 Portrait of Australian Paralympic equestrian Oakley in 2012 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 18 April 1962 |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Equestrian |
Rob Oakley (born 18 April 1962) is an Australian equestrian. He represented Australia in equestrian at the 2012 Summer Paralympics but did not medal.
Oakley was born on 18 April 1962 in Primrose Valley, New South Wales. He has muscular dystrophy. [1] [2] In 2007, he was based in the Australian Capital Territory. [3] In 2012, he lived in Bungendore [4] [5] and had two teenage daughters. [6]
Oakley is a Grade 1B equestrian competitor. [2] [7] As of 2012 [update] , his coach is Jose Mendez and his groom is Faye Mendez, and he trained in Marulan, New South Wales. [2] [4] [6] He has been involved with horse related sport since he was a teenager, [4] starting in the sport as a way to impress a girl. [8] In 2011 and 2012, he had a scholarship with the ACT Academy of Sport. [2] [4] [8] [9]
Initially, before the onset of muscular dystrophy, Oakley played polocrosse. [4] He started doing dressage in 2002. [4] [8] He first represented Australia in 2005. [8] That year, he finished first at the International Derby in the United Kingdom [6] [5] and second at the Hartpury International Festival of Dressage. [6] [8] [5] He competed at the Hartpury International Festival of Dressage again in 2006. [6] In December 2006, he acquired a 17 hands high horse called Peaceful Warrior. [5] In 2007, 2008 and 2012, he trained and volunteered at the Pegasus Riding for the Disabled Centre in Canberra. [3] [10] [5] In late 2007, he was attempting to get horse flu vaccinations for his two horses because he believed if he did not get them, his chances of making the Paralympic team would be diminished. [3] [1] In 2007, he was a member of Australia's dressage shadow Paralympic team [1] and competed in the World Championships. [5] In April 2008, he was one of three riders trying to earn Australia's fifth and final spot on the country's 2008 Summer Paralympic team. [11] He did not get selected. [4] He was a member of Australia's 2009 National High Performance Squad. [12] At the 2011 Oceania Championships, he finished second in the team and individual events. [8] He was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in equestrian [8] [13] [7] [14] riding Statford Manny Mantivani [4] [2] as a fifty-year-old. [7] He did not medal at the 2012 Games.[ citation needed ]
Laurentia Tan Yen Yi BBM PBM, is a Singaporean para-equestrian competitor. Tan developed cerebral palsy and profound deafness after birth, and moved to the United Kingdom with her parents at the age of three. She took up horse riding aged five years as a form of physiotherapy. She subsequently completed her A-levels at the Mary Hare Grammar School, a residential special school for the deaf, and graduated with an honours degree from Oxford Brookes University in hospitality management and tourism.
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Para-equestrian classification is a system for para-equestrian sport is a graded system based on the degree of physical or visual disability and handled at the international level by the FEI. The sport has eligible classifications for people with physical and vision disabilities. Groups of eligible riders include The sport is open to competitors with impaired muscle power, athetosis, impaired passive range of movement, hypertonia, limb deficiency, ataxia, leg length difference, short stature, and vision impairment. They are grouped into five different classes to allow fair competition. These classes are Grade I, Grade II, Grade III, Grade IV, and Grade V(Grade Names Changed as of Jan 2017). The para-equestrian classification does not consider the gender of the rider, as equestrines compete in mixed gender competitions.
Para-equestrian is an equestrian sport governed by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), and includes two competitive events: One is para-equestrian dressage, which is conducted under the same basic rules as conventional dressage, but with riders divided into different competition grades based on their functional abilities. The other is para-equestrian driving, which operates under the same basic rules as combined driving but places competitors in various grades based on their functional abilities.
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