Posted: 21st October 2019 | Back to news feed
To celebrate its 50th anniversary year in 2019, Riding for the Disabled Association has been marking the milestone through its 50 Faces campaign, telling the stories of some of the amazing people who make RDA the extraordinary organisation it is today.
Here we tell the story of volunteer Lynne Munro and find out how she celebrated during the official anniversary week.
Lynne Munro’s first introduction to RDA was in the 1970’s when she was a physiotherapy student studying at the London Hospital.
While on placement with the children’s services, Lynne would accompany a group of children to their local RDA, seeing first-hand the enjoyment and benefit to them.
As a qualified physiotherapist, Lynne was encouraged to learn to ride and studied for the Physiotherapy Clinical Interest Group examination to enable her to become a hippotherapist, which is the application of physiotherapy skills and knowledge within an equine environment.
This is where Lynne’s own RDA journey really started and during the 1990’s she would take children from Severndale School in Shrewsbury to Perry RDA where she met qualified instructor Jane Barker.
Jane became a huge influence in her life and was the driving force behind her taking the RDAC and UKCC examinations, which led to RDA County and Regional posts and to her becoming a vaulting coach, as well as taking up a position on the RDA National Coaching Committee.
Said Lynne: “My belief has always been that it is important to develop the next generation and so sharing skills and knowledge is critical to the survival and development of RDA.
“Being involved with RDA on lots of different levels has been life changing for me. If you had told me all those years ago, as a physiotherapy student that one day I would be speaking at an international conference about using horses as therapy, I wouldn’t have believed you!”
Lynne continues to volunteer with Perry RDA, based at The Cavalier Centre in Much Wenlock and the group recently held a vaulting competition during official Celebration Week to mark the 50th anniversary of the charity.
As lead vaulting coach for Perry RDA, Lynne played a pivotal role in the planning and running of the event, along with other members of the Perry vaulting team including RDA coaches from Staffordshire.
The competition attracted a good number of competitors, including two that travelled with their coach from North Wales who were made to feel very welcome.
Competing in five classes, vaulters performed compulsory and freestyle moves on the barrel followed by their freestyle routines mounted on Perry RDAs’ wonderful vaulting horse Stubbs.
Rosettes and certificates were awarded to the winners by Lizzie Lawrence, Shropshire County Chair and Lucy Stokes, RDANO vaulting lead.
“The vaulters gave brilliant performances which were much appreciated by the audience, some of whom had not seen vaulting before. The Cavalier Centre was decorated with balloons and bunting and of course there was plenty of cake for the after competition party.” added Lynne.
You can read Lynne’s story, and meet the other 49 Faces of RDA at www.rda.org.uk
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