When you watch Suzin Wells ride her horse, you would never think she’s had two lower leg amputations.
“[Horse riding] has really helped me get back into life and not sit there and let that negativity take over,” she says.
In 2018, Suzin suffered an infection in the bone of her foot, and despite 12 surgeries over three years, the lower part of her right leg was amputated.
“I was in hospital, and my coach Sharon [Jarvis], who had just got back from the Tokyo Paralympics … she’s like, ‘Right, when are you getting back on your horse?'” she says.
“I’m like, ‘This is the person I need around me, this is the person that’s going to give me that positive push forward’.”
Sharon was Suzin’s riding coach prior the amputation, and her support afterwards proved invaluable.
It only took Suzin eight weeks to get back on her horse, Odie.
“My husband and another mate helped me get on and [said], ‘We’re walking around the arena with you’ and I’m like, ‘Alright, if you can keep up’,” she laughs.
“It really does help with your mindset … there are things that will bring you down and that’s normal life, but you just don’t unpack your bags and stay there.”
But less than two years after her right leg was amputated, Suzin’s resilience was tested again.
Another challenge
Earlier this year, an infection spread in the bottom of her left foot and turned into septicaemia — a life-threatening bloodstream infection.
“I had some of my foot amputated and then was on IV antibiotics for six weeks,” she says.
“Which sort of makes you really crook as well and then it just wasn’t getting any better.”
The doctors gave her a choice — either spend five years having bits of her foot removed, or have it completely amputated.
Faced with the unimaginable, Suzin settled on immediate amputation.
She was back on her horse four weeks later.
Getting back in the saddle
Suzin’s horse Odie lives on coach Sharon Jarvis’s fruit farm in Donnybrook, 200 kilometres south of Perth.
When it’s time to go for a ride, Suzin travels to Odie’s paddock on a scooter and leads him to the stables.
Her husband Clint, Sharon or a friend will help her put Odie’s saddle and bridle on.
“We’ve got a bit of an unorthodox way of getting on at the moment,” she says.
“At the end of the arena, there’s a large wall and I just bring the wheelchair up to that and then I stand on my prosthetic leg.
“My horse is so amazing that he just stands there, he doesn’t move a millimetre … and lets me get on and then off we go.”
Although it didn’t take Suzin as long to start riding after her second amputation, she says the process was more difficult as she no longer had a “proper leg” for support.
“At first, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, how am I going to do this?’ because it’s like standing on the edge of a jetty and you’re just about to launch onto a boat,” she says.
“You’ve got that gap of water in-between you and you’re like, ‘Am I going to fall in that gap?’
“But you just have to hold your breath and take a leap of faith.”
Before her amputations, Suzin was an avid rider. As a teenager, she worked a job washing dishes to pay for her first horse, which she kept a secret from her parents for months.
So being able to ride is important to her.
Suzin’s bond with Odie is clear.
“He’s really comfortable to ride, I’m really lucky … and he’s just adapted to what I require,” she says.
“Riding a horse, you don’t feel disabled, you feel like you’re just like everyone else.”
A Paralympian coach
Suzin’s coach Sharon is a para-equestrian who has represented Australia at three Summer Paralympics.
When she was a child, she suffered bone cancer and was told she couldn’t ride for six years.
The chemotherapy, radiation therapy and limb salvage surgery that saved Sharon’s life and leg, left her with limited movement and strength from the waist down.
But nothing could stop her from riding and that determination has been instrumental in helping riders like Suzin do the same.
“I know what it takes to get back on the horse … and work through the nerves … and understanding the absolute inner strength that it takes,” she says.
Sharon says building mental strength is just as important as physical strength when horse riding after trauma.
“[We work on] putting things into place and creating a process that happens the same every day … [and] then [Suzin] has the confidence to get on the horse and do what she does,” she says.
Sharon says she loves helping riders with a disability reach their goals.
“You might be missing a limb, but there’s so much more to your body that you can use,” she says.
“And really, the best thing is that the horses don’t know, so you just train the horse to do what you need,” she says.
Sky is the limit
Suzin and Sharon had been planning to compete in the National Dressage Championships — considered to be one of the most artistic equestrian sports — in October of this year.
After her second amputation, Suzin was nervous about the competition.
But Sharon helped her through it.
The pair travelled to rural Victoria earlier this months to compete, where Suzin became the National Reserve Champion.
Looking to the future, Suzin says “the sky is the limit” and she will keep entering national competitions with Odie.
“The mindset is to have the passion for the horses and they keep you going, you’ve got to have goals with them,” she says.
“I just live for riding … I don’t want to do anything else.”
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