San Francisco Frontiers - Riding for the Disabled transformed my life, says dressage great Baker

The 34-year-old -- who lost the feeling in her legs after contracting transverse myelitis -- is known as the "horse whisperer" because she controls her mount by her voice.

That is one of the skills she learned at RDA and it has been a key element in her winning 10 Paralympic medals -- including six golds -- across four Games.

Baker was speaking as she put young riders through their paces at Park Lane Stables RDA in the leafy London suburb of Teddington.

It is one of 450 spread across the United Kingdom and is dubbed "ponies on pavements" for its suburban setting by the charity's patron Princess Anne.

Natalie O'Rourke, the dynamic founder and manager of the stables, raised £1.4 million ($1.8million) in a crowd fund raiser over just six weeks in 2021 during the Covid outbreak.

The work that she and her fellow stable managers do has been recognised, with RDA being named the charity for this year's London International Horse Show on December 18-22.

Baker credits the RDA in teaching her to ride without stirrups and using her voice to instruct the horse. As a Paralympic rider she is allowed to do this in competition whereas it is forbidden for able-bodied riders.

"I can't use my legs at all when I ride, so I have to find another way to encourage the horse to go forward for me," she said.

"I became known as the horse whisperer, because that is how I communicate with my horses, and I like chatting anyway.

"So it was a very natural thing for me."

Baker, who was talent-spotted aged just 11, said horses have an innate sense of responding to their riders.

"I think horses just have a magical way of understanding what you're asking them to do," she said.

"It doesn't matter whether you're able-bodied or whether you have a disability, they have a sixth sense."

- 'Move me to tears' -

The vibrant Baker came from a horsey family -- her mother was a show jumper and eventer -- "it's all my mum's fault," she says, laughing -- but many of the participants and volunteers do not.

Nine-year-old Elle Dimitrijevic is a case in point.

She suffers from cerebral palsy and her physiotherapist recommended she try the RDA as her mother Angela said "riding horses is really good for core strength, opening her hips".

Angela says that in just over a year of coming to Park Lane Elle has "improved massively", and her confidence has soared.

"I just absolutely love the 'it's what you can do that matters'," she told AFP.

"That's proved here, I think you can take that with you wherever you go, it's what you can do, instead of always feeling like you might not be able to compete with your peers and friends."

While Elle and others ride through the picturesque Bushy Park -- watched by two motionless stags -- volunteers muck out the stables.

The 13,000 volunteers are the lifeblood of the RDA, a broad church of people and a wide range of ages including 14-year-old Yohannes D'Allio, who has been volunteering for over two years.

His sister sparked his interest and his mother, who home-schools her children, encouraged him to come.

"With me not going to school, this is part of my social life," D'Allio, known fondly as 'Yo Yo', told AFP.

"The thing about horses is they don't judge you, you can be whoever you want to be."

D'Allio has caught the horse bug so strongly that he has high aspirations.

"I love show jumping," he said. "I saw it at Windsor Horse Show, and I fell in love straight away. It is my dream to be an international one day."

It is hard not to be moved by the respective stories and it certainly has that impact on the RDA's CEO Michael Bishop, who took on the role in April.

"I've had parents move me to tears because they talk about the impact on their family life," he told AFP.

"The fact that when they've had the RDA session for their children, their children are calm for the evening, and they get to engage in dinner with their respective partners. Like, you know, a normal evening.

"Those things, because they're really relatable to all of us. They're the things that grab you."

D.Brown--SFF