Every day, Sue-Ellen Lovett chooses to be happy.
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"It's all a choice. You can choose to be happy or you can get up in the morning and go 'oh shit, it's a terrible day' and you can choose not to be so happy," she said.
"I try to do my best at being positive and moving forward."
When she was 12-years-old, Ms Lovett was diagnosed with a hereditary condition retinitis pigmentosa. The inherited disease has lead to Ms Lovett completely losing her sight.
But despite that, the Dubbo local has a long list of accomplishments to her name.

"I've represented Australia six times, bronze medal at the World Equestrian Games in '99 on the board of the Sydney Paralympic Games. It's just, when I say all that it's like, well, who does that stuff?
"But the thing is I have, and I think every time I've done a long distance ride it's been because I needed something to do and I needed to make a difference so I didn't fall into that hole of feeling sorry for myself.
"It's very easy to feel sorry for yourself."
Ms Lovett has shared all of those experiences through her series of novels - The Blind Chick.
"It's important for people to realise - and I probably tend some days to disagree with it - but being blind doesn't have to be a sentence. You can find things to excel and make your life better, even when you are totally blind," she said.
"[Writing the books] was just a way of showing ability, not disability."
While there have been friends who have jokingly complained to Ms Lovett about certain stories she's left out of the book, overall they're working to spread her message of positivity and persistence.
"It's amazing how many people, especially my friends on Facebook... when they get into a sticky situation or they think they can't they say 'well, if Sue-Ellen can do it, I can do it'. It's a really lovely compliment that you can give someone confidence to have a go," she said.

Ms Lovett admits keeping the positive attitude is difficult. However, she said if you want something bad enough it's "just a matter of being focused and bloody determined".
"It depends on how bad you want it. You only die once but you live every day."
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As for what's next, Ms Lovett said she had "a few irons in the fire", but for right now, she's in the Blue Mountains working with a new horse.
"You've got no idea how hard it is when you're blind, getting to know a new horse... [but] it's really cool, it makes me smile. It makes me smile from so deep inside," Ms Lovett said.
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