Roxanne Trunnell’s Journey To The Top Of The Para Equestrian World

Roxanne Trunnell competes during the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 on Aug. 27, 2021 in Tokyo.

In the dressage ring, Roxanne “Roxie” Trunnell is rock solid on her horse, a model of balance and poise in a sport that is all about subtlety and making it look effortless.

But dressage is anything but effortless for Trunnell, a 38-year-old equestrian who is in fact more balanced in the saddle than off. Trunnell has cerebellum ataxia, a condition brought on by a virus-induced stroke when she was 24.

“She has no sense of proprioception except when she’s sitting on a horse,” explained Trunnell’s mom Josette.

How and why this happens is both a mystery and a miracle.

“I was once told that the ‘file folder’ in my brain when I had my stroke was not damaged and that is why I have all my muscle memory from when I competed [in dressage earlier],” wrote Trunnell via email.

Trunnell rides so well that she is a two-time Paralympian with two gold medals and a bronze from the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. She also won bronze in freestyle at the 2018 World Equestrian Games.

Now she has her eye on qualifying two horses (and herself) for the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Her journey to the highest level of Para dressage is remarkable.

Born in Richland, Washington, Trunnell has overcome health challenges from day one. Born with Rh ABO incompatibility (blood incompatibility between mother and fetus that can cause jaundice, among other problems), young Roxie contracted viral encephalitis when she was two. Airlifted to Spokane, she recovered but had to relearn everything.

“But at age two, there wasn’t a whole lot to relearn,” said Josette.

Trunnell has always struggled with balance, though, and at age 10, she fell and broke her front teeth. A physical or occupational therapist recommended Trunnell try horseback riding. Josette took her daughter to Happy Horse Riding School, and the owner, Lindy Cogswell, suggested that Trunnell try vaulting. Gymnastics on horseback, vaulting might seem impossible for someone with poor balance. But the discipline improves a rider’s balance and rhythm.

Young Roxie was smitten.

“I was a little horse crazy girl who played with plastic horse figurines, and here I was actually riding a real live horse,” she wrote. “I fell hook, line and sinker for everything to do with riding right then and there.”

Her balance improved almost immediately, and she decided to try English instead of Western riding. She had seen local rodeo queens and was not enamored of the tight clothes, big hair, and make-up.

Roxanne Trunnell competes in a recent Para equestrian event.

Initially, Trunnell set out to be an eventer. But she had a scare while jumping and decided to switch her focus to dressage, the discipline where horse and rider must perform a prescribed series of movements in the arena.

“I think being a perfectionist is one of the reasons I fell in love with [dressage],” wrote Trunnell, who was in awe of Anky van Grunsven, a Dutch dressage champion, six-time Olympian and the only rider to win three successive Olympic gold medals in the same event.

“I’m going ride like her one day!” Trunnell remembered thinking.

By the time she was in college, Trunnell rose to Prix St. George level of dressage — the start of dressage at the international level. But around Halloween 2009, during the H1N1 epidemic, she became ill and within 24 hours, was in a coma. The virus had caused encephalitis, the same illness she had had 22 years earlier. This time, the acute brain swelling led to a stroke. When she came out of the coma, she could not sit up, feed or dress herself, let alone walk.

Josette asked her daughter if she was afraid of dying. No, she told her mom, she was afraid that she would not be able to ride again. But riding seemed out of the question. Her neurologist had cautioned that her physical abilities would not improve (and before discharge from the hospital, doctors advised the Trunnells to find a nursing home or long-term care facility or caregiver for their daughter).

While her brain was having trouble processing where her legs and arms are in space, Trunnell was not intellectually impaired. So, she enrolled in a master’s program, studying equine-assisted psychotherapy. Trunnell immersed herself in the program and began distancing herself from friends and family.

“It was very much apparent that if we didn’t do something, she was just going to check out,” said Josette, who knew she had to get her daughter back on a horse.

She called Cogswell at Happy Horse, and Cogswell helped Trunnell get back on a vaulting pony, with a rider sitting on top of her and another behind — “so I could feel the trot without falling off,” explained Trunnell.

The therapeutic riding worked. Within three weeks, Trunnell no longer needed the support riders. She was able to ride the horse herself without falling off, and it improved her abilities off the horse as well. Trunnell was able to sit up on her own, dress and feed herself. It was a miracle.

Her next challenge: riding her own horse, Nice Touch or Touché, whom she had ridden in able-bodied dressage. No way, thought Josette.

“That horse is a hot redhead and an upper-level dressage horse,” explained Josette. “She’s 63 hands and hadn’t been ridden in two years.”

Trunnell persisted, and one cold December day in 2011, she showed up at the barn in her wheelchair.

“Touché took one look at Roxie, and I swear [Touché] rolled her eyes,” recalled Josette. “Then she leaned into Roxie.”

As Trunnell put a leg over Touché, the horse compensated and helped her maneuver and stay in the saddle. Over the next few months, Trunnell’s balance issues on the horse began to resolve.

“Something happens to my butt, and I connect with the horse, their legs become my legs,” she explained.

“I do have balance issues on the horse, but they are minor in comparison to how my balance is off the horse,” she added.

Roxanne Trunnell (left) poses with Dolton's owner, Karin Flint, during a recent Para equestrian event.

Trunnell was determined to return to competition in able-bodied dressage. But one of her coaches suggested she instead try Para dressage. Trunnell was against the idea, but Josette persisted. The two attended a Para symposium in Maine, where Trunnell was convinced to compete for her country. In November 2012, she was classified Grade 1A in Para dressage.

Trunnell and Touché competed in the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France. While Trunnell was thrilled to compete with her best friend at an international competition, Touché was not a trained Para dressage horse. So, the Trunnell family moved to Texas to be near para dressage horses and trainers.

In 2016, Trunnell made her first U.S. Paralympic Team. Although she finished off the podium, Trunnell, on Royal Dancer, was the highest-scoring U.S. Para dressage athlete at the Rio Paralympic Games. She had only been riding Royal Dancer for three weeks.

If Trunnell was going to reach the podium, she would need time working with a well-trained Para dressage horse. In the spring of 2018, she met Dolton, a Hanoverian gelding owned by her teammate Kate Shoemaker. The horse and rider hit it off immediately. At the 2018 WEG in Tryon, North Carolina, they won a world championship bronze medal in freestyle.

“I have a theory that if you really bond with your horse, they will try super hard for you and will always take care of you,” wrote Trunnell. “After a ride I always make sure to give Dolton treats, and even on the days I'm not riding, I will go out to the barn to see him and just love on him. I think all that time has led to a very strong bond.”

“When it comes down to it, it is just you and your horse out there in that ring, and it is up to the two of you to give the judges chills,” she added. “So the extra time you spend with your horse matters and can come down to winning or losing.”

The Trunnells now lives in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, to be near Dolton.

A medal contender heading to the 2020 Paralympic Games, Trunnell herniated a disc before she was set to head to Tokyo. At a two-week camp in Germany, a team physiotherapist stretched her legs regularly and helped her ride pain-free at the Games.

In Tokyo, Trunnell and Dolton won the individual and freestyle gold medals, and then helped clinch the bronze medal in the team competition. She was the first American rider to win Paralympic gold since 1996.

“She has the drive, and I believed that she had the ability,” noted Josette. “She never complains about anything. ‘What good does it do?’ she says. ‘It doesn’t change a thing. The only thing that makes it better is what you choose to do.’”

With Dolton on an injury break, Trunnell is currently riding Fortunato H20, or Tuna (an Oldenburg stallion owned by Lehua Custer). It’s an off-year competition-wise — with no major championship this summer. But she plans to qualify both Dolton and Tuna for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Just like in Tokyo, she has no expectations for Paris.

“Riders get into their head too much and forget to actually ride the horse,” she said. “I don’t care who’s watching me or what people are saying about me. I’m there to ride my horse the best I can, and my coach has given me the tools to do just that. So that is what I do.”