Barbara Adside: Finding the Rhythm of Life

Rhythm—it is a common denominator of playing drums and performing freestyle dressage. When playing drums, rhythm is the arrangement of sounds to make music; when performing freestyle dressage, rhythm is involved in the arrangement, or choreography, of the horse's gait to music. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="250"] Photograph courtesy of Barbara Adside.[/caption] Barbara Adside learned to play the drums while growing up, and spent some time playing gigs professionally during her teenage years in her native Florida. She began participating in dressage in 2010, and was a contender for a spot on the U.S. Paralympic equestrian team for the 2012 London Games. She says that her mastery of drums and love of rhythm helped pave the way for her success on horseback. "That probably relates to why I was so good with dressage," she says. "Because riding the horse, doing freestyle...you have to have impeccable rhythm... because you are actually dancing with the horse." She describes the feeling of being astride a dancing horse as "magical." "You are one with the horse at that moment during the performance, and it's a natural high," she says. "If it's not working right, forget it. You know it immediately. You're totally offbeat." In the equestrian world, there's frequently a divide between the traditional dressage riders and fans and those who prefer Western riding, as the two disciplines have very different styles though there is some crossover. Adside loves both types of riding equally, saying that Western riding allows her to go into the mountains, through water, and she can "let the horse be a horse, yet be there with that horse. It's great relaxation." Adside came to be an equestrian about ten years ago through grit and determination. While accompanying a friend to a Los Angeles County feed store, she came across a yearling horse, a gelding, she says. "He was totally wild, and he was for sale. I fell in love with him...." Even though the horse was for sale, convincing the owner to sell him to her took a week of "arguing," Adside says, before they agreed upon some conditions that she must meet within the next month, one of which was haltering the horse. She says she now understands the seller's concern—Adside had never ridden a horse before. But his concern extended beyond that. "The guy knew, because I was wearing a pair of shorts," she says, "that I have no [anatomical] legs." You Must First Learn to Fall Adside was born with spina bifida and deformed legs that never fully developed past the transfemoral level on her left side, and her right leg has what she describes as an underdeveloped ankle that operates as a moveable joint, like a knee of sorts. She also has some "loss or reduction of sensation" below the location of the spina bifida lesion on her back. Her birth parents made her a ward of the state when she was a couple of months old, so she grew up in group and foster homes. She says her records indicate that she was 18 months old when she was fitted with her first pair of prosthetic legs, and she recalls being in a hospital when she was about two years old where "they used to have me climb up these bars in this padded room...and tell me to jump. What they were doing was trying to train me how to fall," she says. "If [as an amputee] you want to walk well, you have to get away from the fear of falling." [caption id="" align="alignright" width="400"] Adside shares a kiss with a colt she recently purchased and is training. Photograph by Diane Truxillo.[/caption] It's the same thing with riding a horse, Adside says; it's not a matter of if you are going to fall, it's when you are going to fall. She recommends that individuals with a new lower-limb amputation take a stunt training course to learn how to fall as part of learning how to walk with prosthetic legs. She currently uses Flex feet, and an Endolite hydraulic knee, and has soft sockets and suction suspension. She says that because she has grown up using prostheses, she has incorporated them into her body image, so they are as much a part of her as real limbs, rather than regarding them simply as tools. She says her gait is so natural that if she is wearing long pants, people can't tell that she wears prosthetic legs. In fact, she says she has such a complete connection to her prostheses that even if blindfolded she can tell what type of ground she is traversing, and if someone touches her foot, she can tell what the object is. (Author's note: For more information about this type of mind-body connection with a prosthesis, read " The Biology of Physical Restoration and Rehabilitation Science ," in the January 2015 issue of The O&P EDGE.) Patience and Persistence The type of intimate connection she has with her prostheses can also be found in her connection with horses, something borne out of her innate ability to practice patience, persistence, and consistency with them, traits she also used to incorporate her prosthetic legs into her body image. In the beginning, Adside says she spent six to eight hours per day in the stall with that horse. "[I was] just sitting there watching, getting him to trust me and me to trust him." It took her about a week to get a halter on his head, and another week for him to adjust to it. Within a month, she had him walking by her side. Adside was granted permission to purchase the horse. She named him Black Beauty. Adside hired a trainer who taught her natural horsemanship, which emphasizes being gentle, building a bond with the animal, and playing "ground games," which help in training and bonding. Within seven months of purchasing Black Beauty, Adside began traveling with her trainer, helping to promote his horse and rider training services. "After I learned to ride, performing became something that came easy for me," she says. A person's legs and seat are an integral part of riding horses; they are used to cue the horse to do what you want. Yet Adside does not wear her prostheses when she rides. She says that the first time she got on Black Beauty he grabbed her right foot in his mouth, tugged as hard as he could until he managed to pull it off, and then tossed it in the air. He then went for the left prosthesis, so she took it off. She explains that, as a lower-limb amputee and due to her diminished sensation, riding a horse without using prostheses works for her because she is able to cue the horse better, but that's not necessarily the case for others. Riding Abilities Run Deep In late 2009, Adside began giving equestrian demonstrations at therapeutic facilities. "Someone who had seen one of the live performances approached me about helping a facility at a fundraising activity by demonstrating to potential donors what an experienced disabled rider could be capable of doing," she says. She also sought out vaulting lessons, which is performing gymnastics on horseback. Around fall 2010, she caught yet another person's eye and was invited to learn dressage. Within days, that person helped her secure a grade so she could compete in a local show. Within another week, she competed at the Margo O'Callaghan Memorial Dressage Show at Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center, Redmond, Washington, on a horse she had never ridden before, where she ranked first out of 50 riders. From that showing, things moved quickly: She was offered a sponsorship and began competing both nationally and internationally. Adside earned top scores, and was one of 22 people invited to try out for a spot on the 2012 U.S. Paralympic equestrian team. However, her sponsorship had dried up, and she was unable to secure funds to transport herself, her horse, a trainer, a groomer, and an assistant from Southern California to the trials in New Jersey. Picking Yourself Up Adside has had her share of tumbles, off horses and otherwise. Growing up with a disability, she says she is used to picking herself up—not always from the ground, but also from adversity—and it is lessons learned from those circumstances, including growing up in abusive foster homes, and other life experiences to which she credits her many talents. These talents extend beyond her innate ability with horses. For instance, in school she was discouraged from pursuing acting—something she says she was born to do—or from performing in the school band. Despite the naysayers, before she turned 18 she moved to the West Coast to pursue an acting career. She landed roles in a McDonald's commercial, on television shows, and in movies. Her credits include Night Court; Murder, She Wrote; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Nemesis; and Feds . She is also a trained professional stunt performer. In that capacity, she says she has been set on fire, jumped out of a three-story building, and jumped off a cliff strapped to another stunt performer's back. She also teaches people with disabilities how to care for and ride horses. It is not therapeutic riding, she points out. "The...type of client I want is someone who has their own horse or wants their own horse," she says. "[They want to] take care of their own horse, ride their own horse, do their own sport." Adside has also found herself taking in errant animals and rehabilitating them: She currently has birds and cats; five horses including Black Beauty; and ten dogs, "everything from a tiny Chihuahua to a Great Dane," she says. She applies the same technique to rehabilitate dogs that she does with horses, and has appeared in an episode of Cesar Millan's Dog Whisperer . "I had people donating...animals that were abused, that were hovering in a little corner and wouldn't come out," she says. "And I worked with them and I'd bring them out. It took time, patience, love, and communication, and it works. It's that simple."

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Barbara Adside: Finding the Rhythm of Life

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