Anne Patricia Dunham (24 September 1948 – 11 May 2025) was a British

Para-equestrian 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 dre ...

who competed in the

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

Early life and disability

Whilst at school Dunham worked at a local stable in her spare time and, by the age of 16, she was running a yard of 80 horses at weekends. She said that she "always wanted to compete" but whilst she was able to ride the horses in the stables their owners competed with them. Dunham was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

at the age of 27 and used a wheelchair from the age of 30. At the age of forty, when her husband sold his business, she bought a horse and began to compete.

Paralympic career

Dunham first competed at the Paralympics competing on Doodlebug in

dressage Dressage ( or ; , most commonly translated as "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrianism, equestrian sport defined by th ...

events at the 1996 Atlanta Games where she won a bronze medal in the individual mixed Kur trot grade II, and gold in the open team event. In the individual mixed dressage grade II she finished just outside the medals in fourth position. At the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was the last time that the Summer Paralympics were organized by two different Organ ...

, in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Dunham was part of the team that successfully defended their title in the open team dressage event. In the individual events at the games she finished fifth both in the mixed dressage - championship grade II and mixed dressage - freestyle grade II. The 2004 Athens Games were Dunham's third Paralympic appearance. As part of a team with

Lee Pearson Sir David Lee Pearson (born 4 February 1974) is a 14-times Paralympic Games gold medallist, having represented British para-equestrianism in Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio, and Tokyo. Over the course of his career he has won 30 gold med ...

, Debbie Criddle and Nicola Tustain she won her third consecutive gold medal in the team dressage. Competing in the grade I freestyle and championship individual events she finished fifth and sixth respectively with fellow Briton Pearson winning gold in both. Dunham went to her fourth Paralympics in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. The dressage events were not held in the host city

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

but instead took place at the

Olympic Equestrian Centre The Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre hosted the Equestrian at the 2004 Summer Olympics, equestrian events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The venue is located at Markopoulo Mesogaias, Markópoulo on the outskirts of the Athens su ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Dunham at the age of 59, competing on her horse Teddy Edwards, won her first individual Paralympic gold medal in the championship test grade Ia and also won silver in the freestyle test grade Ia. In the team open Dunham, with teammates Lee Pearson, Sophie Christiansen and Simon Laurens won the gold medal. This meant that Dunham won a gold medal in this event at four consecutive Games.

Personal life and death

Dunham was born in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

and had one daughter. She later lived in

Broad Hinton Broad Hinton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlets of Uffcott and The Weir. History There are several barrows in the parish, notably on Hackpen Hill.Crowley ''et al.' ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

and died on 11 May 2025, aged 76.

Honours

In the

2009 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2009 were announced on 31 December 2008 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Christopher and Nevis,Saint Christopher. t ...

, Dunham was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) for services to disabled sport. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to para-equestrianism.

References