Riding For The Disabled

The Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) provides people with disabilities with the opportunity to improve their physical and mental health through education and fun with horses.

The Pegasus Centre is a designated centre for the Riding for the Disabled Association, and the home of the Morpeth RDA Group, one of over 600 RDA groups throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland providing people with disabilities with the opportunity to improve their physical and mental health through education and fun with horses.

Each week well over 25,000 children and adults across the United Kingdom enjoy the experience of riding or carriage driving – with opportunities to join in social activities, competitions, or to take a holiday. These activities combine to bring a new dimension to necessarily restricted lives, encourage independence and do much to improve a wide range of medical conditions.

The Pegasus Centre offers state-of-the-art facilities including indoor and outdoor arenas with dust free surfaces and galleried viewing. The Indoor arena has a special mounting area and hoist for riders with disabilities.

Many of the Pegasus Centre Instructors have specialist RDA qualifications in addition to being British Horse Society approved instructors. In addition all staff and volunteers who assist with lessons for riders with disabilities receive training in how to understand and help people with disabilities to get the most out of their time in lessons.

All the Pegasus Centre horses and ponies are carefully chosen for their temperament, size and ability to work with disabled children and adults.

To find out more about RDA, please visit the web site www.rda.org.uk

The promotional video below has been produced for RDA National and gives a good overview of the work done by RDA Groups across the country:

'Disability Awareness Through Animals' Project

Many children find disability an embarrassing and uncomfortable topic as most have had no experience or exposure. At the Pegasus Centre we seek to raise awareness of disabilities and to integrate disabled and non-disabled people in a positive environment.

The ‘Disability awareness Through Animals’ project seeks to enlighten young people and thereby dispel the prejudices associated with the word 'disabled'. We work with mainstream education schools, offering visits and workshops, giving children the opportunity to get close up to a horse, and to learn about their environment and care. We also encourage volunteering and promote care in the community.