(21 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Windhoek, Namibia – 19 February 2025
1. Various of boy riding horse with Susan de Meyer giving instructions
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan de Meyer, Director at Enabling Through the Horse:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 1, 3 & 4++
“It is an immense advantage to all disabled kids. It helps them to balance, it helps them with their equilibrium, it helps them to get a good posture so that they can sit behind a desk and do their schoolwork. It helps them with speech disabilities. They start talking when they ride, because the horse is an extension of the body if you sit on it.”
3. Boy on a horse assisted by groom
4. Pan of de Meyer giving instructions to children on horses
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Chriszell Louw, Teacher at Dagbreek School:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 6, 7 & 8++
“The change that I’ve seen with the learners are significant, if I can say so myself. We have a learner that likes to talk a lot. When we come here she knows she has to keep quiet. She sits in her place and some of them also you see they are more open, they are happy. They were scared, some of them were very scared when they started with the horse riding but now they are very excited. If they hear we’re going to the horses they are very excited and they kind of just want to go by themselves.”
6. Various of girl being assisted to get onto horse
7. Various girl riding horse guided by the groom
8. Wide of boy getting onto horse unassisted
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Richard Frankle, Chairperson of the Namibia Equestrian Federation:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 8, 10 & 11++
“Parents, when they initially think of their children climbing on the back of a fairly big animal, there must be a little bit of fear, a little bit of worry. But that was very, very quickly overcome as soon as both parents, teachers and the community at large started to see almost the immediate benefits for these children through the program.”
10. Close of the horse’s legs as it moves
11. Wide of boy riding horse
STORYLINE:
Twice a week, Susan De Meyer welcomes children from the Hope Village Orphanage and Dagbreek School for Children with Disabilities at the Bergheim Country Estate on the outskirts of Namibia’s capital Windhoek.
They’re here to take part in the ‘Enabling through the Horse Program’, devised for children with special needs.
They’re learning equestrian skills as a form of therapy to assist in developing and improving their cognitive and psycho-motor functions.
These youngsters aged between five and 15 years have various disabilities and development disorders including cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder and foetal alcohol syndrome.
A former teacher and equestrian, Susan de Meyer says she was inspired by her own experience with her dyslexic son who showed significant improvements when he began horse-riding as a hobby.
According to de Meyer, the children create a bond with the horse as well as developing other skills.
“It is an immense advantage to all disabled kids. It helps them to balance, it helps them with their equilibrium, it helps them to get a good posture so that they can sit behind a desk and do their schoolwork. They also, it helps them with speech disabilities. They start talking when they ride, because the horse is an extension of the body if you sit on it,” she says.
Chriszell Louw is the Junior Phase Teacher at Public Dagbreek School for Children with Disabilities.
She believes there’s already been a remarkable change in the children she brings here.
He says the initial lessons are more daunting for the parents rather than children.
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