Riding for the Disabled (RDA) Raymond Terrace & Lower Hunter Centre offers participants the opportunity to ride 'their' horse, drive a carriage drawn by 'their' pony or complete ground work therapeutic activities. The ground work activities include grooming, leading, side walking and generally helping around the stable yard and in the indoor arena area.

The therapeutic aspects of our actiivities include progressing social and community involvement which includes socialising with their peers, enojying fun games and exercises to test their gross and fine motor skills, cognative abilities and task connectivity. Throwing and catching balls of progressive sizes. holding or catching other mateirals, identifying words, colours, animals, other pictures, hide and seek games are some of the activities we undertake with our participants and for those more able to complete a dressage test. There is also an element of gamesmanship as they train to compete in dressage or even mounted/driving games e.g. bending, snakes and ladders, pearl drop games that all include some aspect of control and directing their horse.

Some of our participants have gone on to compete at state level and on occasions have come away with the rider of the week, the year for our centre, for our region and/or for NSW state RDA. All these aspects give our participants the courage, enthusiasm and confidence in their activities and the benefits are seen to cross over into their home lives i.e. improved speech, dexterity, socialisation and many other benefits, too many to record here.

Our centre operates in the main with the help of volunteers, some who have their own challenges in ability, but all come because they enjoy seeing the smiles on the faces of the participants and they can give a horse a hug - as the Caretaker has said on many occasions 'all horses need a hug'. Our horses are sourced from people who are able, in the main, to lease them to us, if you have a buddy in your paddock who you feel may benefit from helping make the mundane more exciting for them and our participants please get in touch.

We don't receive any direct funding from the government. So without the generosity of the public our centre would be unable to run as we incur costs up to $100,000 per annum. In part it is funded by the participants, in part from securing grants but in the main from like minded people like yourself who see the huge benefits in the work we carry out.