‘Life is for living’: Blind octogenarian rider shows the power of therapeutic equestrian sport

Pou every week. Photo / accentphotography.co.nz”
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On a quiet property in Drury, south of Auckland, an elderly rider and a seasoned gelding move through their routine with a fluency that would not look out of place in a high-performance warm-up arena.

The rider is June, who lost her sight three-and-a-half years ago yet still rides her horse Pou every week. She admits that when she started riding again with Riding for the Disabled (RDA) in 2024, there were a few skills she needed to brush up on.

“But for the most part, it just came back to me.”

Now, riding is so instinctual that June is totally at ease communicating with Pou as they navigate the Drury property.

“I know what I’m supposed to do, and the horse knows his job and we get along just fine,” she smiles.

From local pony club to national therapeutic pathway

Every year, more than 3000 people with disabilities, hidden or otherwise, benefit from therapeutic horse programmes around New Zealand. June’s story sits squarely inside that system: a bridge between traditional equestrian sport and structured para- and therapeutic riding.

Her first involvement with what would become Riding for the Disabled began almost 50 years ago. It was suggested that she, fellow founder Diana Arlington and a group of others could run sessions at the local Whitford Pony Club, where June’s daughter Shirley-Ann was a member.

“Mothers were saying, ‘You can use my daughter’s pony,’ and next thing, we were leading children around every Monday morning,” recalls June.

“We didn’t know what we were doing in the very beginning, but we learned by popping children on ponies.”

That grassroots arrangement foreshadowed the more formal structures now seen in therapeutic equestrian programmes, which operate under recognised guidelines and sit alongside competitive para-equestrian pathways governed globally by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports.

Technical skills, instinct – and what they mean for the wider sport

June’s weekly rides with Pou are not framed as competition, but the demands on balance, core strength, timing and communication are familiar to any rider working in able-bodied or para-equestrian disciplines.

When she returned to the saddle in 2024 after losing her sight, she concedes there were specific skills she had to refresh. Yet the core motor patterns and feel for a horse’s movement remained.

That instinctive connection is what para-equestrian coaches and classifiers prize when assessing athletes for sport-specific potential. For national programmes trying to build depth in dressage or vaulting squads, community-based riders like June illustrate how technical riding capacity can be preserved – and even enhanced – through disability-focused environments.

In practical terms, the therapeutic ecosystem that supports June has several sporting implications:

• It keeps riders with acquired disabilities engaged in equestrian settings rather than exiting the sport entirely.
• It provides structured, horse-centred activity that can underpin future classification into competitive para-equestrian classes.
• It normalises adaptive coaching methods that are increasingly relevant for high-performance environments.

Moments in the arena that stay with a lifetime

Sharing one of her favourite RDA memories from years past, June lights up.

“There was one girl of about 18 who was always thumping on her chest, but then she would sit on the horse and hold the reins perfectly still.”

The devoted horsewoman has many stories of remarkable experiences when people are given the time and space to connect with horses. For coaches, classifiers and programme directors, vignettes like that are more than human-interest; they are early indicators of how rhythm, posture and focus can be transformed by a horse’s movement.

Those individual breakthroughs are why she has remained so passionate about the charity and its volunteers. They also mirror what sport scientists have documented for decades: regular, horse-based activity can improve coordination, tone and confidence in ways that transfer into daily life and, in some cases, competitive sport.

Migration, marriage and building a life around horses

For June, being around horses is about far more than riding. Over the years, it has been a source of friendship, purpose and a way to give back to her community.

Even now, she says, “If I hear a child crying, I think, ‘Oh, I wish I could do something for him and put him on a horse or something.’”

She jokes that horses partly influenced her decision to immigrate from her native United Kingdom to New Zealand in her twenties.

“I met my husband [the late Kiwi timber magnate Sir Richard Carter] in a pub in England and came out here to New Zealand, mainly because he had some horses that I could ride on the family farm at the time,” she laughs.

They went on to purchase a property in Whitford and later developed a significant farm and homestead in Ararimu. That access to land and horses made sustained involvement in equestrian sport – both in traditional riding and in therapeutic settings – a central thread of her life.

Quiet horsemanship and the culture of safety

Her approach to horses has also shaped the way she approaches life. They have taught her to be patient, gentle and calm rather than trying to force things.

“You don’t roar around them, yelling and screaming,” she says. “You just quietly walk up to them, give them a rub on their neck and tell them everything’s okay.”

That philosophy is not just personal. In any accredited therapeutic riding environment, calm, consistent handling and predictable routines are fundamental safety requirements. Programmes working under national RDA structures and within the wider equestrian regulatory landscape now codify many of the principles riders like June learned by experience: controlled mounting procedures, lead-walker protocols, helmet use and clear lines of communication between coach, side-walkers and horse handler.

At community level, those standards reduce risk for vulnerable riders. At the elite end of the sport, the same emphasis on quiet, systematic horsemanship underpins the welfare frameworks that govern international competition.

Age, activity and a message for sporting systems

When asked her secret to staying active in her later years, June reveals, “I’ve never really thought about my age. I don’t worry about it and it seems to work itself out.”

She has no plans to stop riding any time soon.

“I want to keep doing what I am doing until I literally can’t,” June says. “Life is for living and trying to help other people. What you give out, you get back.”

For sports administrators and policymakers, there is a clear subtext in that mindset. If equestrian systems can provide age-appropriate, accessible opportunities – from mainstream club riding through to RDA sessions – the sport retains participants who might otherwise drift away after injury, illness or age-related change.

That, in turn, feeds into a deeper coaching and volunteer base, a broader pipeline for para-equestrian talent, and a stronger argument when equestrian bodies engage with public funders and health agencies on the value of horse-based programmes.

To find out more about South Auckland RDA or donate, see southaucklandrda.org.