Saddling up brings the gift of a silent night
Tuesday nights are peaceful in the Greeves family household in Pokfulam. Jamie Greeves, 21, sleeps the whole night through. It's the only night that he does: Jamie has the mental age of an eight-month-old and normally sleeps badly.
Every week on a Tuesday morning at the Tuen Mun Public Riding School, he uses one of the ponies from Riding for the Disabled (RDA), one of our beneficiaries this year, and for 45 minutes trots round a paddock - with his mother and a helper on each side.
The breeze blows in his face, and the fresh air and exertion makes him tired as his body works with all muscles to keep him balanced. He always sleeps well afterwards.
Jamie last appeared in the South China Morning Post on the front page, in April, riding a horse called Louie. Funds were raised for 19-year-old Louie to be retired to Australia after years of service.
Jamie now rides William, a smaller and - without wishing to offend William - distinctly wider pony, at Tuen Mun. Nicki Greeves, Jamie's mother, has volunteered with the RDA for the past 15 years and recently became a fully qualified international instructor. Her younger son, Ashley, also helps out.
At the start of the lesson, Ms Greeves helps Jamie walk from his wheelchair and up a couple of steps, to mount the horse. His ability to climb the steps is a recent development, as his legs are very weak.
'In order to sit on a horse, especially for a physically disabled person, they're having to use every muscle in their body to balance,' says Ms Greeves. 'Jamie's balance and movement improved as he got into his early teens as he became stronger. He sits better on a horse than I do.
'The physical benefits for the rider are seen as one hour on a horse is equivalent to 12 hours of physiotherapy.'
She and Agnes Malugdos lead Jamie and William in ever-tighter circles, making Jamie work on his balance and understand which way he has to lean. 'Before we'd help him up,' says Ms Greeves. 'Now we wait for him to decide when he wants to carry on.'
Jamie gets fed up in his wheelchair if his mother or Ashley are riding and he isn't. At home, Ms Greeves and her husband, Brian, a Cathay Pacific pilot, are teaching Jamie to feed himself.
'He can bring a cup to his lips but lets go before it reaches the table again. He doesn't make the connection that he needs to put it down,' says Ms Greeves. 'Riding gives a wheelchair-bound person a different perspective. Suddenly they have an amazing sense of superiority being higher up. For once in their lives, they're the bigger person.'
Riding for the Disabled provides thousands of hours of riding tuition annually to disabled children in Pokfulam and Tuen Mun. Through Operation Santa Claus, the RDA is looking for funds to train more assistants. If you would like to be a volunteer, call Nick Rodgers: 2875 7711
Total raised so far: $2,465,411
