Ildiko Fonyodi

Started: She began non-Para dressage at age 13. (dijlovasok.hu, 01 Jan 2023) Reason: She originally competed in non-Para dressage before undergoing surgery to remove a tumour from her femur [thigh bone]. She began riding again on her friend's horse Cserfes, a horse she had previously helped to train. "Cserfes taught me to ride again. After I decided I couldn't and didn't want to exclude horses from my life, we started researching whether I could start on this path." (dijlovasok.hu, 01 Jan 2023) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (Facebook profile, 16 Mar 2024) Additional Info: OTHER ACTIVITIES In 2022 she began serving as a board member and the representative for Para equestrian sport at the Hungarian Equestrian Federation. She has also worked as a coach at the Pondera Equestrian Sports Association in Hungary. (riderline.hu, 01 Jun 2022; dijlovasok.hu, 01 Jan 2023) TIME IN GERMANY She moved to Germany in 1999 to train as a rider before returning to Hungary in the early 2000s to finish her education. "I went to Germany to work as a rider, where I also worked in two well-known stables. One of them was a military stable in Bavaria, where I rode military horses belonging to [German eventer] Jurgen Blum's stable. I worked there for a year. I changed because I definitely wanted to work in a dressage stable. In Cologne, I joined the wonderful private dressage stable of the Schmitz-Heinen family. With them, I mostly dealt with boarding young horses. After two years, I came home, finished college, and started riding and training horses at home." (dijlovasok.hu, 01 Jan 2023)