Saddle Up: Give children a good leg up

Angelo, a little boy from the Astra School for the Physically Disabled, is mounting a horse for the first time. His excitement is visible.

The riding instructor and her two assistants wheel him up the specially designed ramp, and help him to get out of his wheelchair and onto the pony.

The pace is slow at the South African Riding Disabled Association stables in Constantia, Cape Town, but equine, or riding therapy offers benefits to children and adults with disabilities.

"The therapeutic value of riding is that as the horse walks the rider feels the movement from left to right and up and down, as well as the forward motion of the horse. This develops both the core strength and the all-important 'midline', so often poorly developed in children with physical handicaps," says therapist Lisa Hare, who runs a branch of Sarda from Sleepy Hollow Stables in Noordhoek.

Angelo is smiling but Hare notices his body is tilting to the left. He is firmly told to sit up straight and is repositioned by the assistants.

"There's no point in riding unless you sit up tall," says Hare.

Apart from physical benefits there are also emotional perks. Riding a horse can give a physically handicapped person freedom of movement and independence they rarely experience on a daily basis.

In South Africa, Sarda is the most established practitioner of this form of therapy, with branches in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

Sharon Boyce, one of the founders of Shumbashaba: Horses Helping People, is a psychologist who also specialises in equine therapy. Shumbashaba's programme services the community of Diepsloot, on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg, offering equine-assisted therapy, as well as a form of therapy that doesn't involve riding.

"In 2006 I was introduced to the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association," says Boyce.

"I was struck by the power of the model, which is committed to a team approach requiring a mental health professional, a horse professional and horses as the facilitation team.

"People deal with life's issues in a non-traditional experiential setting. Issues that we have dealt with include depression, trauma debriefing and counselling, behavioural problems, addictions, anger management, relationship building and couples counselling."

Practitioners of equine-assisted therapy share a love of horses and many have experienced firsthand the therapeutic benefits of horse riding. Fiona Muhl, a special needs teacher from Durban, has combined her love for riding and teaching to run the Durban branch of Sarda.

"I've heard previously mute children ask their ponies to 'walk on'. I've also seen children in wheelchairs develop greater core stability and gain a greater interest in life and the desire to try to do things for themselves. Children whose parents thought they couldn't move, begin to crawl and then pull themselves up into standing positions," Muhl says.