My horse riding adventures

My horse riding journey started in 2004 with therapeutic horse riding at Motueka Riding for the Disabled R.D.A Centre when I was 6 years old. This helped with my coordination, fine and cross motor skills development. 

One year later after all the hard work I put in as well as Mum taking me every week to the R.D.A centre for lessons, I got picked to ride with R.D.A at the Motueka A & P show. I was 6 ½ years old and I got to ride a horse called Tizzy. We got two 3rd place ribbons and a 4th place with my trustee side walkers who made sure I didn’t fall sideways. One of the races was egg and spoon. 

I continued riding at the R.D.A Centre until I was 11 years old and gained more body strength. It was sad to say goodbye to the team at the Motueka R.D.A Centre. Dad found a lady who did horse treks which was paid for, we had rides on the farm which was still supervised. 

After I relocated to Christchurch I started riding lessons at Mairehau Riding Centre. I missed the R.D.A competitions. I learnt a lot of skills with Mairehau Riding Centre, like sitting correctly, walking, trotting, cantering and jumping. I even fell off and cracked my rib but still got back on and learned to groom the horses and put the equipment on them. 

Mum and I found out about Special Olympics Equestrian Canterbury, which is runned by Sandow Riding Centre which is where we train. I joined up with their team about 4 years ago. I got all excited as the team trains every 2 weeks and runs ribbon days for the team during the year. While training for competitions in walk, trot and canter. We train to ride against other regions for Regional games and move up to National games and finally World games .This is where we compete for medals. 

While riding for Special Olympics Canterbury, we have to save hard for my uniform, training and camps. As they all cost a lot of money each time. I enjoy my riding so much that I managed to go to Regional games in Blenheim and got medals and a ribbon. I started my fundraising page Nats fur baby creations to help me fundraise for my training and competitions.