Star Letter

My son David and I have been really interested in your Riding for the Disabled features and have been following Toffee’s progress.

David was born with cerebral palsy and we were told he would never walk or talk. When David was about three, his school took him to the official opening of the Jackie Bruton Centre. He fell in love with Sapphire and Rusty, two of the horses there.

He regularly rode at Cotswold RDA from about 1980 until we moved to Basingstoke when David was twelve. The rhythm of the horse helped to stimulate the nerve pathways from his brain and he was soon walking with the aid of a Zimmer frame. Promises from his excellent headmistress, Mrs Howes, that he could ride if he took one step without his frame, then two steps, soon had him up on his feet walking.

David still lives and breathes horses and is doing an apprenticeship at a stables near our home. Cotswold RDA not only helped David, it helped me, too. I volunteered to be a side walker and found being around horses helped me to recover from a bad bout of depression.

Ms S.W., Bicester.

Our Star Letter will receive a Dean’s all-butter shortbread tin worth £13.69 RRP.

All other printed UK letters will win one of our famous tea caddies and a pack of loose tea. Our friends from overseas will receive an alternative prize.