Ella's Story: Riding for the Disabled

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A few weeks ago I went along to a Riding for the Disabled session at Globe Derby Park, to take some photos of Ella out having fun horse riding.

Here's a brief outline of the program:

Riding for the Disabled Association SA Inc is a voluntary, not for profit, organisation providing horse riding instruction and related activities, including carriage driving, as therapy and active recreation for people with disabilities. At RDA SA, people of all ages can enjoy a safe, stimulating, healthy, therapeutic and recreational sport.

You can read more on their website here: http://www.rdasa.org.au/

I pulled up just as Emily was getting Ella and Scarlett out of their car. Ella was quite excited to be there, repeatedly saying 'Horsies! Horsies!' as we walked over to the building, and trying to drag me over to the stables on the other side.

 There were quite a few people there helping out with the program as volunteers, and they fitted Ella with a riding helmet before heading out.

Scarlett: 'Cool hat sis...'

'...can I have it?'.

Ella: 'Never! Now let's go find some horsies.'

Ella: 'Where are they mum? I can't see any.'

'Still nothing...I am rather unimpressed with this delay.'

'Ooh there's one! I think the volunteers deserve a round of applause.'

'Now someone please let me in.'

'Thank you. Now let's ride!'

Scarlett: 'Sweet, now I get my own helmet.'

'Oh dear. I seem to have misjudged the weight.'

'Mum, can you please help me instead of posting photos of this embarrassing incident on Facebook?'

'I guess I'll just have to take it off myself then.'

'Ah, that's better, I can actually see now. Which will be useful for finding more rocks to eat.'

While Scarlett was mucking around with the helmet, I wandered over to the field where the horses were, packing my big telephoto zoom lens as they were quite far away.

The first part was mostly doing small laps around the paddock, picking up fruit from the top of a drum.

After doing that a few times, they widened the circuit to include some logs on the ground.

 

After a few rounds, they moved across to another paddock. Here's a short clip of Ella getting on her horse and riding around.

It was fairly warm in the sun, so after ambling along for a short time, they headed back in again.

Having enjoyed her riding session, Ella was helped off the horse by one of the volunteers.

Scarlett applauded her equestrian skills, as Ella walked out and over to a bush to pick some flowers. 

Being a warm day Ella needed to be kept well hydrated, so we sat her down for a bit while Emily put some water through her gastrostomy tube.

With the water done, Emily packed the car up and headed off to a friend's house, while I proceeded to make my car particularly filthy by driving on various dirt roads for the rest of the afternoon.