00:00I was born fallen in half. Doctors performed multiple surgeries to help me walk, but they all failed.
00:05My mom got suggested that she could take me to therapeutic riding.
00:09I have only been worried about you being on a horse the time you were getting hurt in the competition.
00:15In 2016, I got my first concussion. A year and a half later, I was in a small car accident.
00:22I now have a brain injury that affects me every day, and I haven't been on a horse since last year.
00:27Today, my assistant, Thea, is going to help me get back on the horse.
00:30It's been such a long time, so I'm really nervous.
00:33There's a lot of things that can go wrong.
00:35Just breathe for a little bit.
00:40I have a rare condition called arterioposis.
00:43That means that many of my joints are stiff and bent, and that I have less muscles in my body.
00:51It affects me from the spine and down.
00:54I have a curved spine and stiff spine, and I have stiff pelvis, hips, knees, ankles, but not in my arms.
01:03So I can do many things by myself.
01:07Scrambled legs, it is.
01:09I'm better at riding than cooking, so I don't know what I'm doing here, but on the horse, I know what I'm supposed to do.
01:17This is the confession of a Paralympian.
01:20When I was born, I looked a little bit different than I look like now, because my spine wasn't so curved like it is now.
01:27But my legs were very folded.
01:30This is the day I was born?
01:32Yes.
01:33It was only 30 centimeters.
01:36Yeah.
01:37Because my knees were under my armpits?
01:39Yes.
01:40And I couldn't straighten my legs?
01:41No, it was not possible.
01:43It was so stiff.
01:44I've had five surgeries on my legs, and it started, the first one I was only two days old.
01:50At this point, it was a bit over two months.
01:52Look how small your feet are.
01:54And this one is on your birthday when it was one year.
01:58Happy birthday.
01:59Happy birthday.
02:00This one is to stretch your knees.
02:02All this was to make me be able to walk.
02:04Yes.
02:05When I was seven years old, I had a surgery on my back.
02:08I had a spine rod with seven screws inside me.
02:11And when I was around 12 years old, they discovered that my rod was broken in half.
02:17They were worried that if they did something, it could get a lot worse and I could get paralysis.
02:23So it's still inside me broken in half.
02:26This is the x-ray from when I was a teenager.
02:28You can see the rod is broken in half here.
02:33I had a lot of physiotherapy.
02:35I hated it because it was a lot of pain.
02:37So my mom got suggested that she could take me to therapeutic riding where you ride on a horse and there is a physiotherapist there.
02:47So I was doing therapeutic riding to 19 years old when I was focusing more on dressage.
02:54Norway is a very small country and disabled dressage riders, we are very few.
03:01So I was just a guest on the national team in the Nordic Championship.
03:06And I actually won that.
03:09And then I won the national championship.
03:12Then I was a regular member of the national team.
03:15So it went really, really quickly.
03:17I have only been worried about you being on a horse the time you were getting hurt in the competition.
03:23And when I got a whiplash?
03:24Yes.
03:25In 2016 I got my first concussion walking like a little big step.
03:31She took a really big step and then because my spine is completely stiff all the movement came out in my neck.
03:38So I did have a whiplash and I was so dizzy and I almost fainted.
03:42I managed to complete my test and qualify for the Prolympics.
03:46But when I got home we understood that I actually got a concussion.
03:50So here is a lot from Prolympics in Rio.
03:54It says that I have participated in the Prolympics.
03:57This is our start number.
03:59We were number 19.
04:01A year and a half later after my first concussion I was in a small car accident.
04:07I had seatbelts on but then my neck and head was tossed around in the car.
04:12This resulted that I got persistent concussion symptoms.
04:16It feels like you have a concussion at all times.
04:19And this is now eight years old.
04:22When I got my brain injury I had to stop doing grusage and that was really tough in the beginning.
04:28I was very very sick so I had to lay in a dark room with no noise at all time.
04:34I couldn't even listen to a podcast or a book or music.
04:37That was the first time I really felt disabled because I couldn't do anything.
04:41It was a dark time but I'm luckily better now.
04:45Not completely recovered but I'm on the road to recovery 100%.
04:53Today my assistant Thea is going to help me get back on the horse first time in a year.
04:57How are you?
04:58I'm good.
04:59Are you ready?
05:00Yes, I just have to change my clothes and then I'm ready.
05:02I met Thea when she applied for being my assistant.
05:06And I actually knew who she was because we had the horses at the same stable.
05:10So I hired her.
05:11Ready?
05:12Yes.
05:13Thea helps me with everyday daily tasks.
05:16And she also helped me in the stable.
05:18And it's her horse that I'm going to ride later.
05:22With her brain injury symptoms she gets dizzy a lot.
05:26And also her balance has made it a little bit uncomfortable for her.
05:30So being on top of a big horse, that has proven quite a challenge.
05:34It makes me sad to see that she used to be able to do this and she's struggling to get back into that comfortable space that she used to be.
05:41So this is Carly and she is my assistant Thea's horse.
05:48She is basically retired from the competing life, but she has been a very good horse for Birgitte to use in her para-riding.
05:57This is my very special made, custom made saddle.
06:02Here is the strap.
06:03I'm under here and I have my legs out here.
06:06They warmed up plastic and shaped around me and 3D printed it.
06:11And I have two whips instead of my legs.
06:14Now that she took the saddle on, I was like, oh, has she always been so tall?
06:21Getting more and more anxious now.
06:24It's always a risk to be on a horse because they are living animals.
06:32You never know what they are going to do.
06:34It's been such a long time.
06:36So I'm really nervous.
06:37There's a lot of things that can go wrong.
06:39Okay.
06:40Okay.
06:41You got her.
06:42Woo.
06:43Good.
06:44Just breathe for a little bit.
06:45Yeah.
06:46Are you ready to go for a little bit?
06:47Mm.
06:48Should I lead her and then you just hold on?
06:49Yeah, we can take a big turn.
06:50Yeah.
06:51You ready?
06:52Yes.
06:53Woo.
06:54This is the brain injury.
06:56Yeah.
06:57Yeah.
06:58Yeah.
06:59Yeah.
07:00You ready?
07:01Yes.
07:02Woo.
07:03This is the brain injury.
07:08Passenger walk.
07:10Yeah.
07:11Do you think you would fall off if you tried to trot?
07:14Yeah.
07:15No, I don't think I would fall off, but it will be not very pleasant for any of us.
07:21You will probably get very dizzy.
07:24Yeah, I will get very dizzy.
07:25Yeah.
07:26Yeah.
07:27I started to post my riding on social media.
07:31It started with only horse content, but I also expanded it to talk a little bit about
07:37my disability.
07:3998% of the comments are positive.
07:41I, of course, get some negative comments.
07:44I'm disabled.
07:45Of course people are asking what's wrong with my legs.
07:47Some are commenting that it's too dangerous for me to ride.
07:51And the one thing I hate, it's when people are telling me what's dangerous for me to do,
07:56because I always just try to do stuff and see if I can do it.
08:01Good job.
08:02Yeah.
08:03For the both of you.
08:04Yeah.
08:05My advice to a young person with a similar condition is not to be afraid of just trying
08:11new things.
08:12When I look back at my life, I have been through a lot, but I also achieve a lot.
08:17By sharing my story, I hope that people see that even if you are disabled or any other
08:22limit, you can still achieve a lot.
08:25She doesn't really care about her limitations as much, more about her possibilities and opportunities.
08:31And I think everybody has to learn from that.
08:33What I hope people take for my story is to never give up and don't let other people tell
08:38you what you cannot do.
08:40And you should be the one that knows your own limits.
08:43Nothing is impossible.
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