Pearson required numerous operations and had had fifteen by 1980, when he was recognized with the United Kingdom's Children of Courage Award.

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His parents, Pearson stated, "were determined to make [his] life as normal as they possibly could" and therefore managed to get him moved from a school for students with special needs to a mainstream school when he was nine. They also gave him a donkey named Sally to ride when he went off into the countryside with his friends since he could not pedal a bicycle.

Pearson progressed to riding horses and rejoiced in the freedom of the movement of the animals but did not initially foresee equestrianism as a profession. He wound up working in the back room of a supermarket, but he found the isolation of that environment insufferable. "If I hadn't discovered the possibilities of a full-time career in sport through watching the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, I'd have committed suicide," he stated. "I hated the job so much I was on antidepressants."

Pearson developed his skills at dressage and began competing in 1998. He enjoyed spectacular success, making the British team for the 2000 games in Sydney, where he won three gold medals--two individual and one team--with his horse Blue Circle Boy, affectionately known as Gus.

Rider and horse swept the medals again in Athens in 2004. Pearson subsequently retired Gus and trained a new horse, Gentleman, aboard whom he won three more gold medals in Beijing in 2008.

Pearson holds a dozen other gold medals from other para dressage competitions and also has the distinction of being the only disabled rider to take a title at the British Dressage National Championships, with a victory in the 2003 elementary restricted finals.

Because of his expertise and achievement, Pearson was named the 2003 and 2004 BBC Midlands Disabled Sports Person of the Year and was also voted BBC Midlands Sports Personality of the Year in 2004.

For his accomplishments in equestrianism and also for his service to sport for the disabled, he was awarded an M.B.E. in 2001 and an O.B.E. in 2005.

Pearson is not only an inspiration to disabled athletes but also a proud member of the glbtq community. He came out to his parents on the eve of his twenty-first birthday, for which they "wanted to lay on a major, major . . . party." He had previously pretended to have a romantic interest in women but decided that the time for honesty had come, asking himself, "What's the point in people celebrating my coming of age when they don't know who I really am?"

The revelation, he stated, "was difficult for my mum and dad because they had the normal expectations of marriage and grandchildren so there was a period of adjustment." Pearson was gratified by their eventual response, however. "I'm quite glad that I came out before I moved out and had my independence," he said, "because then you know you've really been accepted."

Pearson owns a yard with six stables in Cheddleton, where he has established a very successful breeding business. The athlete who cannot move without full-leg splints and crutches or the use of a motorized wheelchair also trains able-bodied equestrians in the art and sport of dressage.