50 years of spreading joy: how horse riding helps disabled people in Exeter

The Exeter branch of Riding for the Disabled is celebrating fifty years of providing therapy and fun to disabled people.

The simple pleasure of working with horses is the cornerstone of all RDA's activities - offering people an element of excitement or risk which could be denied them elsewhere in life.

Charney Dallas is thirteen and has been riding for four years.

Medical professionals recognise that there are significant therapeutic benefits for the rider.

Coach Sue Robertson agrees that riding is a fun way to incorporate important physical therapy into someone's routine.

"What I'm trying to do is get therapy, get them moving and using the horse as a way of doing that. How boring for [a child] to be in physiotherapy apartment doing sit ups, doing press ups... she sits on the back of a horse and does it, and it's fun."

The Exeter branch is one of the oldest Riding for the Disabled groups in the UK. The group is self-funded and has a policy of not charging.

They pay to hire the horses, and the riders themselves their get ride for free.

But the volunteers who give a huge amount of their time to the branch, say the joy the horses spread is payment enough: