Pony express: How one woman's love of horses has helped her beat the odds

Disabled from birth, Margaret Lupton's rise to become an elite carriage driver is testament to her courage and independent spirit. Now she faces the biggest test of her life as she takes up the reins for Team GB in this month's World Championships

IT SEEMED like a good idea at the time. With a few minutes to kill before the start of the competition, Margaret Lupton and her team tacked up their horse and set off for a walk, merely a bit of light exercise, through the countryside near North Berwick. It was a July summer's morning and, with the Para-Equestrian World Driving Championships just a few weeks away, Lupton and her groom Catriona Murray were on a high after being picked to represent Great Britain.

For Lupton it was the pinnacle of her achievements so far. Disabled from birth and in a wheelchair from the age of two, she had, through a combination of riding ability, a natural affinity for horses and sheer persistence, become one of the best competition-level carriage drivers in the country. For Murray, it was the repayment of her faith in Lupton's ability to compete not only against the disabled drivers but against able-bodied competitors as well.

Then it happened. Lupton executed a sharp turn and the horse, Tartan, found himself on a rough grass verge. Somehow the carriage wheels got stuck and then the assembly tipped and the startled horse bolted off down a bank and across an open field. Murray was thrown off immediately and found herself charging after the rig. Lupton wasn't so fortunate – as the carriage collapsed on to its side, she slid down and became entangled in the side-arm. She was dragged for about 500 yards across the field, breaking her hip before being thrown clear.

"I just turned and we got caught in the wrong place on the grass verge and just tipped over," she recalls. "Tartan stayed up but bolted with me in the carriage. I slipped down into the arm rest, which caught my leg, which meant I couldn't free myself. I was dragged along on my side and banged my hip.

"These things happen. It could have happened at full pace, which would have been much worse. That was the moment, but probably the only moment, when I thought, 'What am I doing here?'"

Murray eventually caught up with Tartan, but the horse caught her as she tried to regain control. She fell and badly bruised her face. She scrambled up again to race after the horse and managed to unclip her. "It wasn't a pleasant moment," she says, "but even now I can hardly believe it happened."

All three survived but those few seconds ended the hopes of the only Scottish trio competing in the 2006 World Championships in Holland. "It was an accident," says Lupton. "These things happen. Our team-mates took a Saltire to the opening ceremony so at least we were there in spirit."

Most observers thought that would be the end of Lupton's carriage driving career – she spent several weeks in hospital before returning to her home in Annan and her family on the north bank of the Solway Firth. Given her background, they really should have known better.

Within ten weeks of the crash, Lupton was back in the driving seat, with Murray behind her and Tartan up front. More competitive successes in both disabled and able-bodied competitions soon followed. At the end of this month, with a new horse, Baz, in harness, the duo will be part of the GB team at the 2008 Para-Equestrian World Driving Championships in Greven, Germany, where the squad hope to bring home the gold medal. Next year, Lupton aims to compete in the elite national championships, against able-bodied competitors, at Windsor.

It's a remarkable – but to those who know her, unsurprising – comeback for the 33-year-old Glaswegian who has never given in to her disability or any setbacks that could have threatened her rise to the top of her sporting field. "I was perhaps back on the carriage a little too early at ten weeks but I believe I wouldn't be at the level I am now if I had stayed off," she says. "To be honest, if I hadn't got back on then I may not have got back on at all."

Carriage driving is the equestrian sport made famous by the Duke of Edinburgh after his polo days were over. He spent 30 years popularising the activity with its whiff of aristocratic endeavour in locations such as Ascot, Windsor and Hopetoun House near Edinburgh.

It's similar to three-day mounted eventing with three disciplines: dressage, an overland obstacle course and precision control and steering through cones. Categories range from four horses to pairs to singles, in which the driver has full control of the reins. It is not an Olympic sport but that's only because, as yet, not enough countries can put out full national teams.

Lupton drives a single horse, which means she is up front on the seat on her own in full control of the reins. Murray, as groom, stands behind and navigates, keeps time and uses her weight to help the driver steer around obstacles. It's a team effort that demands harmony between the three members if they are to successfully negotiate a series of obstacles that test their skills to the limit.

While Prince Philip is the public face of competitive carriage driving, Lupton's journey to the driving seat could not have been more different. Born in 1975 with abnormalities of her spine and legs, she was confined to a wheelchair from the age of two and placed in the care of a children's home in Strathblane, just north of Glasgow.

She cannot remember exactly when she became aware of the horses in the field right outside her bedroom window but by the age of five she was pestering the home's staff to take her riding. "It took a bit of nagging and persuasion but they took me riding and let me do it," she says. Without the use of her legs, she used a 'cowboy' saddle with a high pommel to hold on to. The horse was led from the front and she was held from the side, but as her strength and balance increased, she began riding solo. By the age of nine, she had won her first rosette at a pony show in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Lupton's story is that she achieved so much as a young girl on her own. If she does resent her placement in the now-closed Strathblane home at such an early age – "It was the circumstances at the time, I suppose, but I don't really know why" – she is not prepared to vent her feelings in public. The 16 other children with her and the carers who looked after her effectively became her support mechanism. She has a sister and brother who were brought to see her as a child but visits became less frequent after her father died when she was 11. She says she only has occasional communication with her mother now.

Friends believe that having to fend for herself in such surroundings from such an early age goes some way to explaining her lifelong single-mindedness in pursuit of her personal goals. "From an early age I wanted to be able to cope on my own," she says. "I wanted to be left on my own to do it. I have always been independent – some would say stubborn. But you have to have a bit of that in your life."

She attended mainstream primary and secondary schools and by her early teens almost every waking moment outside the classroom was spent dreaming about her chosen sport, riding or working with horses. She joined the Glasgow Riding for the Disabled (RDA) group and became one of the team at the Maryhill stables. "I used to get a taxi every Friday after school and go straight up there," she says. "I loved it."

It was hard work too, mucking out and tacking up the horses despite her disability. "I spent as much time as I could there. It was every little girl's dream to go and work with the horses and get to ride them as a reward."

She was 13 when she first tried carriage driving. "It was suggested to me that I should try it and right from the start I really liked it. The first time it was January and I enjoyed it even though it was miserably cold."

The persistence paid off and she continued to accumulate prizes for riding while gradually honing her skills as a carriage driver. In her late teens she began to attend Motherwell College and met a Dumfriesshire boy called Martin, who was blown away by her personality, her sense of humour and her fierce determination to succeed and live as normal a life as possible.

Eventually, the couple married and moved to Annan to live and Lupton took a job working in local branches of Marks & Spencer. Seven years ago, their daughter Hannah was born and is already showing signs of developing her mother's horse-riding skills. With Martin employed as a care worker, income was tight and Lupton trained to become a classroom assistant for special-needs children, a job she loved. All the time, however, her riding and carriage driving skills were developing. An expert in the exquisite skills of dressage – she uses a mounting block to lift herself into the saddle – she started to win the majority of the competitions she entered.

Susie Elliot, a national trustee for the Riding for the Disabled Association and chairwoman of the Borders Group, has watched Lupton progress since she moved to Dumfriesshire. "She is a true horsewoman," Elliot says. "She loves horses and she has this incredible empathy with them. Margaret doesn't just turn up and expect the horse to be ready – she does it herself. She rides as normal and does it by distributing her weight. There have been lots of wins in dressage competitions and she rides beautifully.

"Margaret has the passion and the commitment of the true athlete. She does what Olympians do and it is now paying off."

Five years ago, however, Lupton decided to put riding to one side to concentrate on carriage driving, a pursuit that would allow her to push herself to higher levels of competition and compete against able-bodied rivals. She rose quickly to the top in disabled carriage driving competitions and set her sights on competing in the World Championships and representing her country. To gain experience at the top level she entered open competitions against able-bodied rivals and in 2005 she achieved a high placing in the Scottish Points League.

"Margaret decided to concentrate on carriage driving as her elite sport and go riding for leisure," says Elliot. "But as we don't have enough big competitions in the RDA, she had to step up into the able-bodied world. Then she had to do a lot of competing before she was considered for the British team."

It was a step up that took her into uncharted territory. While disabled competitors are restricted from cantering, there are no such barriers in open competition. Speeds, particularly along the overland obstacle course – often twisting, rutted, muddy tracks – are much greater. "It's very dangerous," said Elliot. "But I have a picture of Margaret screaming, going flat out through a muddy hole, and it perfectly sums up how much she wants to go for it. If I was going to caption it, it would read 'This is not for wimps'."

Lupton's performances and two gruelling trials catapulted her into the national squad for disabled drivers and she would have taken up the reins at the 2006 World Championships in Holland were it not for that unfortunate accident. It has simply made her more determined to not only get back into the team this time around but to perform to the best of her team's abilities.

Elliot was among those who suspected that the accident, bad as it was, would not spell the end of Lupton's career. "After tipping up, I knew she would get back to it," she says. "It's not in Margaret's nature not to pick herself up and get going again."

The family live in a bungalow on a quiet cul-de-sac behind Annan's fire station. The house is almost a shrine to Lupton's achievements, with more than 100 rosettes covering the walls, while trophies adorn every available surface. On the wall above the fireplace is a portrait of Lupton with Smartie, one of her earlier ponies. When Baz, her current horse, is mentioned, husband Martin smiles knowingly. "I know who her first love really is," he says.

Lupton is a tiny figure in her wheelchair but a bundle of energy as she enters the room. She says she has never considered her disability a barrier and believes no one else should either. "My disability has never been an issue. It's because I am of an age where people accept me for what I am. I've always had an independent streak and if someone says I can't do it then I will do everything to prove I can. I have proved myself to be just as athletic as anyone."

She's now extraordinarily focused on the World Championships ahead. "It's not just about winning competitions, it's about achieving your own personal goals. My own goal this year was to go to the championships. The GB team has won silver at the last four so this time we are all hoping to come back gold medallists."

Team Lupton appears to be ready. Down at Baz's stables in Annan, Lupton lifts herself with practised ease from her wheelchair on to the floor of the carriage. She then moves herself across and lifts her torso, with remarkable upper body strength, into the driving seat.

Baz is a handsome and beautifully turned-out Welsh cob, 14 hands and two inches high, and the bond between driver and horse is clear for anyone to see.

After Tartan retired, a new horse was required and Baz was bought for her by a private supporter. "We went to have a look at him and he accepted me immediately," she says. "He wasn't at all bothered by the wheelchair. I went right up to him and then went for a ride. He's 16, not a youngster, and pretty inexperienced in carriage driving, but it couldn't have worked out better. What a horse needs for this discipline is the ability to learn and understand what is wanted, and Baz took to it immediately."

Many in the carriage driving world express amazement that, for a pairing which has only been working together for seven months, they have achieved the harmony required for top-class competition.

Murray, the third member of the team and an experienced pairs driver herself, is enjoying the company of such a capable couple. "Margaret has a remarkable bond with Baz and it's wonderful to see. But part of that is because she looks after him herself. She does just about everything for him and only very occasionally does she ask for any help."

George Bowman is as good a judge of a carriage driver as any, having been British four-horse teams champion 19 times. He's a grizzled veteran of the circuit and, at 73, the Cumbrian is a hardened competitor and knows a kindred spirit when he sees one. "I really take my hat off to that kid (Margaret]. She just wants to compete at the highest possible level and never complains about what is thrown at her. She can drive, and drive very well, and she has no fear.

"You have to serve your time in this sport. It's not just a matter of getting hold of the reins and saying, 'Gee-up.' It requires skill, accuracy and intellect. It's the eighth wonder of the world to see her in action. She has a wonderful horse and there is a wonderful partnership between them and she has a first-glass groom in Catriona. They should do very well."

Lupton's achievements have not come cheaply. Her involvement in the sport will cost around £20,000 this year – £6,000 for the trip to Greven alone. RDA funds are limited and although she is sponsored by local companies Buccleuch Estates and fish processor Pinneys of Scotland, she would welcome more offers of financial support.

For Elliot, Lupton's rise through the ranks is a reward for her years of dedication to the RDA cause. "When you sit in an arena watching her, you can't buy that feeling," she says. "I'm sure Margaret feels that way too. Her achievement is extraordinary and if she wins a gold medal then there's a movie to be made."

HORSE SENSE

The Riding for the Disabled Association is a federation of member groups, dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities, through providing opportunities for riding and carriage driving. It is based on the ethos that human contact with horses is one of the most therapeutic activities possible.

Founded in 1965 with just nine member groups, its activities proved so popular that it had expanded to 80 just four years later. The Princess Royal is patron of the charity, which is now based at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.

Every year it supplies horse-riding lessons to the mentally and physically disabled and the able-bodied. Carriage driving was accepted as an affiliated activity in 1975 and RDA drivers took part in the first World Driving Championships in 2002. The association now has over 500 member groups which cater for more than 25,000 riders and carriage drivers. The number of carriage drivers taking part in weekly sessions has almost doubled in the last few years to more than 1,400.

Carriage driving is believed to be particularly useful for people who can no longer ride due to disability or prefer a different kind of challenge. It offers many of the same benefits as riding, including improved co-ordination, improved muscle power and balance, and relaxation through rhythmic movement.

The organisation is heavily reliant on volunteers of all ages, with more than 18,000 dedicated volunteers giving a total of 3.5 million hours of their time every year.

To find out about riding, driving or volunteering with RDA, contact your local group or chairman. This information can be found on the 'locations page' of www.rda.org.uk.

To contact Margaret Lupton about sponsorship, call 01461 201123.