On Monday mornings, during term-time, a British Red Cross ambulance is driven into the yard at Forest Lodge Riding School, Epping, in Essex.
Out of the ambulance climb three spastic children, patients of St. Thomas's Hospital, London. Other disabled children, from Loughton, Hatfield Heath and Waltham Abbey, arrive in cars driven by voluntary helpers (most of them busy housewives and mothers).
They have come for their weekly lesson in riding, which is being used as an additional form of treatment. The children are mounted on quiet, well-mannered ponies, and they ride in an indoor riding-school.
To begin with, each pony is led by a helper, and a second helper walks beside the pony to give the rider confidence and support if necessary. After a few lessons these helpers gradually withdraw, but the pony is led until the rider has gained sufficient balance and confidence to ride by himself.
To people with little or no knowledge of riding, it may seem strange that children with paralysed or weak muscles, and who can scarcely walk, can learn to ride; yet, when you take a disabled child and put him on a pony, you immediately give him four good strong legs instead of his own two wobbly ones!
Most children love riding, and it seems to come quite naturally to them. The disabled children ride in ordinary saddles, and, as far as possible, without braces or supports.
The stirrups are adjusted so that the leg takes the best possible position, and the rider is made to sit straight, with the spine in a central position.
In teaching a child to ride and control a pony we are teaching him to control his own movements. Riding, normally looked upon as a "tough" sport for the ablebodied, is often the only form of sport (apart from swimming) possible for disabled people, especially those who cannot walk properly. They are often more independent upon a pony than they are on their own feet.
Riding gives a disabled person the incentive to use every scrap of nerve and muscle left to him, and in the joy and pride of this achievement he learns to overcome his disabilities. He learns to compensate for the paralysed or weak muscles, and gradually the body is built up - especially the back and abdomen - and becomes strong and supple. The children learn to do "exercises in the saddle," first "at the stand," then "at the walk " and much later " at the trot."
Exercises consist of arm and leg movements, trunk twisting and bending, ankle-twisting, etc. and many others. The psychological improvement is usually immediate; the physical improvement comes gradually, but amazingly quickly in many cases.
Children suffering from inferiority feelings because they cannot take a normal part in school activities are immediately "one-up" over their school-mates who do not ride. Self-consciousness disappears as the child becomes more and more interested, not only in the actual riding, but in "tacking-up" (putting the harness on), in removing the saddle and bridle, grooming, leading the pony, etc.
Riding used therapeutically has been practised in Scandinavia, Malaya, and on Tyneside, for some years past, and more recently by various groups of interested people all over the world.
The Pony-Riding-for-the-Disabled Trust, of which I am the organizer, is now endeavouring to build its own riding centre, where we can specialize, and do research into the effects of riding on all manner of disablements. We believe that riding is a valuable exercise with therapeutic effects, and is one of the most wonderful means of recreation and rehabilitation.
We have been promised a grant of £20,000 by the London Parochial Charities, to cover the cost of building our centre, but lack of money has been holding us up badly so far, and we are making every possible effort to raise sufficient money to guarantee the running costs and overhead expenses.
N. Jacques, 1962.