“Calma” is the Italian word for quiet. And it is the keyword for Paolo. The stallion snorted briefly, pawing with his front foot in the sand before he gives way your legs slowly and then sinks to the bottom. With great effort moved Timo Ameruoso his wheelchair through the heavy sand very close to the animal zoom.

He gently strokes Paolo over the back – before he grabs his right leg and place it gently over the saddle. His hands grasp the big knob, and he retreats complete with a jerk on the horse. Paolo rises and carries his rider willingly in a circle.

That the 37-year-old can go on his horse unaided, is a small miracle. Allows will by the special bond of trust between riders and animals plus four years of intense and totally non-violent training. “The upgrades to the horse lying is the only way for me to be independent of other people while riding,” explains Ameruoso. “It took about two years until Paolo has lain down, and another two years until he let me sit for the first time.”

Abandon riding was never in question

“Improvise” that riders with a handicap must, so far as is not uncommon. They resemble their disability made with alternative commands. If a rider for example paralyzed legs, it agrees on two left and right fitting whips his horse. Sabine Staemmler-Kienzle, former team doctor of the German riders with a handicap, however, has not seen a paraplegic rider who can climb on a horse with such exceptional solution. “Normally one uses instead a ramp or a lift,” she explains.

Photo: GreatLife.Books Normally use riders with a handicap ramp or lift. Timo Ameruoso has its own technology. For this purpose the horse laying on the ground

On 19 May 1995 Timo Ameruoso had a serious motorcycle accident. The diagnosis for the then 17-year-olds: fracture of the eighth thoracic vertebra and thus paraplegia. Abandon Riding never questioned came to the young man from Biebesheim am Rhein, however. “Half a year after the accident, shortly after I was allowed to sit again, I let me pick up my former horse Pascal for the first time,” he recalls.

Concerns externally bounced to him: “I immediately had clarified that no way would lead past the horses, even if I needed three people who then have to heave myself..” Initially living out his passion was mainly associated with great pain.

“I lacked the sense of movement. Through the paralysis my pelvis could not resonate,” said Ameruoso recalls. What also meant that “every step of the horse a push in the back meant”. And yet Ameruoso went on unperturbed, for he wanted and wants his life to continue as it was before the accident.

Bursts dream of the Paralympics

According to Physicians Staemmler-Kienzle paraplegic man is riding even often recommended. “Depending on where the cross section is seated, it may be good for the body because it is the back muscles trained”, says the expert. In most cases it is, however, so that the wheelchair would only come about therapeutic riding to this sport.

One challenge is loud Staemmler-Kienzle interaction with paraplegic riders but for the horses. You trap it first often difficult to keep the balance. Until a couple in dealing with each other is safe, it takes some practice.

Photo: GreatLife.Books Riding abandon not came for Timo Ameruoso even after his serious motorcycle accident and despite paraplegia question

1998 Timo Ameruoso was finally time again that he could ride on his Pascal “right” and in all gaits. “My goal was to me to qualify for the Paralympics,” he recalls. But shortly before the crucial tournament came the next shock: He fell from his horse, suffered head injuries and it fell into a coma.

Thereafter was nothing left for him as it once was. Ameruoso suffered from depression and had several nervous breakdowns. The handling of the horses lost by this dramatic event his ease: “I suddenly had fear of riding and absolutely no longer drive.”

This doubt marked an important turning point in his life. He says today that there was at that time only one way to come back into harmony with the animal: rethink.

“I can understand anyone who says ‘I can not’, which perhaps begins to take drugs or drink,” says Paolo Ameruoso and caresses over her head. “But I have realized that you just have to resort to Plan B, rather than adhering diligently to plan A.” For him, that meant ultimately to move away from the horse riding as a sport and to focus now on the horse in itself: “It’s about the perfect connection between humans and animals.”

The horse, consider it but the people just before the mirror, says Ameruoso. In all my years with the quadrupeds and especially in the hard times after his accident he learned a lot about the animals, but also about himself. “For example, I noticed that I ausflippe fairly quickly. One reason is that I’m sitting in the wheelchair. Man begins to compensate, believes it is necessary to distinguish itself.”

The horses which will, however, do not care, they took no account of his disability. In dealing with them he must therefore be self-assured and confident. “Horses build character,” he concludes. The stallion, even though it look so, do not treat him as a cautious pedestrian. Few restrictions he experiences in daily training with the horses. Sideways wise, that he could, for example, difficult.

Horse as Calm Anchor

Timo Ameruoso has his own philosophy for dealing with horses worked out that close brings the horses mediator also other riders. Actually, he is Technical of professional draftsman, but soon he would like to be able to live with the horses and riders from work – even if he knows his that, as he puts it himself, “esoteric dealing” with horses in some people criticized encounters ,

For Ameruoso only one thing counts: “People can say what they want The horses are my resource as long as everything is right here, my horses are healthy and like me, I do not care about anything This is my haven….”

On September 15, Timo Ameruosos book “Side Glances” appears at GreatLife.Books.