Michael B. Richardson
Clinician

Horses have always played a part in Michael B. Richardson's life, whether he was fox hunting with his father or participating in pony club shows. Richardson says he's known horses were his passion since he first learned to ride. "The closest thing to heaven on earth is sitting on the back of a horse," is Richardson's philosophy.

But in 1986, a Jeep rollover accident almost brought his active life with horses to an end when the spinal cord injury he suffered left him a paraplegic. For most of us, horses would be a thing of the past. For Richardson, it was just the beginning. Five weeks after the injury, he was back on horseback as part of a therapeutic riding program. And when he retuned to his native Illinois to pursue Para-Olympic wheelchair racing, he became involved as both a volunteer and instructor with The Easy Riders, a therapeutic riding center in Alabama.

Eventually, Richardson decided to enroll in the Equine Studies program at Parkland College in Illinois. It was there that a 3-year-old Arabian gelding boosted Richardson's confidence as a horseman and taught him new ways to interact with horses. "When I was able-bodied, I could depend on my strength to accomplish things I should have been accomplishing through training. My injury prevents me from using this short cut," says Richardson. "Now I have to think through problems from both my standpoint and from the horse’s standpoint and then patiently find the best way for both of us to accomplish goals without the use of force."

Richardson graduated from Parkland College with a degree in Equine Management. Now he travels the United States and abroad, taking his message of a partnership between horse and human with him. He also runs the Broken R Ranch in Hico, Texas where he teaches horsemanship and rider-horse communication skills.

2008 Show Recap/2009 Schedule

Website: www.michaelbrichardson.com