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The woman without legs who became an equestrian champion
Angelika Trabert has won 24 medals in more than 25 years, six of them at five different Paralympic Games.When she’s not riding horses she works as an anaesthetist in Frankfurt or in Guinea where she travels with an NGO to provide urgent medical care, reports BBC.’If I sit on the horse and if the horse really understands me, I’m just free said Angelika Trabert.’ She is free in a way that she can never be while she just sits in a wheelchair or while she walks with artificial legs. Angelika won 24 medals for Germany, including at the Paralympics. There’s nothing wrong with her. She was just born with a disability. She was born without legs or with very short legs and on her right hand she only has three fingers. Her love is for horses. ‘You can do incredible things with the horse because it understands you and it’s a matter of your connection with that horse and then you can be as good as others or even better than people that have no handicap said Angelika Trabert.’She has competed in five Paralympic Games and most recently London 2012. When they play her national anthem, it’s a surreal feeling for her. Angelika said that if you stand up there and they hand it over to you, it’s a very special moment in your life.She started riding when she was five or six years old and she started on a pony. She thought her parents maybe hoped that she would get over with it when she would turn 12 or 13. She did fall of the horse quite a lot but she never gave up. She knew one time she fell off the horse three times a day and still got on the horse and just continued.Angelika works as an anesthetist in a clinic near Frankfurt. She said that her job gave her the opportunity to be independent and also afford her horses. She has travelled to Guinea with an NGO to work as a doctor. Her goal is to build a vocational school for young disabled people there. ‘My motto is, it’s ability not disability that counts; look upon the abilities you have and I think there’s plenty of them, said Angelika.’