6:30 Evening with partners

DISABLED RIDING BRINGS SELF-ESTEEM       
The Wyfold Group Riding for the Disabled Association was set up in 1970 and has proved to be of great benefit to the disabled children and adults who use its facilities.
Gill Rushworth, who has a background in teaching, has been a volunteer at the charity for three years, and took on the post of fund-raising co-ordinator a year ago. She spoke to Henley Rotary Club at the twilight meeting at Henley Golf Club on Tuesday evening.
Based at Wyfold, between Peppard and Stoke Row, on the site of the old Borocourt Hospital, the association has eight horses and more than 80 volunteers teach 75 disabled children and adults to ride horse and ponies or to drive a carriage.
The 75 clients, for whom there is a waiting list as many continue to come and ride every week, all testify to the increase in self-esteem and improvement in physical ability which it has given them. Parents have spoken of the therapeutic effects of the horses and how their children have gained confidence and found a new mobility.
Bishopswood School pupils are amongst the users and usually come in on Mondays but the centre is open six days a week, staffed by the volunteers who provide between them about 8,500 volunteer-hours per year.
Mrs Rushworth revealed that it cost about