Our Association with the Soweto Riding Centre

Horses that are constantly ridden by individuals with impaired movement start to take on the riders' asymmetry, and so reduce the benefit offered by the horse.

So to offer our horses a chance at normality, we decided to set up an exchange program with Enos Mofakate, the instructor of the Soweto Riding Centre. Each of our horses and ponies are allocated to a Soweto Riding Centre rider who is responsible for riding the horse or pony from time to time, taking them on outrides etc. These riders together with some of our disabled riders also attended the local pony club once a month(2003) to offer the horses' an opportunity to take time off from their serious task and to have some fun.

Khaya Lisha New House Of God

These are AIDS orphans living in the New House Of God, in the informal settlement close to the centre. They rode with us for eight months before we were forced to terminate the program due to the following reasons:

• We lacked the funding to continue with any of our sponsorship work
• With our move it made it almost impossible for them to come to the centre as they didn't have any transport
• Soon after this termination, they were forced to place the children in other homes because they lost the house from where they operated.

My Home - My Children

This group of children also rode on sponsorship and due to the same reasons as above mentioned, also had to stop riding at the centre.

The Islamic Perspective

One of the first physicians to recognise the therapy that can be derived from the horse was - Hippocrates who spoke about the "Horses' healing rhythm".

Also in the Moslem Hadith we find the following quote - taken from the Sahih Bukhari Hadith 4.103.

• Narrated Ursa bin ALGA: The Prophet said, "Good will remain (as a permanent quality) in the foreheads of horses till the Day of Resurrection."
• And Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah's Apostle said, "There is a blessing in the fore-heads of horses."

While working with the Moslem community a question we have often been asked is, can horse riding have a physical effect on a young girls' virginity?

Horse riding, whether astride or side saddle, has no effect on the "hymen" at all, this is an old wives tale as the saying goes, when it is said that horse riding will damage a young girls virginity.

Please remember the "hymen" is just a muscle, and if you refer to the question on muscle tone and the movement of the horse, you will notice that therapeutic riding is designed to improve muscle tone and strength, so the "hymen is strengthened" and not broken.

The horse riding service we offer to young girls is purely done on a therapeutic basis, the sexual connotations that are prevalent in some equestrian arena's are the result of a modern and corrupt society but at Windy Hollow we have never made ourselves guilty of provoking this, lets say un-tasteful ideology, instead, we have adopted a more modest and conservative policy.