A LIMERICK graduate and para-athlete has graduated from Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (ETB) to pursue her passion for horses, despite a life-changing injury.
Tara Flynn graduated from Limerick and Clare ETB with a QQI level 6 in Equine Breeding, following her QQI level 5 qualification in Horsemanship.
A graduate of the University of Limerick, in January 2008 on a trip to California, Tara was hit by a snow plough, suffering a brain injury and spending six months in a minimally conscious state.
It took Tara nine months to learn to speak again, having to re-learn how to use each of her muscles, but she was inspired by her horses.
“It took me so long to recognise anything or anybody. I really was on death’s door,” she says. “It took a long time to learn how to speak or even use my mouth muscles again. My horses helped me an awful lot.”
By November of 2008, Tara was back up on her horse, Cosmo, and in 2012, she returned to riding lessons and was back competing.
In the summer of 2024, she competed on the Irish Para Dressage team for the first time at the Para Home Nations competition in the UK. Now, she’s hoping to be on the plane to Los Angeles in 2028 for the Paralympics with her horse Kenny.
“To compete in the Paralympics would be a dream come true for me. There’s lots of qualifiers you have to go through in Ireland, England and the Netherlands,” she said.
Tara decided to get an equine qualification by returning to Limerick and Clare ETB’s campus in Croom, receiving a qualification in horsemanship, and then going on to get a qualification in equine breeding.
Tara said that her time at the ETB campus in Croom “was fantastic and very educational”.
“I would recommend it for anyone who loves horses like me. My favourite part of the course was the hands-on experience working with horses in Clonshire,” she concluded.
