Against the odds

If you were told you had absolutely no chance of living into older age, what would you do? AMANDA MAC recently spoke to an inspiring woman who has answered that question with remarkable courage.

This month’s Life After Racing takes a somewhat different tack. It’s as much about the inspirational para equestrian Rebecca Webber as it is about Glenayre Skyline (aka Zac), a kind and gentle Thoroughbred who has achieved far more off the track than ever he did on it.

Beck, a Victorian girl born and bred, comes from a family of riders: “My great grandmother was a really good horsewoman, and that kind of flowed through to my grandfather, then to my dad and my uncles, who were all very good horsemen.”

No surprise then that Beck has photos of herself on horseback as a three-year-old, and owned a pony by the time she was eight. But if you’re thinking Pony Club as the next logical step, don’t! Instead, young Beck worked with her uncles in the family trail riding business, taking adults out on treks through the mountains. So, none of the usual Pony Club events for her, in fact the first competition she ever rode in was in 2021.

By the time Beck was in her teens she’d moved on to other things, as teenagers often do. “I’d had enough of the horses by then, she tells me, “and I actually had 28 years away from them before I started riding again.”

And that was after her world had tilted on its axis.

Sadly, some members of Beck’s family suffer from Spinocerebellar ataxia type 36, a genetic neurodegenerative disorder so rare that there are less than 100 known cases worldwide. Following the onset of possible symptoms early in 2020, Beck’s blood work was sent to a US laboratory – one of the few able to test for the disease. After many months of anxiously waiting (this was during COVID, let’s not forget, when labs were otherwise occupied) the results came back: Beck had tested positive. So little is known about this condition that her doctors could only guess at how much time she had left, but around ten years seemed to be the consensus.

As Beck’s symptoms gradually progressed, she began looking for support workers through her NDIS plan and came across Jenny, Director of Clear Supports, a local disability service provider. Jenny asked Beck what her goals were: “I told her I was just hoping for a good death. But she said that wasn’t a goal, and asked me what I was going to do with the rest of my life.” Stumped for an answer, Beck thought a little harder: “After my diagnosis, I’d been doing some research and found a paper saying that people with ataxia benefit from horse therapy, and I realised that I wouldn’t mind working with horses again, even if only from the ground.”

That was in 2021. Since then, Beck has partnered with a number of horses, all borrowed as she is unable to care for a horse herself. She’s competed very successfully in Equestrian with Disabilities classes in every Western pleasure and reining discipline, notching up her fair share of Champion and Reserve Champion wins along the way – and although she will continue to compete until the end of this year, her focus is now elsewhere.

In 2023, Beck was offered an athlete plan by Equine Pathways Australia, but to participate needed a horse to ride on a regular basis. Fortunately, she was introduced to local Equestrian Australia show jumping coach Tonya Holdsworth-Rose, who thought that Zac, one of her own horses, might fit the bill.

And she was right. In March that year Beck and Zac’s journey began. “We ride together five days a week, and as with all horses you have to take the time to build that relationship and trust. And there’s the extra challenge of Zac being a former racehorse, then becoming a successful show jumper, and now he’s being asked to be a para dressage horse – and yet he’s taken everything in his stride. He’s got such a great work ethic. He’d be a great first horse to learn any discipline on.”

Beck points out that not all horses want an unbalanced para rider on their back, along with their different or lighter aids and perhaps a certain lack of control, yet Zac is accepting of all these changes. “I can’t fault him,” she adds, “he just keeps on giving.”

And Beck and Zac wasted absolutely no time in proving that they were a force to be reckoned with. Their first competitive outing was at Boneo Park during the 2023 Australian Dressage Championships. Held in October, just months after the pair first got together, they won their Intermediate A and B tests, were named CPEDI2* Grade II Reserve Champions, and were also members of the winning Victorian CPEDI2* Para Dressage Team.

Unfortunately, because of the wet, cold and windy conditions on the second day of competition, Beck became feverish and very unwell later that night and had to withdraw from the next day’s freestyle event.

The following December, the pair went to the Victorian Dressage Festival, where the 2* and 3* riders competed against each other in a single class. Not that it proved a problem for the 2* ranked Beck and Zac who, after competing against two 3* riders, came third.

Then in April this year, it was off to the Leader Equine Dressage Spectacular, where they took out first place in the 2* A and B tests, as well as in the freestyle, earning them the title of Overall Champion. But why stop when you’re on a roll? “We went to the Hawkesbury Dressage Festival in June to make our 3* Grand Prix debut,” Beck explains. “We came fourth in each of our tests and got 62.64 which was a really great start to 3* competition.”

For a change of pace, next on Beck’s calendar are August’s National Reining Championships in Tamworth, then the National Ranch Horse Championships in October, followed by the Australian Dressage Championships just four days later.

With this year marking the end of her career in Western competition, Beck’s full attention is now on dressage. She has her sights set on the next Paralympics, believing that if you want to be the best in the world, you have to commit 100 per cent. “I don’t see Australians as my competition in the dressage arena any more, I see them as my colleagues and peers. It’s the Europeans I see as my competition.” Like many athletes, Beck visualises a successful end result. “I can clearly see the podium in my mind’s eye, and I regularly watch the Tokyo Olympics and European Championships because that’s part of my visualisation homework.”

The many unknows associated with Beck’s illness must surely represent an additional level of difficulty to an already challenging situation. “It’s like a giant roller coaster,” she says, “but horses keep me busy. They give me purpose, a reason to wake up every day – and that’s the beauty of working with them.”

When you talk to Beck, it’s obvious that she and Zac have an extraordinary relationship. “We’ve learned to work so closely together that at times it’s like we’re one being,” she says. “He’s so in tune with my body and my lack of skills. He’s one of those horses that you know is always going to have a big part of your heart. He’s given me the confidence to move down this path of para dressage, the best beginning partner I could ever hope for because he’s allowed me to pursue my dreams. He’s my heart horse.”

I think you’ll agree that Beck’s story holds a few life lessons. While it would have been easy for her to see herself as a victim, instead she’s visualising herself on a Paralympic podium. Rather than letting others do the heavy lifting, she makes the most of every day and has, by the way, received awards for her work as a disability advocate. And although no one would blame her if she’d been overtaken by despair, instead she focusses on the positive with her eyes firmly on the future. And that’s the kind of courage you need to thrive against the odds.