When I'm on the horse I feel amongst equals
Straight back, head held high, like all the riders
All the differences and the disabilities suddenly disappear
And slowly the dream comes true.

When I'm on the horse, gather the reins and start to ride
I discover a special path before me, a golden path
There I am brave like a warrior before a battle
And all my body speaks to me,
Saying, "you'll succeed, you can do it".

When I'm on a horse life looks totally different
Suddenly my disabilities fall away and disintegrate
Suddenly my dreams and desires are within my reach
Mostly I am certain I am not alone.

When I dismount the horse, slowly, carefully
I land on the ground to the reality,
Return the riding clothes and return to be a disabled person
But I am always left with a sweet afterthought.

Riding the horse is a wonderful experience
It gives joy to my heart and peace to my soul
The time is short, the success is great
When it's over I know I will experience it again.

By Zadok Aomasi 

This poem was read at the closing ceremony of the Para Equestrian world championship in Denmark twelve years ago. Zadok has had cerebral palsy from birth and is confined to a wheelchair. I was judging there, and watching him, could only imagine how he felt riding in a floodlit arena in front of hundreds of people and competing against the world's best.
We in Israel continue to send riders abroad for international competitions. The teams have to qualify, and in an ideal world we would fly the team's own horses to the shows abroad, but it is a hugely expensive undertaking. Dror Ben Shaul, the official national trainer and my dear friend, arranges everything for the riders including horses based in Europe for them to compete on, travels with them to competitions and trains the team from their home stable in Bazra.
In 1984 Anita Shkedi brought Heather to Israel. Heather, a shaggy pony from England's Lake District, was donated by the Jewish community in Manchester and brought for Rami Keich who was shot in Lebanon and paralysed from the chest down.
This then was the beginning. In 1985 Anita started a center for therapeutic riding in Kibbutz Givat Chaim and she tells me that today there are over a hundred farms supporting therapeutic riding all over Israel. She herself runs a lovely center overlooking the sea at Neurim Bet Yanai with her husband and son.
Instructors have to pass fairly rigorous exams before they can work with disabled riders and clearly not all horses are suitable. They must be basically calm and dependable. Safety, after all, is the most important consideration.
Anita explained to me why it is that riding is so successfully used in helping people with disabilities and learning problems. Horses relate to human needs with their strength and beauty, and when riding them a person will have a new feeling of control, self confidence and pride. I once saw a very little girl with multiple disabilities including blindness, being laid over the withers (shoulders) of the horse, the instructor sitting behind her and supporting her. This sensation of movement and warmth released her frequent spasms and filled the child with an amazing feeling of well-being.
A severely hyperactive child might annoy his parents and not respond to them. The same child can walk up to a horse and the horse will instinctively react and understand the child's mood. With a flick of an ear and a slight movement of the body he will send the child a message: "hey, I'm your friend but don't push it!" The child will listen and respond positively.
Omer Ben Dor, a member of the Israeli Paralympics team, was paralysed in an accident, from the waist down. He tells me the horse and rider must get to know each other's ways. One can have a good rider and a good horse and the chemistry is simply not there, so finding the right combination and building up a relationship of mutual trust and understanding is all-important. Hopefully, in the special case of the Olympics, the team will be able to ride their own horses.
In a competition, exercises are ridden to letters specifically placed in a 40 by 20 meter arena. When I first started judging, I judged a young man who was blinded in the Lebanon war. Because he couldn't see, people were placed around the arena instead of the letters and he rode to the sound of their voices calling out the letters. I could barely see for tears but enough to put him in first place. He was, apart from everything else, so precise!
I don't cry any more but am frequently very moved when I see what this unique relationship with horses has done for people who find it hard to cope with the world we live in.
Zadok, in his poem, has expressed it so movingly:
I feel amongst equals……
The disabilities suddenly disappear and slowly the dream comes true.

Shirley Hirsch is an international judge for the disabled and an Israeli National Dressage judge.