Elisabeth Svendsen Trust

Here at EST we welcome many children with autism who attend for riding therapy with their school friends or families. Of course, we are open to children with special educational needs and disabilities other than autism but I thought I'd tell you about one special little boy who attends our Leeds Centre with his school.

Sam was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum in November 2006 and has been attending our Centre in Eccup, Leeds, since August 2007. His main difficulty is with verbal communication. Sam's vocabulary is very good but at present he is unable to construct phrases or sentences; during riding therapy we use short phrases with Sam to help him focus and understand instructions.

Sam is always keen to visit the Centre and loves to play with the other children as well as having riding therapy sessions. He particularly loves playing the frog game whilst riding. This involves selecting the right coloured frog to go into the corresponding coloured bucket. Sam also enjoys numbers and counting and we use dice and numbered bean bags during his riding therapy.

Since Sam first started attending our Centre he has become much calmer and is now happy to sit still on the donkey; our staff have noticed him smiling a lot more now and recently he waved in the mirror which his Dad has never seen him do before.

Sam's Dad says “I think the donkeys really help Sam try to communicate. The Centre itself is very accommodating and the staff are so friendly and make you feel welcome.”

During school holidays Sam's six year old sister, Emily, also attends the Centre to ride. Their Mum, Elizabeth, says “The Centre is really important to us and not only is Sam made welcome, but Emily too is given just as much attention. Even at Christmas, the children are given a present each. It's a day out for the whole family”.

Kirsty Christmas, one of the Riding Instructors at our Leeds Centre says “Sam is a lovely little boy who attends our Centre on a weekly basis, Sam is a good rider with excellent balance and co-ordination. His confidence has grown and he happily walks, trots, plays all the games and rides in the arena and around the field when it is sunny! He is a happy boy who regularly smiles while riding and quite often laughs out loud”.

How you can help

We need your help to raise funds for EST so that we can continue to help children like Sam who have achieved so much. We receive no government funding so are totally reliant on the generosity of our supporters.

Just £37 can pay for our minibus to collect children from their school or £42 will help pay for the haylage of our 17 donkeys for one week.

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 work. All funds received will be put towards the day-to-day expenditure at each of our Centres.