Simple gold coin can help give confidence

Wanganui Riding for the Disabled helps children to increase their body strength and confidence through riding and now the organisation is on a quest to be self-reliant through self-funding.

Volunteers' co-ordinator Kate Jaunay said ideally up to 300 people donating $1 a day would help Riding for the Disabled (RDA) pay salaries to a couple of people.

There is a call on the volunteers to be everything to the organisation, which was selling their own families short, she said.

Mrs Jaunay said a call on funds from the many organisations in the community that required assistance and the money RDA received from Lotteries was down to a quarter of what the group previously received.

"We have had a lot of help from people in the community and there's more to do," Mrs Jaunay said.

There is more room for volunteers, who need to be qualified in the New Zealand Riding for the Disabled (NZRDA) way.

The volunteers are needed the three days a week the group rides, to assist four riders every 45 minutes.

"We need proper goal-setting to set goals for every rider to achieve term by term," Mrs Jaunay said.

The riding helps those who are disabled with general physiotherapy.

The youngest rider in the group is 3 years old, and the oldest is 60.

Wanganui RDA is one of the few that gives adults the opportunity to ride.

"Horses are intelligent and empathic and respond to the rider," Mrs Jaunay says, and adding the Winston Churchill quote: "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man".

Only yesterday morning Mrs Jaunay watched Lylah-Jay Thompson from Kaitoke School, who cannot use her hands, "quietly strengthening herself".

Lylah-Jay joined RDA this term.

Another Idea Services girl, who can't talk, expressed her joy at being able to ride on a horse with "wide-armed expression".

Among the volunteers who help is Matthew Johnson. He is transitioning out of Arahunga Special School and has been coming to RDA for three days a week since January 2012.

NZRDA has been operating in New Zealand for 30 years, and originally started in the UK to assist injured returned soldiers to rehabilitate and lift their spirits.

If you would like to donate $1 a day to Wanganui Riding for the Disabled, please send an email to wanganuirda@xtra.co.nz or call 06 347 1542 and leave a message if unattended.