In September 2021, Trefoil awarded a grant of £2,300 to The Glasgow Group of the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA), an organisation that works with disabled children to teach them horse riding.
Currently eight of the twelve RDA equines are sponsored by funders and this grant was awarded for the upkeep of RDA pony, Bobby.
Image credit: Awen Photos
““We are so grateful to Trefoil for their support in sponsoring Bobby as he performs transformative work in enabling disabled children to achieve their sporting goals” ”
Bobby works the weekend sessions with eight children who have Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Global Development Delay and rare neurological conditions. They have all benefitted from therapeutic riding sessions on Sunday mornings. These sessions help participants not only with horse riding but also to improve their confidence and increase social interactions.
RDA specifically include games during their sessions that encourage discussions among the young riders, they manage to stimulate communications in even the shyest participants.
The work that are RDA do is invaluable not just to the lives of the disabled children they help but also to their families. Their families bring them to RDA to gain confidence, independence, focus, social and communication skills, as well as the obvious benefits of increased core stability. Riding a horse improves the core strength of each child and gives them a high sense of enjoyment. In fact, 20 minutes of horse riding equates to an hour of physiotherapy, targeting core muscles and coordination.
Image credit: Awen Photos
Trefoil are proud to have been able to sponsor Bobby and see the difference he makes in the lives of those children who benefit from riding him.