Julie Payne: Para-Equestrian Dressage Rider

Julie Payne is a British para-equestrian dressage rider from Oxfordshire, born in July 1962. Her selection for the 2017 European Championships marked her first call-up to the British team.

Background

Payne was previously an active competitor in endurance and eventing, and went on to compete regularly in dressage, in which she was classified. Soon afterwards she was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) in 2013, and para-dressage became her chosen discipline. She has described MSA as combining elements of Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She initially competed as a Grade IV athlete before being reclassified to Grade I in 2016, reflecting the degenerative nature of her condition.

Competition Highlights

Riding her chestnut mare Pandora, Payne claimed the Grade I Winter National Championships in March 2017. She then took on the ride of Athene Lindebjerg, the mare who had won a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals in Rio with former rider Sophie Christiansen CBE.

Aboard Athene, the combination posted scores above 75 per cent at the Hartpury Festival of Dressage CPEDI3*, winning both the Individual Championship and the Freestyle in Grade I.

The Horse

Athene Lindebjerg, known as Athene, is a black mare standing 17.1hh and owned by Di Redfern. By the sire Gribaldi, she was ten years old at the time of Payne’s call-up to the British squad.