FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES JULY 2014 49
Roxy’s coach, Kai Handt, jogs Nice Touch.
U.S. team riders at the 2014 Adequan Global Dressage Festival
CPEDI*** in Wellington, Florida, (left to right): Mary Jordan,
Angela Peavy, Rebecca Hart and Roxanne Trunnell with Coach
Kai Handt.
was and it would pass. She became more incapacitated, but I kept
thinking she’d get better, but then it went from bad to worse. The
worst part was when they put her on a helicopter to ship her to
another hospital. She was intubated, they sedated her, she
couldn’t respond, I couldn’t talk to her, and she was too critical for
any family to fly with her. I was afraid that when I arrived at the
hospital two and a half hours later they would tell me she didn’t
make it.”
The next three weeks were like a roller coaster. Roxy was
unconscious and it was difficult to know whether she was better
or not. The only indication of a change was that when Sid walked
into the room, her eyes would flicker.
For Josette, Sid, Roxy, and their family, the hardest part was
that there wasn’t an official diagnosis and no one knows what
happened. They had the best medical specialists in infectious
disease, neurology, hematology, internal medicine, neurosurgery,
viral disease, and not one person could figure out the cause or if
it would happen again. The only relationship that Josette could
remember was when Roxy was 2 years old she had a similar
illness. They were in and out of rehab until she was 8 and she had
encouraged Roxy to begin riding horses to help with her balance.
As a child, Roxy was strong willed and determined and as a
young adult she was very goal oriented, traits that would serve her
well when she entered rehab. Roxy was determined to get better,
so Josette made a deal with her daughter and told her that as
soon as she didn’t need a caregiver, she could ride her horse. In
the meantime, as she became physically stronger, Roxy applied
and finished her master’s degree in psychology.
When Roxy moved home, the Trunnells remodeled their home
for wheelchair access and Sid became a full-time chauffeur.
Josette continued to work as a nurse and the family began to feel
the new normal. They settled into a routine and focused on finding
ways for Roxy to have her freedom and independence. That was
when horses came back into the picture.
Josette and Roxy headed to Maine for the U.S. Para-Equestrian
Dressage National Symposium. It was an eye-opening experience
for Roxy and she began to feel that camaraderie and horse
connection she had before. It was in Maine where Roxy connected
with other para-dressage athletes and their coaches and found a
link with Paralympic equestrian coach Kai Handt, who is now the
U.S. Para-Dressage Technical Advisor.
Roxy had been riding as often as she could and was excited that
the high-performance sport of para-dressage would put her on
track to accomplish her dreams. So she and Touché returned to
the international spotlight once again. “When we went to Texas to
visit with Kai Handt and look at another horse, it became obvious
that this sport, this coach, and the North Texas Equestrian Center
were what Roxy needed,” said Josette. “Since moving to Texas,
Roxy is blossoming. She is more social, happier, she’s ready to
have a conversation with just about anyone, and a glimmer of that
old Roxy came back.”
“Working with Kai has mainly changed the way I view myself as
a rider,” Roxy said. “He treats everyone the same, able-bodied or
not, and doesn’t care if you have something wrong with you. Just
because I’m in a wheelchair doesn’t mean I can get away with
doing things poorly. He pushes me to make my rides look just
as good as the able-bodied rides and that’s exactly the kind of
trainer I thrive under. Riding is something that keeps normality in
my days. Yes, I’m in a wheelchair now but I still go out to the barn
every day to ride my ponies just like I did before I got sick.”
In less than one year, Roxanne Trunnell went from developing
