OF HOPE AND DRIVE... Blinded by a horse three weeks ago ...now I've set my heart on Paralympics!

WHEN Catherine Robinson set up her own horse training school two years ago, she fulfilled a long-held dream built on hard work, trust and instinct all qualities that define her relationship with her equine charges.

- BY ANDREA BUSFIELD

Having left school at 16 to work in a racing yard near Belfast, she had been obsessed with horses for half her life. Now, she was building a rewarding career in the world she adored, with the animals she loved. Her future seemed full and enriching.

But just three weeks ago the 34-year-old's life as she knew it changed irrevocably. During an ordinary day at work, she suffered catastrophic damage to her face when a three-year-old gelding kicked her below the visor of her riding helmet.

The blow shattered her nose and eye sockets. She was blinded.

Catherine said: "Both my eye sockets, cheekbone and nose were shattered my face resembled a crumpled bag of crisps."

Surgeons at Coventry Hospital reconstructed her face, but eye specialists have since told her she will never regain her vision.

The news would have devastated almost all of us. Not Catherine.

Even though she faces months of surgeries and rehabilitation, she is already looking to the future with renewed positivity. Her new dream? To compete at the Paralympics.

It's a show of incredible bravery and determination.

Until the accident on October 27, Catherine had been running her own business breaking and backing young horses - teaching a horse to wear tack and to carry someone on their back.

It is one of the most dangerous and highly skilled branches of the equestrian world.

Based at a yard near Southam in Warwickshire, she took in youngsters from professional equestrian firms and private owners, transforming them from barely halter-broke colts and fillies into confident riding horses.