Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Golder’s News And Sport

Michael Schumacher’s wife Corinna has spoken about the tragedy for the first time since the skiing accident that left her husband in a coma.

In December 2013, he suffered a massive brain injury in the accident that left him permanently disabled and little has been revealed about his condition after he moved to being treated at home in September 2014.

Speaking to German “She’s Magazine” Corinna, 50, together with her daughter Gina Maria, 22, said that while his son Mick 20 is following in his father’s footsteps with a racing career, mother and daughter were united in their love of Western riding.

They reportedly said that working with horses gave them both the strength to carry on and to deal with the tragedy.

They have a ranch in the Swiss town of Givrins which was given to his wife by Michael Schumacher in 2005 for their 10th wedding anniversary, and mother and daughter are also organising riding events there.

Corinna told the magazine: “I don’t forget who I have to thank for this. That would be my husband Michael.”

Explaining how she developed her passion for horses, she said: “When I was 30 and I dreamt of having a horse, he flew me down to Dubai in order to look at an Arabian horse.”

She said that when she was there she fell in love with Tyson which was a horse used for Western-style riding. It is a style of riding that originated with the Conquistadors who brought it to America where it became popular with cowboys in the American West, who used it to tackle the fact that they had to work long hours under tough conditions. It also involves a lot more independence for the horse with only very light rein control.

She now has two ranches in Switzerland and Texas, and as the magazine notes, as an office clerk she ended up becoming a successful Western rider, and was in 2010 the European champion in Western-style horse riding.

She currently has 40 horses, and Michael used to boast about how he would act as the hired help, known as a Turniertrottel in Germany, where he would be mucking out stables and driving the truck.

She said she was proud of her entrepreneurial activity, saying: “I am glad that I have such a great team that keeps everything going. I feel the greatest pride when I see Gina. What she has already achieved and how much fun she is – that makes me happy.”

But her success does not match that of her daughter Gina, who is a gold medallist with the German team this year in the Reining European Championship in Givrins, where she said: “Thanks, mum.”

Gina also spoke to the magazine, telling them that her father had told her horse-riding came with a special responsibility: “When you drive a car, you can stick it in the garage afterwards. But a horse needs to be looked after all the time, even on Sundays.”

Her success was something Michael had once prophesied would happen.

She said: “When my husband told me that one day Gina would be much better than me, I was not thrilled.

“I thought ‘hey, how did he come to that conclusion?’ I mean I work with horses from morning to night, trying to learn everything.”

He then told me: “You are too nice. Gina however gives everything to the horses, but she is also able to say no and to see it through.”

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