mean I know for a fact that majority of horses I’ve ridden are far nicer to children than to adults. Bettina trained Fabuleax 5 via voice command, head movement and leg aids.

Over and above being an amazing horse rider, Bettina also hosts a Talk show. Showing weekly in Germany on a TV station called ZDF. She is known as a bit of a media star and is hugely popular with her following.

The reason why I wrote this post is because it touched base with me; many of us give up far too quickly and never manage to get past our fears in life. Bettina proves to us that with effort we can do whatever we wish in life and she should be an inspiration to us all.

"The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have..!”