The mother of a young girl attending an Armagh special needs school has offered to cover the veterinary fees for a riding school whose ponies were injured when vandals pulled down their fencing.
Rosalind Thompson – from Tandragee – felt compelled to help after reading about the devastating impact of the wanton destruction at Longstone Riding School for the Disabled on March 5.
The school, who provide therapeutic riding for disabled children, were forced to put four of their five horses on box rest as a result of injuries they sustained.
One horse was confirmed as lame, all had muscle pain, two had lacerations to their legs and one had respiratory trouble from over-exertion.
All lessons were cancelled and their services have been suspended until at least after Easter.
The riding lessons are a highlight of the week for countless children, who attend from various local schools. One of the schools who have frequent lessons at Longstone is Lisanally Special School, where Rosalind’s six-year-old daughter, True attends.
And while True is not yet old enough to attend with her school, she very much enjoys spending time with her mum’s horse at home and Rosalind understands completely the devastating impact this will have had on the volunteers and service users alike.
As such, she benevolently reached out to Armagh I to ask for a contact within Longstone Riding School offering to cover their veterinary bills… a gesture that would alleviate a huge stressor for the school.
Said Rosalind: “I just know how much the children get from their lessons and those poor wee horses, too. I just wanted to do it because it was for the wee children and to get them back to normal as quickly as possible.”
Christian Brothers Primary School – who also use the facilities at Longstone – did their own ‘whip round’ for the charity and handed over a whopping £1,000.
A GoFundMe page was also set up by the school to help bring in funds for the bills. Now that their veterinary bill is covered the team will put all remaining funds towards installing more secure fencing and CCTV to deter future incidents.
You can make a contribution to the GoFundMe page here.
