Charity Overview
Funds from ICAP Charity Day were used to support two horses for Riding for the Disabled, Singapore’s only organisation that provides Therapeutic Horse Riding to people with disabilities. The horses, aptly named ICAP Evolution and ICAP Leopard, will be put through their paces as they provide disabled people of all ages an exciting and rewarding experience.
Project Summary
Riding for the Disabled provides therapy for children with a range of disabilities including Cerebral Palsy, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Visual impairment, Hearing Impairment, Learning Disabilities, Muscular Dystrophy and CVA (Stroke). Riding therapy compliments other therapy that riders undergo in their special schools or rehabilitation centres.
Riding for the Disabled Association of Singapore is extremely grateful for the support from ICAP Singapore. The funds donated will ensure that more than 100 therapeutic rides occur weekly, encouraging the riders, building upon their physical, social and cognitive abilities and allowing them to achieve their goals. We are thankful, not only for the financial contribution, but also for the on-site support that the ICAP Singapore team members had provided.Daniel Chua, Executive Director, Riding for the Disabled Association of Singapore.
Horses provide a tool for physical therapy, emotional growth and cognitive improvement in a unique format that is fun and exhilarating. This therapy has the power to change a person’s perspective on life. Besides the physical benefits, contact with the horse provides a powerful experience for riders and the strong bond that is experienced often has a profound, uplifting effect on people.
As well as providing recreation and sport, riders gain increased self-confidence, improved circulation, respiration, balance, coordination and mobility. For someone who is unable to walk, see or has communication difficulties, riding a horse allows them to experience a new sense of freedom and independence.
The ICAP donation will also enable the charity to conduct additional horse riding therapeutic sessions for many more children as well as funding to purchase two new additional horses and provide a year of upkeep for the animals.
RDA currently has 18 horses, a very small team of staff and some 250 volunteers to carry out the daily operations, stable management and riding sessions.
RDA has helped thousands of people with cerebral palsy, global development delay, visual and hearing impairments, and other disabilities. Two riders who started riding with RDA several years ago represented Singapore in the 2012 London Paralympics.
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