Paralympics 2012 Day 6: Sophie Christiansen turns up the volume She has sat on a horse only once since that day. Janeiro has had a well-earned holiday, and such is the demand for Christiansen's physical presence, a friend is now her self-appointed personal assistant to deal with requests for a piece of her which are coming "in waves." Her job as a statistician is on hold, she thinks, although she confessed she is not entirely sure. Last week she spoke at two schools in Portsmouth, spent a day filming a Channel 4 quiz show and on Sunday night she was one of the stars of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. On Saturday, just for good measure, she had a skiing lesson. "I've always wanted to go, so why not?" she says. At the moment there is just no stopping her; she even got away with rewriting Shakespeare. Reflecting on that moment she recalled: "Everyone had been told to wave rather than clap. If a horse spooks I go straight out of the side door and you just can't train a horse for an arena or crowd that size. The first time I'd thought it so funny. It was like the whole world had been put on mute but I could sense the excitement of people. After my freestyle people started waving until my brother shouted at which point the whole crowd roared. You could see how excited people were to witness a third gold medal. "Before the Paralympics the intention was to go back to work," she added. I had to plan for every eventuality. If things hadn't gone so well I'd have had to get back to normality as quick as possible. But having had the success I'm determined to live it. It may seem almost sacrilegious in a year in which Frankel burnt off all-comers. But the highlight of my year was watching Christiansen, who was born two months prematurely and whose litany of medical problems during the early days included blood poisoning and a heart attack, mount up and, at a speed no faster than a walk, conquer the most complicated equestrian discipline of all. That she was there was due to a progressive school, whose physiotherapists believed in the benefits of horse-riding as a form of therapy, and the local Riding for the Disabled centre which she attended instead of PE. "I fell in love with horses and the freedom they gave me," she said. They allowed me to forget the worries of normal life. The RDA passed me on to their South Bucks centre which is one of the most unique riding centres in the world. I hope if I can do one thing it is to create another place like it. Part of her freestyle routine had included a quote from the "sceptred isle" speech in Richard II, although she changed "England" to "Britain." "I was representing Great Britain not just England so felt I needed to change it but it did feel like sacrilege rewriting Shakespeare," she joked. She was not the only Briton to dazzle that day. The increasingly impressive David Weir ripped up the field in the T54 1,500m to claim his second gold medal of the Games, while Ellie Simmonds claimed an heroic bronze in the 50m freestyle. But the day belonged to Christiansen. For her, normality returns in the New Year when she starts riding again. "I need to find the next Janeiro," she says. The only way I can improve on London is to bring on a younger horse. It would be a brave man to bet against Christiansen winning more gold in 2016.