Gold medal-winning para dressage rider Natasha Baker “loved every single second” of her charity skydive last weekend (14 September).
Natasha tackled the 12,000ft freefall with five others at Hinton Skydive Centre near Northampton and jumped in perfect, clear conditions.
Her coach was a former Bond stuntman and agreed to Natasha’s requests to do a bit of “fun stuff.”
“I am a bit of an adrenalin junkie,” she admitted. “We did a few somersaults and flew around in the sky for ages in the parachute before doing the landing. It was very reassuring to be strapped to a professional who knew what we were doing.”
The final freefall took just 45 seconds with Natasha landing without any mishaps to the relief of her mother who said earlier, “please don’t break anything before the Nationals.”
Natasha will be taking her six-year-old Oldenburg, Sookie St James to the National Dressage Championships at Stoneleigh this weekend.
Her skydive was in aid of Dreamflight, a charity which takes seriously ill or disabled children to Florida for ten days every October.
Natasha credits her success as a dressage rider to the confidence she gained from going on one of these holidays as a child.
She plans to continue to fundraise for the charity as well as joining this year’s trip to the theme parks of Orlando for the first four days.
