General News
18 May, 2023
National Volunteer Week: Riding Develops Abilities is for all
If you want to feel you’re making a real difference in the world, become a volunteer at Maryborough Riding Develops Abilities. Aileen Marshall has been volunteering with the group since it started in the early 1980s and has seen first hand the...
If you want to feel you’re making a real difference in the world, become a volunteer at Maryborough Riding Develops Abilities.
Aileen Marshall has been volunteering with the group since it started in the early 1980s and has seen first hand the remarkable difference it can make to people’s lives.
“Our participants are anyone from three to 80 years old with any sort of a disability,” Aileen, who is vice president and chief instructor at Maryborough RDA, said.
The participants ride horses in both individual and group classes and learn horsemanship if they would like to.
One participant’s experience “still gives me shivers down my spine”, Aileen said.
“Only last year, a little girl who was non-verbal spoke to her horse. Her mum said ‘she spoke, she spoke to the horse, she asked it to go!’. And then the next week we had dad here too because he wouldn’t believe that she actually talked. She didn’t talk a lot but she would talk every now and again.”
In another incredible story, Aileen said one participant went from not being able to support herself physically to sitting up and riding a horse.
“It was a real tear jerker, a little girl came and she was a rag doll basically, all floppy. So we’d hold her [on the horse]. After about five months, she could hold her body weight up. She would ride for the whole half hour, supporting herself while trotting, laughing her head off. And anyone who didn’t have a tear in their eye there was something wrong with them, because it was just beautiful,”she said.
Aileen explained the group needs lots of volunteers to operate.
“We have side walkers, so one person each side of the horse [while the participant is riding]. Our whole criteria is being safe, being effective and being progressive,” she said.
“That starts right from the minute they come in, to the minute we hopefully get them to state and national level if that’s where they want to go — and that has happened with a couple of our participants.”
If you know nothing about horses, but would like to learn, that’s fine. The team of volunteers at Maryborough RDA will train you.
“If anyone is not at all horsey, we welcome you too. We need people for fundraising. We’d love to have a committee and they may never touch a horse, but they may be great in other areas of expertise,” Aileen said.
“There’s always bookwork. There are so many things that need doing — we have a man who comes and he helps to keep grounds maintained. There are so many jobs.”
You don’t need to worry if youonly have a small amount of time to give.
“You can set your time limit. If you’ve only got two hours, that’s fine. You might want to do the tea and only stay for an hour,” Aileen said.
If you’d like to volunteer with Maryborough RDA, contact Aileen Marshall on 5460-4539.