Former eventer Saffron Cresswell, who was paralysed in a fall in 2024, is preparing to compete at the Canoe World Championships. This remarkable achievement comes just eight months after she first tried the sport.
Cresswell, now 25, sustained a broken back at T4 level after falling from her horse Vivendi Hero during the under-25 cross-country round at Bramham Horse Trials on 8 June 2024. Before the accident, she had been a talented eventer on an Olympic pathway, having run a business training and riding 25 horses since she was 15.
After four months in hospital, Cresswell returned home to Worcestershire, where her horses had been sold. Finding herself home alone and unable to easily leave or do much, she decided to find a new sport. She has not returned to horse riding, stating it would be too disheartening not to be able to perform at her previous level or feel the horse beneath her.
Cresswell's family business has had to diversify since her accident, and she now coaches. She describes missing the simple act of saying hello to horses on the yard, despite having been too busy to do so frequently before her injury.