2016 Christmas Messages from our Participants

Thanks to all our lovely Participants for your kind words which can be found HERE.

Noosa District State High School

As a teacher at Noosa State High School Support Unit, I have been involved with Riding for the Disabled for several years. Every fortnight during school terms our group of high-school children attend a riding lesson at North Arm.
The children look forward to this activity as part of their Personal Development Program. Without exception there has been progress made towards attainment of the various goals that have been set. All the children have shown improvement in the development of their physical skills including balance, posture and horsemanship. Over our years of involvement I have seen many remarkable achievements. One that stands out in my memory was watching a child with a history of aggressive behaviour make a special connection with his horse and helpers and become calm, confident and happy. Children who were having difficulty staying on task in a classroom have shown improvement in their ability to focus and concentrate and follow instructions to complete tasks. As a result, their classroom teachers all report an improvement in behaviour and learning outcomes. By being involved in the program, children have an opportunity to practise their skills of communication which help them to participate successfully in society. All this is made possible because of the safe, secure and caring environment that is created by the dedicated team of instructors and volunteers who patiently and calmly work with and encourage our children.
As a teacher of children with disabilities I very much appreciate the time and effort by all involved in this wonderful organisation and I sincerely hope that RDA on the Sunshine Coast can continue to provide this valuable and very successful program.

Janet Browne

 Breanna

My daughter, Breanna, has been a member of Riding for the Disabled Sunshine
Coast since October 2009. She has been attending the hippotherapy programme
which is one of several wonderful programmes offered to disadvantaged children
on the Coast.

Breanna has quadriplegia resulting from a spinal cord injury. This means that she
has very poor muscle control and finds most everyday tasks very difficult. What we
take for granted, like drinking from a cup, eating a sandwich or brushing our hair,
Breanna will find the task challenging and need help. She sees her "legs" as being
her electric wheelchair which she drives better than some people can drive a car!!

We found out about the hippotherapy programme through the RDA's Open Day in
July 2009 and saw the benefits it had to the programme's current riders. Breanna
was really keen to "give it a go" so we put her name down to start the following term.

Since starting in October 2009 we have hardly missed a weekly session. The
physiotherapist designed a programme specifically for Breanna's needs. She just
loves the freedom of being on a horse and having control of the reins (which took
quite some time).

Breanna's core strength has improved dramatically since starting hippotherapy. We
don't realise how much core strength we need to do simple tasks such as writing and
reaching for things. She has gone from writing words on a huge slant to writing
beautifully in a straight in line. She couldn't reach to the top of her page to write prior
to hippotherapy, now it's not a problem. She couldn't bring a cup or a fork to her
mouth whereas now she can do this on her own. These are just a few examples of
how the programme has helped with Breanna's building up of strength.

Apart from the physical benefits it's been amazing for her independence, confidence
and sense of achievement. She is unable to participate is most sports but being able
to tell everybody that she can ride a horse is wonderful for her self esteem. Dougal,
her horse at the RDA was specially picked for Breanna because of his quiet nature
and he has been wonderful. The two have quite a rapport with one another and
work very hard together, but they also have lots of fun.
The RDA Sunshine Coast has a team of very caring and wonderful volunteers who
just want the best for kids with disabilities. They give up their precious time to help
our kids and see them have fun and most importantly "smile".

I fully support the RDA having personally seen the benefits of the programme to rny
daughter and also other kids I've seen riding in the arena. Some kids don't "smile"
until you put them on a horse and then you would think that all their Christmas' have
corne at once.

I thank everyone at the RDA Sunshine Coast for all their efforts, which involves lots
of hard work fund raising, running programmes and caring for the horses. And, it's
all to help our kids have a better more substantial life.

Kind regards

Marie Medcalfe

August 2011

Meaghan & Phoebe

To Whom it may Concern

I wish to submit this letter in regard to ‘Riding for the Disabled’ Sunshine Coast located in Monak Rd, North Arm.

My name is Jo-anne Kerr and our daughters Meaghan and Phoebe both attend sessions at RDA on a weekly basis. For the best management of their needs both girls are both enrolled in Distance Education and are schooled at home.

We first made contact with Jan at RDA in 2012 as we wanted to investigate what RDA could offer for our youngest daughter Meaghan who was 10 years of age at the time.

Meaghan was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when she was 4 years of age. As she has aged in her condition we have become more and more aware of her traits and abilities, and we have worked very hard to seek the best avenues of how best to help Meaghan. She has profuse Sensory profile sensitivities, Auditory processing issues, Anxiety, and Social communication challenges. A large part of Meaghan’s life has been spent with Specialist Therapists, and she is proof that the “Early Intervention” strategy offered under Medicare is very assistive.

We as parents have very high expectations of Meaghan to have insight to her condition, and to utilize the many management adjustments set for her.

Our older daughter Phoebe is 13 and has Aspergers Syndrome with Adhd. Phoebe is Academically Gifted and has many talents but also has periods of severe Depression and previous to Homeschooling would often refuse school attendance for months at a time. She is a bright sensitive girl who has found the expectations of life just too overwhelming at times.

Meaghan has been riding now at RDA for 1.5years, by way of a fortnightly 45 minute lessons, “Saddle Club” and day “camps” in the holidays. Phoebe was to eventually follow her sisters’ lead commencing lessons recently, and has also joined the “Equine Assisted Learning” (EAL) group.

As parents there have been many many dark periods in our family’s journey, as we have watched our children struggle to find their place. Mainstream schooling and everyday team sport pursuits are not always for every child, although there have been many attempts to commit to both. As parents we also became aware that our children spent a lot of time in doctors/therapists “waiting rooms” and not just living life as a “child”.

Our childrens’ needs are not of a highly dependent nature and we primarily sought RDA for the Equine exposure as a physical activity. However we have been overwhelmed by the full advantages we have achieved for our daughters and are very proud of our association with the group.

Our observations of RDA as an association are of group of administrators and volunteers who conduct themselves with tremendous positivity and productivity.

Historically Meaghan has found group interactions and mainstream schooling very difficult. She had received many suspensions from school, and had developed a withdrawal method to coping with the stress of her world.

The hesitations we had in introducing another avenue of social interaction and adult contact for her where very strong. She is prone to violent abusive “meltdowns” if stressed such as which we doubted that she would be able to maintain attendance in any activity.

With all that though I can happily state that to date we have had absolutely no episodes of outburst from Meaghan when she been at RDA. She gains so much from her lessons and has developed wonderful skills in Riding, and all of this comes about due to the nature of the classes and the wonderful volunteers who attend the sessions. Add to that experts in Horsemanship who drive her to achieve all that she is capable of, and do so in a trusting non-threatening manner. Such a change to the child she was, and the effects on her posture, muscle tone and general strength are very noticeable.

For Phoebe the very essence of Equine contact has bought about a calmer and happier teenager. She for so long avoided group activities for fear of failure or anxiety, but in such a short time she found a sense of belonging. At the recent ‘Open Day” for RDA she went about selling raffle tickets wanting to contribute as much as she could to those who have helped our family so much. It was only 4 weeks previously that she refused to come out of her room for days on end.

The center itself at North Arm has modest facilities and generous paddocks for the horses and their care. A rural property such as this takes a lot of maintenance and the volunteers from the community are very active in their support for the center. The committee appears to run the group as an efficient army of workers, ready and willing to help where needed.

Children and young adults attend the centre for lessons and with the help of the volunteers enjoy the opportunity to Ride or enjoy carriage lessons. All up the efforts needed to offer all of this would be massive yet the center offers it all in a manner that is seamless and extremely generous in nature. These are very special people indeed.

We are aware that the center has to conduct continuous activities in Fund raising and there is good support from community groups and businesses, but in order to maintain continual operations a Roof structure for the main teaching arena is very urgently needed. Significant rain events in the area grind operations to a complete stop, which affect the children so very much.

Its very obvious that for us RDA is essential part of all our lives and we are very grateful for the opportunities that all of us gain from it.

Jo-Anne Kerr

30/9/2013

My RDA Experience

In the past few months friends keep commenting to me about how well my 6 year old son Luca (who has cerebral palsy) is sitting up – how straight he sits and how well he can push himself up to sit. They also comment on how much improved his eye contact is and how both his eyes seem to be working in unison more often.

The only thing I can attribute these improvements to is the Hippotherapy program he commenced almost 5 months ago.

It is the best form of physical therapy he has undertaken from both a results perspective and enjoyment factor. It is not a set of repetitive exercises but a whole sensory experience. From the smile on his face and the glint in his eyes when sees his horse every week it is obvious how much he enjoys his riding sessions.

Before mounting his trusty stead Luca stretches out with both hands to touch (and kiss) the horse, thoroughly enjoying the feel (and taste). He loves feeling the breeze on his face and the movement of the horse as he rides around the arena facing forwards, backwards and also sideways.

I am so glad we discovered Hippotherapy and very grateful to the staff and volunteers at Sunshine Coast RDA who do such a wonderful job in delivering this life enhancing program.

Susan Neuvonen

July 2010