For more than 30 years RDA has worked with a wide range of schools and colleges throughout the UK to benefit children and young people with a wide range of special educational needs.

RDA's aim is "to provide disabled people with the opportunity to ride and/or to carriage drive to benefit their health and well being"


We welcome changes that bring a less prescriptive and more flexible National Curriculum - "providing adapted, modified or alternative activities or approaches to learning in physical education, and ensuring these have integrity and equivalence to the National Curriculum and enable pupils to make appropriate progress".

RDA is well qualified to provide these alternatives: it's the horse that makes the difference!

RDA is a professional organisation that insists on high standards. Member Groups provide qualified instructors who work alongside trained and committed volunteers in a safe environment to help schools deliver the PE requirements of the National Curriculum in a unique way.

We believe in 'joined up thinking', and bring together teachers, instructors, physiotherapists and helpers, to deliver the benefits of Education, Therapy, Recreation and Sport to over 14,000 children and young people with special needs each week.

A Headteacher writes...

"A well organised RDA Member Group can make an effective contribution to the PE curriculum. There are also many other skills that a riding session can build upon, such as numeracy, speaking and listening skills, as well as problem solving skills..."

"Horse riding is particularly beneficial for pupils who have profound and multiple learning difficulties as it provides a multi-sensory experience which is hard to replicate in any other environment."

An Inspector's Report... 

An Ofsted Inspector joined pupils for a riding session with an RDA Group in Shropshire. Delighted with what he saw he said that all elements of the riding session were excellent They included:

• Communication Skills
• Numeracy / Letters
• Literacy
• Anatomy of a Pony
• Social Skills
• Confidence Building
•  Enjoyment

Riding, he said, was doing everything to comply with National Curriculum requirements...

Pupils say...

Horses fill our needs..." "they enable us..." "they set us free..."

Riding has a positive role to play in the National Curriculum when teachers 'plan for pupils’ full participation in learning and in physical activities through:

• Using specialist aids and equipment
• Providing support from adults or peers when needed
• Adapted tasks or environments
• Providing alternative tasks where necessary

RDA considers the individual. We work to meet their needs and help them achieve their maximum potential.

Riding is Educational, Therapeutic and Recreational – but it’s also FUN