Horses help disabled children

Horse riding instructor Megan Campbell with farmworkers' children Esethu Solani (3) and twins Jessica and Alicia Khohlakala (4) with a horse rescued from the Cape Flats.

 

Abandoned and abused horses in the Cape are being rehabilitated by a Somerset West riding school and then themselves helping to rehabilitate mentally and physically disabled children and adults.

Riding a horse, and bonding with the animal, has long been known to calm hyperactive or disturbed children and the Chilanga Horse Riding School for the Disabled helps up to 300 mentally challenged and physically disabled children from Cape Town and surrounds by teaching them to ride.

“Through the movement of the horse the child’s brain is stimulated. It acts as a therapy for physically and mentally disabled children,” says horse riding instructor Megan Campbell.

She said riding on horseback improved the children’s motor development, enhanced concentration while reducing hyperactivity.

The activity also decreased mental rigidity and even assisted language development, said Campbell as the movement encouraged muscles relaxation and built confidence.

Usually, only wealthy families can afford to pay for horse riding lessons but the school provides free training to children whose families could not afford to pay.

The school has 18 horses which were rescued from various form of abuse. Some had been abandoned while others were abused or on their way to the slaughter house.

To cover the hefty fee of keeping and feeding so many horses, the school relied on funding and fundraising initiatives, said Campbell.

Currently the children ride horses in an outdoor arena measuring 20 x 60 metres, and the school was trying to raise funds to get an undercover arena so as to be able to rehabilitate the children throughout the year.

“That’s our biggest dream it’s almost an impossible one.”

Many of the children who receive rehabilitation at the horse riding school come from the Khayelitsha Special Needs Schools. The Special Needs School’s physiotherapist Deliwe Malgas said using horses to rehabilitate children with special needs has proven effective for her over 400 mentally and physically disabled children.

“It’s an effective treatment for our learners. Some of their conditions are improving,” said Malgas. – Peter Luhanga

Source : West cape News , 6 June 2013