Elisabeth Svendsen Trust

Here at EST, we aim to provide a very positive form of therapy for the children with special educational needs and disabilities who visit our Centres. To achieve the maximum benefits from the children’s visits for therapy, we now plan to build a Sensory Trail Ride at our Centre in Ivybridge.

Once completed and fully equipped the ride and gardens will provide sensory-rich stimuli of smells, sights, touch, movement and sounds to enhance the children’s therapeutic experience at the Centre.

Many children with special educational needs and disabilities spend a large part of their lives indoors, undergoing long periods of treatment or requiring demanding routines of physical care. This Sensory Trail Ride will enable these children to benefit from additional therapies whilst outdoors surrounded by nature.

The visiting children will be able to utilise the wheelchair-friendly sensory garden with their teachers, parents, carers and the Centre’s staff, taking advantage of themed sensory stop-off points located throughout the garden. As part of the children’s riding therapy, an all-weather path positioned around the ride will allow the riding instructors to integrate an outdoor section into the routine riding sessions, whilst children who are unable to ride will be given the opportunity of a donkey cart ride. By carefully choosing materials and floor surfaces, we can make the Sensory Trail Ride an all year round facility.

The ride and gardens will have a maze-like path running through it, with a seating area in the middle. The ride will lead from the Centre’s riding arena to the garden, going around the garden’s perimeter and then looping back. We hope to build a sustainable, eco friendly sensory garden with very little or no need for electricity.

Our target

We envisage that the total cost of the Sensory Trail Ride will be around £50,000; this will include landscaping, plants, sensory toys and equipment and materials for pathways.

How you can help

We need your help to raise funds to enable us to install this Sensory Trail Ride, allowing us to enhance the therapies available to the children. We receive no government funding so are totally reliant on the generosity of our supporters.

• £10 will help pay for plants, which need to be scented, brightly coloured or have textured leaves.
• £200 will pay for a therapeutic, calming water feature.
• £450 will pay for three toadstool seats enabling the children to sit and listen to the flowing water or wind chimes.

Any donation you feel able to give towards our unique work, no matter how small will be most gratefully received. We do hope that you will be able to support our work to enable us to help more children in the future.

Thank you for your support; it really is most valuable to us and enables us to continue our vital work. Any funds received in excess of those required for this project will go towards general running costs of the Centres.