Riding for the Disabled Association aims to meet 'huge demand'

A new academy will help meet a "huge demand" for horse riding from disabled children and adults, a charity says.

The Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) is teaching its instructors to be "coach mentors" so they can train and help others across the UK.

The academy is named after the Princess Royal, the charity's president, who launched the project at its headquarters in Shrewley, Warwickshire.

The RDA said many of its nearly 500 centres had waiting lists in place.

Most of them cannot meet the demand for places, despite the charity having about 3,000 qualified coaches, it said.

"The demand we have is huge so at the moment we are only scratching the surface," Ed Bracher, RDA's chief executive, said.

"About 1% of the people we think could be riding are actually riding so we want to push that up... and we know that the services we deliver are really meaningful and deliver proper impact so we want to do more of that for more people."

It was opened and named the Princess Royal Coach Academy to mark the 50th anniversary of the princess becoming the charity's patron.

Visiting the site on Friday, Princess Anne told staff, volunteers and riders it was "very generous" of them to name the academy after her and she hoped it would make a "real difference".

Praising RDA's first coaches, she said: "It was that early understanding and examples of standards that has made the organisation what it is."

The charity, which also teaches carriage driving, wants to increase the number of children and adults it teaches from 25,000 to 35,000 over the next few years.

Most clients are referred by medical professionals who want to bring physical, therapeutic or psychological benefits, an RDA spokeswoman said.

"Our unique aspect is the horses," she added. "It helps build relationships, partnerships and empathy with an animal and [riding] is fun to learn."

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