As a dressage rider, Ms Lovett was included in the successful 1996 Australian Paralympic Team that competed in Atlanta and is now ranked fourth in world dressage following the 1999 World Championships in Denmark.

She was also honoured when she was appointed to the Executive Board of the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee in 2000 and has been an ambassador for 13 years, visiting such places as Merimbula, Molong, Muswellbrook, Coleambally, Darlington Point, Narrabri, Boggabri, Wee Waa, Narrandera, Hay and Moree.

Ms Lovett has been instrumental in raising over $3.1 million for a number of charities, including Riding For the Disabled and the Lion’s Save Sight Project (Australia), by riding marathon distances on horseback, has clocked up over 16,000 kilometres in the saddle and spoken at functions in well over 600 towns.

After being afflicted with the hereditary disease Retinitis Pigmentosa (tunnel vision), Ms Lovett overcame the limitations of her blindness and has spent her life helping and motivating other disabled people and her highly successful fundraising efforts have benefited cancer research, Guide Dogs for the blind and other health related causes.

Ms Lovett is from Mudgee and currently lives in Dubbo and is in the constant company of her guide dog but her next goal is to compete at the world Equestrian Games due to be held in Kentucky later this year with her horse ‘Ko-olina’.

But her prospects have not always been so positive, especially after her sight deteriorated dramatically in 2000 and it seemed as though her days of competition were over when she realised she could not find a horse that was capable of carrying her through the higher levels of dressage.

That was when a very ordinary retired race horse called Ko-olina came into her life.

Ko-olina was a 19-year-old gelding who had finished racing in 1993 after a career of one third place from 11 starts and a grand total of $1700 prizemoney, which was less than impressive.