Special Olympians Enjoy Horsemanship

Tampa – Renee Cudworth loves sports, and as a Special Olympics athlete, she’s competed in track and field, bowling, gymnastics and soccer.

Now the 22-year-old has found a new passion – horses and equestrian competition.

“It’s opened her up,” said her mother, Veronica Cudworth. “She’s very outgoing now. She was very shy.”

On Saturday, Renee Cudworth rode Rocky, a 19-year-old appaloosa, in the English riding trials at the Special Olympics State Equestrian Championships. She guided Rocky through commands to halt, back up, circle and reverse course.

Another 82 athletes, ages 8 and up, joined her in the two-day competition at the Florida State Fairgrounds. They competed in several challenges including dressage, working trials, showmanship and barrel racing.

Zephyrhills athlete Michele Weed, 33, earned a first-place medal in English competition riding Beanie, a horse provided by the Bakas Equestrian Center in northwest Hillsborough County.

Riding horses is something Weed has done for about 12 years.

“It’s a freedom,” she said.

Cudworth, a relative newcomer to the sport, trains once a week in Odessa at Quantum Leap Farms, which owns Rocky.

The horse was recognized in 2001 by the Florida Animal Health Foundation as an ambassador of the animal-human bond.

Riding academies from counties around the state including Lake, Sarasota, Orange, Pinellas, and Hillsborough provided horses for the events.

But with more athletes than horses, volunteers scrambled to match athletes and horses on cue as competitions unfolded in two rings simultaneously.

“We have four horses and 12 athletes” from Bakas, said Beth Harre-Orr, director of the equestrian center, and the competition director for Saturday’s Special Olympics. It’s complicated. They have to share.”

Special Olympics began in 1968 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver organized the first International Special Olympics Games at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Today Special Olympics Inc. is the world’s largest provider of fitness training, education and athletic competition for children and adults with physical or developmental disabilities.

Special Olympics Florida offers year-round training and games for more than 15,000 disabled children and adults in the state.

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