King of Shaves were delighted to sponsor Dressage ace Rory Williams.

Rory (22) was born with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy and started riding with South Bucks Riding for the Disabled Group: initially riding horses as a therapeutic past time, it quickly became apparent that his talent for riding would take him further than therapy.

In March 2004, Rory gained a place on the World Class Start & Potential Paralympic Dressage Squad, and in May 2004, he competed at his first international competition in Belgium.

At the British Dressage National Championships he became National Champion at Grade 1. In May 2005 at the final selection trials for the European Chamionships he was placed 6th over all grades, just missing out on a place on the GB Squad. Rory quickly cantered back to winning ways in August 2005: Competing against the European Silver Medallist, he achieved 1st in the warm up test and 2nd in the Championship Test and Freestyle to music. Continuing his startling form Rory has recently placed 3rd at the British Dressage Championships behind two members of the GB Paralympic Dressage squad.

The GB Para Dressage Squad is a very strong team and brought back 5 Gold Medals and 3 Bronze Medals from the Athens Paralympic games in 2004 and 4 Golds, 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze in the European Championships in Hungary 2005. Rory aims to be an integral part of this team by Bejing 2008.

Rory has been a Young Blade since 2005. He was presented with a cheque for £1000 by Andy Hill, MD of King of Shaves, and Will King at Covent Garden, London.

Please scroll down to read the latest updates and news from Rory.    

---

Update: 27 June 2006 from Rory

It's been a fairly slow year this year so far but qualified for the Winter Championships which took place back in March and came 3rd and then also just qualified for the Para Trials in April and was unplaced but I am currently looking at new horses and hoping to qualify for the BD National Championships in September.