EQUESTRIAN hero Lee Pearson is pondering a switch to motor racing after he attempts to defend his 100 per cent Paralympics record.

Pearson, who turns 38 tomorrow, has won a record nine Paralympic golds since taking up dressage competitively in 1997 and will enter his fourth Games this summer.

But a love of fast cars has never been far from his mind and last year he secured a licence to race from the Motorsport Association.

The former supermarket worker, who has the joint condition arthrogryposis, believes his skills in the saddle are transferable to life behind the wheel.

The only sticking point appears to be that he does not know which motor discipline he should be considering.

"If I hadn't been involved in horses I would have been a racing driver – and I will still try to do it," said Pearson, from Cheddleton.

"This year I had a dilemma whether to buy a farm or a racing car and I chose the sensible option. But next year, who knows? Just getting a licence is an achievement when you're disabled.

"It is the same skill as dressage, all about feel. You need to have that instinctive nose when to make changes in gears or aggression.

"I have had a go at hill climbing in one-seaters that look like Formula One cars. The experts said I was hot. I've not had that reaction since I stopped going to nightclubs!

"But I would be happy even racing a battered Robin Reliant. It may be a hobby or if I retire from horses I might try to have a real go."

Retirement is far from the agenda just yet, however, with Pearson well into his preparation for London.

Qualification for the British team seems to be a technicality for the country's most decorated rider, who has won three golds at each of the past three Games.

But he is still out competing in events every fortnight to ensure he will be in the squad announced this spring.

The former Westwood High School student said: "If I qualify it will be the most surreal experience of my life to be competing in London – and I have had plenty of those.

"London will be life-changing for all the athletes and it will put Paralympic sport on the map. If you win a gold you will become a household name for life."

A repeat of Pearson's achievements in Beijing, Athens and Sydney will see the horseman leapfrog Tanni Grey-Thompson's record of 11 Paralympic golds.

He admits he never contemplated not being able to push for that landmark, despite breaking four vertebrae last May when he was thrown from his Dutch-bred horse Zion.

"Although I had been for an X-ray straight away, the fracture didn't show up and it wasn't until two weeks later that I went back for an MRI scan," he recalled.

"Channel 4 were with me making a documentary and they came in saying, 'Lee you do know that you've broken your back in four places?'

"I had been in a lot of pain, but I had been getting on with my life for a fortnight. I never had a moment when I thought it might be career-ending."

The injury did rule Pearson out of the European Championships in September, while team-mate Ricky Balshaw had a similar complaint.

He said: "We sent an all-female team who did well and came back with six individual golds. They probably think they don't need us anymore.

"But we are both back now. My back still twinges every morning, but after that it's fine. I can't let the girls' heads get too big after all."