RDA
RDA stands for ‘Riding for the Disabled Association’ and is a registered charity that helps the community. It incorporates both riding and driving, with the ultimate aim being to ‘enable people to achieve their dreams and fulfil their potential’.

Horse culture helps those with both mental and physical disabilities and is a common form of physical therapy for those recovering from handicapping accidents. Emotional well being comes from interaction with others and being put in a position of ‘responsibility’ around the horses. Many benefit physically from exercising and stretching the muscles that their handicap may prevent them from doing so normally. Riding helps to activate the parts of the brain and the body that may otherwise not be prominent in a person’s life, but are needed to make life easier.

It’s not just the riders that benefit from the work either. Volunteers are needed to conduct lessons, lead the horses and just generally help out. An enormous sense of well being and community spirit comes from this, from getting out into the open countryside and helping and watching people grow and develop. Volunteers are not always ‘horse lovers’, but even if they are they can still learn a lot about social skills and awareness and furthermore for those not particularly horsey, a new skill – looking after, caring for and riding horses. Those already experienced or with some knowledge in this field can expand their education further by observing the benefits of such activity.

And what about the horses? It takes a special kind of horse to have the patience, willingness and obedience that comes with RDA and more often than not, these horses are getting on a bit, or have been passed on to the RDA because of underlying health conditions that prevents them from achieving what they were originally doing. The RDA therefore provides a caring home for such animals and keeps them fit and healthy with gentle exercise. This system has no doubt saved many horses from poverty and slaughter houses.

• RDA bring together more than 500 volunteer groups in the UK
• More than 25.000 adults and children enjoy the benefits of riding or carriage driving.
• Each year more than 18,000 dedicated volunteers give a total or more than 3.5 million hours of their time.

Para – Riding
This term refers to disabled individuals being able to take part in competitions against other handicapped people with a similar degree of severity. There are classes for dressage, jumping and cross country and all of these events are just as high status as some of the able-bodied events, such as the Paralympics etc.
Para – riding generally is graded depending on the level of disability. Grade I is for the most impaired riders and grade IV is for the least.

If you would like to become a part of the RDA and all of the good work that it does then click here for more information and to locate a group near you.