Army veteran ignites passion for curling, downhill skiing at clinic

“In Summer 2006 I had been in Iraq for more than a year, still had three months to go, and that’s when I got hurt,” said Patrick Horan of McLean, Va. “I don’t know if it was a sniper or some random idiot on the other side of the road with a rifle … but I guess they saw us and he shot.”

Horan, an Army infantryman, was shot in the head. He survived but suffered a traumatic brain injury and impaired vision, which affect him today.

But he keeps soldiering along. Horan said he had always been a fan of curling and watched it on TV for several years.

“It was always on those weird channels nobody watches,” he said.

His first trip to the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in 2015 gave him his shot at trying it for himself.

“It was hard to do,” Horan wrote in his blog, How to Live the Good Life After TBI. “Then you had to walk on the ice. And you push a stones (sic) that weigh (sic) 40 pounds. I loved it!! I got better by the last day.”

He also discovered downhill skiing at the clinic.

“I have two [coaches] with me when I ski downhill,” he said. “I still don’t have a lot of feeling in my right arm or leg, and I can’t see out of my right eye really well. They make sure I don’t hit a tree or something!”

He said a chief benefit of the clinic is that it cements the bonds disabled veterans intrinsically have within their own community.

“When you go there, you can just be there and relax and don’t have to worry about anything,” said Horan. “You meet friends you’ve met before and make some new ones. That’s what I really like. It’s not the same as when you see someone on Facebook. It’s not the same as seeing a friend face to face and saying hello.”

 

About the event: Co-hosted by DAV and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic promotes sports therapy and rehabilitation through adaptive Alpine and Nordic skiing, rock climbing, wheelchair self-defense, sled hockey, scuba diving and other adaptive sports and activities. The five day event in Snowmass, Colorado is a world leader in adaptive winter sports instruction for ill and injured Veterans and their families. Be inspired at wintersportsclinic.org.