KEY POINTS:
Caitlin Brown has been riding horses at Tauranga Riding for the Disabled for four years.
The 10-year-old suffers from a rare hip condition called Perthes disease which has required several operations, plaster casts covering her legs and torso, and a metal frame attached to the outside of her
body.
Riding has helped ease her pain and kept her spirits high.
"I get to meet new horses and ride them," Caitlin says. "And I can rise to the trot now."
Before, Caitlin could only sit sideways on a horse, but as her condition improved and her metal frame was removed, she was able to put her legs astride and sit in a saddle.
Her mother, Donna, said riding had improved her condition.
"This is the best," Donna said. "It's more than a physical therapy. It's psychological. There's just so many facets to it."
Tauranga Riding for the Disabled (RDA) is currently expanding, with plans to build a new indoor arena to provide therapy for more people.
It is one of 55 branches of RDA nationwide and the organisation's leaders yesterday called on the Government to increase funding, saying New Zealand was the only country in the world where riding for the disabled was not directly funded.
"We're not pony rides for the poor unfortunates," NZRDA chief executive Guy Ockenden said.
"We provide sufficient services, especially therapy services, that ease the strain on the health sector."
The organisation provides horses to 3000 disabled people a year for therapy, education and sports.
Some riders have physical conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, paraplegia, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, and others have visual or hearing impairment, or intellectual or learning disabilities.
Accident victims are also among their clients. Five hundred horses deliver 1.5 million rides with the help of 1500 volunteers.
Tauranga chief coach Pam Rogers said riding promoted balance, co-ordination, posture and muscle tone for disabled people.
NZRDA's website said it also improved concentration, self-esteem and independence.
Tauranga RDA has raised $560,000 for its indoor arena, but needs about $1 million more. It is also looking for sponsors for its horses.
Annual sponsorships for a horse are $2000. Ms Rogers said caring for each animal cost up to $8000 a year.
Tauranga RDA serves 120 riders, but arena funding co-ordinator Lance Morcan said it was constantly having to turn people away.
It is hoped that the new arena would increase capacity to 500 riders in the next five years and 1000 in the next decade. The aim was also to establish a research and training centre for hippo-therapy, or therapy using horses.
Local MP Bob Clarkson has promised to lobby the Government for direct funding for the RDA, and visited the Tauranga branch with National's disability issues spokesman Paul Hutchison.
A spokeswoman for Disability Issues Minister Ruth Dyson said the minister supported NZRDA's work, but as a voluntary organisation, it could seek funds from many sources.
