News

Beyond sight: Nicola Naylor on becoming a Para Dressage athlete

Monday, 08 September 2025

Courtesy of the FEI, interview by Vanessa Martin Randin in Ermelo

Nicola Naylor of Great Britain enters the arena at the FEI Para Dressage European Championship 2025 in Ermelo (NED) with her horse Humberto L. She has no visual markers, no glances at the letters, no reference points to line up the movements or to guide her. Instead, she relies on sound, rhythm, and a remarkable ability to feel every nuance of her horse’s movements. 

For Nicola, who lost her sight completely as a young adult, Para Dressage is not just a sport. Riding horses is challenge and freedom in equal parts, but it is above all, a symbiotic relationship with her horse, coach Sarah Millis and caller Julie Riches.

It’s a partnership that has already resulted in Nicola winning the individual bronze medal in Grade IV here in Ermelo in what is hers and Humberto L’s first Championship together. She has also started to ride Grand Prix tests alongside able-bodied athletes in national competitions in the UK.

Nicola’s story begins, as so many equestrian journeys do, with a pony. “I rode before I could walk,” she recalls with a smile. Partially sighted as a child, she found ways to adapt. Coloured poles in an arena gave her just enough contrast to attempt jumps, spotting them only on the final stride.

But when she gradually lost the rest of her sight while at university, riding became more difficult, and she turned her attention to building a career away from horses.

The turning point came unexpectedly. When her daughter began riding lessons, Nicola felt something stir. “I suddenly had riding envy,” she admits. “I thought, I’ve missed all these years. I want to ride again. So, I got back on and that was it.”

Para dressage: a natural fit

Few equestrian disciplines offer the possibility of safe competition for a non-sighted athlete as Para Dressage.

With its defined 60 x 20 metre arena and structured tests, it provides Nicola with a path forward.
“In Para Dressage you learn the feel of the space,” she explains. “There’s safety in that and your horse learns it too.”

Indoor and outdoor arenas offer different cues and Nicola uses echolocation – subtle differences in sound as her horse moves – and the faint light perception she retains in one eye, to orient herself. But more than anything, it is practice, repetition, and trust that allow her to ride with confidence.

Following the call

Every test Nicola rides, includes Julie, whose voice acts as a reference point for Nicola in the arena.
“Sometimes Nicola passes right in front of me, just a meter away. That takes trust and I have to be brave enough to stand my ground, knowing she and her horse will hold their line,” Julie explains.
 
“If I move back too far, she’ll naturally drift towards me and the circle becomes too large. We’ve worked on this together for years, perfecting it step by step. It’s all about trust: in her riding, in her horse, and in being brave enough to stay exactly where you need to be.”

It’s a finely tuned collaboration: Nicola listens to Julie, Humberto L listens to Nicola, and all three move in perfect sync. Only in the freestyle tests is Nicola truly on her own, without Julie’s voice to guide her.

"I find the freestyle tests much easier because I already know the floor plan in my head, and it flows with the music,” Nicola said. 

“The changes in the music guide me through the arena, and my sense of spatial awareness helps me stay orientated. I don’t have to focus as much on hitting every marker exactly, so freestyle actually gives me more freedom and confidence."

It’s all about the feeling

Perhaps Nicola’s greatest gift lies in her heightened sense of feel. Without sight, every detail of her horse’s movement is amplified.

“Nicola can hear a horse trot and instantly know if it’s one of hers,” her coach, Sarah, says with admiration. 

“She also knows whether it’s a good trot or not. She might say, ‘That’s a nice trot,’ and you think, ‘Really?’ 

“But she’s always right. She can detect if one leg lands differently or if a horse lifts a knee more than the other. Her ear for horses is incredible; it still amazes me. She can even tell which horse I’m riding just by listening. She’ll know immediately and she will ask, ‘How’s Leroy today?'"

Nicola laughs at the description but doesn’t deny it. Riding for her is less about what she sees and entirely about what she feels and hears. 

“I use all the same communication aids as able-bodied riders: my legs, my hands, my seat. Everything is the same. the only difference is that we don’t always know exactly where we’re going,” Nicola explains. 

“I can’t watch videos or see what other riders are doing. When people talk about, say, a beautiful piaffe, I don’t really know what that looks like. I don’t know what the legs are doing. Now I know what it feels like, and with

Sarah’s feedback I can tell whether that feeling is correct. But in my mind, I still don’t have the picture of what it actually looks like. I have to sense what’s right or wrong through trial and error, rather than being able to look back at a video and spot it.

“Humberto is incredibly sensitive to the smallest changes in my body language. Because I can’t see, I tend to drop my head, but I’ve learned that when I ride, I need to keep it up. If I want him to go into shoulder-in, I have to look diagonally across so my body aligns. He picks up on that immediately. Even without sight, it’s crucial that I ‘look’ where I want to go as it communicates everything to him. He mirrors my movements, and that’s how our communication works.”

Training has sometimes required creativity. Sarah has used everything from getting Nicola to ride on a concrete drive to help her hear the rhythm of her horse’s footfalls, to putting tactile markers on the reins so Nicola can measure her contact. But beyond these adaptations, their sessions are much the same as for any other rider: repetition, precision, and discipline.

Nicola has worked extensively on her breathing to influence her horse’s performance. By adjusting how deeply she breathes and the energy she brings, she can either calm the horse or enhance his expression. This technique allows her to bring out more power and animation in movements like the extended canter, or more relaxation and fluidity in the walk, demonstrating the subtle but powerful impact of rider awareness on the horse.

As Sarah notes, because Nicola learns through feel, it becomes a “truer interpretation of the movement, even if it’s still a work in progress.”

Nicola admits that the biggest challenge to her riding is accuracy. 

“Straight lines are difficult. In competitions, accuracy is judged, and that’s not easy for me. And it’s not just the centre line — the diagonal lines too. Straightness is really hard, because when you can’t focus on something ahead of you, it’s difficult to keep straight.”

Her coach Sarah is quick to give her the kudos she deserves. 

"I’ve tried riding with my eyes closed on Nicola’s horses and others, just to get a feel for the movements,” Sarah says. 

“But I cannot ride a straight line with my eyes shut as it completely shifts my balance. Hats off to Nicola, because she rides remarkably straight lines. 

“That feeling when you ride a diagonal and change the rein across the arena, I sometimes close my eyes and think, ‘I must be close to the corner now.’ Your perception feels very different, yet you’re still right near X.”

A perfect partnership

Finding the right horse has been crucial for Nicola. With the sport and horses evolving, she has had to choose a horse that meets her specific needs, particularly given the challenges posed by her sight. For example, she requires a horse with natural balance and self-carriage to navigate corners smoothly, allowing her to focus on the ride rather than constant corrections. 

In Humberto L, Nicola has found her ideal partner: intelligent, attentive, and highly in tune with her. 

“Riding is more than just finding a suitable horse who can accommodate your disability,” Sarah says. “It’s a mentality. You have your aids, your communication points with the horse but how you put them across matters.
It’s about feeling, listening, and making things simple and clear for the horse.”

As Sarah notes, that mentality is second nature for Nicola. “When it works, it becomes a dance. The horse is your dance partner. Whether you can see or not, if you love animals and you have feel, that comes through in your riding.”

Asked what she would say to someone with sight difficulties who dreams of riding, Nicola pauses only a moment.
“I’d say it’s an amazing journey. Those moments on the horse are worth everything. At first, going into the arena can feel daunting. But it gets easier. You just have to keep practicing, keep riding and it becomes intuitive. I can’t tell you how, but it does.”

She treasures the opportunities para sport has given her. What drives her is not medals, but moments: the quiet rhythm of Humberto’s trot, the reassurance of Julie’s voice, the subtle connection that makes her horse feel like an extension of herself.

And when the music begins, Nicola and Humberto dance.

Not by sight, but by feel.

Thanks to the Vanessa and the FEI team for taking the time to meet Nicola and discovering her amazing gift.