Lee Pearson

“I think it's phenomenal and expected that Paralympians will take on able bodied people more and more. In dressage, it happens all the time. But there are very few adaptions, and they are never allowed to give you an advantage.”

“I had a donkey called Sally that I used to call my BMX bike. As a child, I wasn't a very good horse rider: I thought falling off was normal, and I would just get back on again. I didn't realise you weren't meant to fall off.”

“I've got a quad bike, which I've raced against neighbours. You could give me a go-kart with a lawnmower engine - I'd still have fun. I like jet skis, speedboats, all the boys' toys.”

“If you don't like something, change it. My parents expected me to stay in my office job as an administrator at the Co-op because I'm disabled, but I said no and changed my whole life.”

“Paralympics has always had to push the media into it being about sport and not focusing on the disability.”

“My great grandfather had been the neighbourhood 'horse whisperer,' so I've probably loved horses since I was an embryo. Whenever I watched cowboy films as a small child, I wasn't watching the hunky cowboys - which I'd probably do now - I was watching the horses. Even now, I love sitting in the field just watching the way they move.”

“My motivation is paying the mortgage. No joke. Honestly. I still suffer with nerves and think, 'Why am I putting myself through this torture?' It's not actually the love of winning - it's that building of a partnership with a horse. Just riding horses every day keeps me going. And that threat of losing the mortgage.”

“I've stayed in the best hotels in the world, but you could put me in prison, and I'd still have fun.”

“I'm just a genetic freak, but it has never stopped me from doing whatever I want to.”

“When people chat to me about my childhood and getting into horses, they're like, 'Was it like the birds sang and the sun came out? Was it an amazing experience?' I'm like, 'No, it was rubbish. I was frightened. I was pretty unbalanced, and most ponies took advantage of me.'”

“I've dominated past competitions, but I've sweated blood and tears for every medal. I take nothing for granted, and I'm fully focused on doing my best.”

“My life's been surreal from start to finish.”

“I'm afraid to say I was Mr. Popular at school. I went out with all the girls in my year - I quite liked girls back then - and even dated ones in the year above.”

“I joke that the Olympics is the warm-up to the Paralympics.”

“I always say I'm one of the most normal abnormal people you'll ever meet. I get embarrassed about how many medals I've won, and I get angry when people presume that because you're gay you've got to wear pink and stilettos and camp it up, or that if you're disabled you should act like a victim and not have a life.”

“For me, Paralympic sport isn't about being the best human being. It's about being the best human being with that particular level of disability.”

“I feel lucky that I found my talent, not unlucky that I was born with a disability. When I'm on a horse, I'm more worried about what the riding hat is doing to my hair than what my bent legs and arms are doing. What riding has given me is respect.”

“I couldn't pedal a bike as a child, so I had a donkey instead. I loved the power and freedom it had.”

“I'm a gay disabled man who has become very successful. I don't get up in the morning and think I'm inspirational; I just get up thinking that I love horses.”

“The Paralympic Games actually turned my whole mentality around about disability. When you're in the Paralympic athletes' village and there are 4,000 disabled people, you stop seeing disability. Totally.”