<\/p>
\u201cOn the back of a horse, I felt both free and safe at the same time.\u201d This sentence is emblem\u00adatic of Bianca Vogel-Schmidt\u2019s extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary life. In her biog\u00adra\u00adphy, \u201cBeyond Barri\u00aders,\u201d she recounts her child\u00adhood, her passion for eques\u00adtrian sports, her jour\u00adney to the top of the world, and her commit\u00adment to the rights of people with thalido\u00admide damage.<\/p>\n
Born with\u00adout arms in the early 1960s due to the drug Contergan\/Thalidomide, Bianca Vogel-Schmidt grew up in a small Rhineland town. From the begin\u00adning, her parents provided her with an inclu\u00adsive upbring\u00ading and encour\u00adaged her to forge her own path. Yet, she repeat\u00adedly encoun\u00adtered prej\u00adu\u00addice and soci\u00adetal barri\u00aders \u2013 in school, in her profes\u00adsional life, and in compet\u00adi\u00adtive sports.<\/p>\n
Despite all obsta\u00adcles, Bianca Vogel-Schmidt devel\u00adoped into an inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adally success\u00adful dres\u00adsage rider. She became a multi\u00adple world cham\u00adpion and won two silver medals at the 2004 Para\u00adlympic Games in Athens. At the same time, as one of the promi\u00adnent faces of the Thalido\u00admide move\u00adment, she advo\u00adcated for recog\u00adni\u00adtion, justice, and social participation.<\/p>\n
Her life story also reflects soci\u00adetal change: from a time when people with disabil\u00adi\u00adties were primar\u00adily seen as welfare recip\u00adi\u00adents, through the first efforts towards inte\u00adgra\u00adtion, to today\u2019s demand for equal participation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond Barri\u00aders\u201d tells of personal successes and setbacks, of courage, self-determination, and the fight against prej\u00adu\u00addice. It is the story of a woman who refused to accept soci\u00adetal limi\u00adta\u00adtions and found her own path between small-town life, inter\u00adna\u00adtional elite sports, and polit\u00adi\u00adcal engagement.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
Our tip: <\/strong><\/p>\n At the \u201cEgmond Circle,\u201d Diana Ihmann will read from Bianca Vogel-Schmidt\u2019s previ\u00adously unpub\u00adlished biog\u00adra\u00adphy, \u201cBeyond Barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n When:<\/strong> Satur\u00adday, Octo\u00adber 31, 2026, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM Title:<\/strong> Beyond Barri\u00aders \u2013 Of Inner Strength and Free\u00addom in the Saddle A review copy will be avail\u00adable at the book table during the event.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bianca Vogel-Schmidt shares her life story as a success\u00adful dres\u00adsage rider and thalido\u00admide activist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-takeaways"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13419"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13869,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13419\/revisions\/13869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egmond-circle.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhere:<\/strong> Abdi\u00adjzaal, Hotel Zuiderduin<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Bibliographic Information<\/h3>\n
\nAuthor:<\/strong> Bianca Vogel
\nGenre:<\/strong> Autobiography
\nPubli\u00adca\u00adtion Year:<\/strong> Not yet published<\/p>\n