INTERVIEW
The Horse Show is being held since December 5 in Paris and in this context takes place the 11th edition of the Longines Masters in Bercy until December 8, event of which Europe 1 is partner. Some 50,000 spectators are expected and for the occasion, Salim Ejnaini, present at the 2016 competition, answered questions from Matthieu Belliard. His particularity: he is a blind rider.
Situate yourself with sound
Visually impaired child, blind at the age of sixteen, Salim Ejnaini begins with initiations in leisure center. "When you're bitten, you get passionate about the horse, you're screwed, after you want to make it!", He laughs. A dream far from obvious that he realizes by being on the track thanks to the sound. "I am competing against riders who have their eyes, all their faculties, so I have people who allow me to adapt, giving me the indications I need.They serve me as fixed references on the track, at strategic points of the course, and give me voice information, "reveals the rider, become author with The impossible is a good start to editions Fayard.
Guillaume Canet, "a very beautiful human encounter"
Salim Ejnaini was among other things known at the 2016 Longines Masters, with events in public. Not easy when you rely on sound. "It changes a lot of things, not only for the acoustic side but to know that we have everyone around ... I had in guide personalities of the horse world, including Guillaume Canet". The actor, also a cavalier, preface his book. "It's a very beautiful human encounter, a link I hold dear, woven around sport, our passion for riding."
>> Find the unexpected guest of the day of Matthieu Belliard in replay and podcast here
As for his "handicap", Salim Ejnaini does not see it like this: "Blindness is not something to be exceeded, it is an element to be taken into account. [...] We come to something when we understands how we manage to do with, not to do despite ".
He has another passion, flying. "It's been a few months that I did not fly, but I do it in an association, called the flying Mirauds in Toulouse.It allows the blind and visually impaired to approach the middle of the world. aeronautics by being a student pilot.The machines are adapted, a computer gives sound information in the pilot's helmet. "