Growing up with HAE, there was always an element of caution that followed me around
all the time. I was taught from a very young age to always pay very close attention to my body,
and that any slight stomachache or scratchy feeling in my throat was something that I needed to
share with adults immediately. Even during elementary PE classes, I had to tell my teachers that I couldn’t play dodgeball or any of the “normal kid” sports that might result in some sort of blunt
force that could trigger an HAE attack. Especially when I was young and wasn’t yet able to
access preventative medications, it seemed like anything could be the catalyst that might send me to the ER to treat an attack.
When I was around eight years old, my mom got me horse-back riding lessons as a
special treat. I immediately fell in love with horses, and officially caught the “horse bug”. I began
to read as many books and watch as many movies with horses in them as possible, and dreamed about one day getting to play with ponies all day long. My mom purchased my first pony, Rio, for me when I was twelve. Right around the same time, I was approved to start prophylactic preventative treatment for my HAE, which significantly reduced my attacks and widened my opportunities for athletics. Unfortunately, horse-back riding can be an extremely dangerous and physically taxing sport as you’re trying to pilot a 1,000 lb prey animal that doesn’t speak English.
Not only is the riding portion physically demanding, but much of the care that horses require involves a lot of manual labor. Lifting hay bales, mucking out stalls, carrying heavy water buckets, the list goes on. As I grew older, my passion for riding and training horses only grew stronger. All throughout high school and college, I was heavily involved in riding programs, and decided that after I graduated with my bachelors I wanted to pursue a career in the horse industry.
Now, I am almost a year post grad and currently work at a horse training facility in Eagle,
Idaho as a groom for a top professional rider and trainer that competes nationally and
internationally on her horses. I am responsible for much of the horses' care, grooming, exercise
and even get to ride them every day. The shifts are extremely long, often twelve hours, and
usually I’m on my feet and moving the entire time. Despite how exhausted I am at the end of the
day, I am so incredibly grateful to be literally living my dream life.
When I was little, I never even could’ve imagined that I would be able to push my body
to be the athlete that I am today. Thanks to my preventative medication, I am able to be active
every single day with no limitations and pursue career ambitions that I never could’ve fathomed
would be a possibility. This is truly a testament to how far research and treatment of HAE has
come even in my short lifetime, and how important access to care is for patient quality of life.
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