Special Olympics South Africa equestrian riders from Gauteng and North West compete in various disciplines for national championships
The battle between equestrian athletes from North West and Gauteng was a strong one in their national competition near Diepsloot.
Special Olympics South Africa had a number of their equestrian athletes take part in their national championships at a local NPO’s equestrian ground.
Hosted at Shumbashaba NPO near Diepsloot, equestrian riders from the North West and Gauteng part of the Special Olympics got to produce their best results in the dressage, riding horse and equitation disciplines.
Nathaniel Tsutsa, Gauteng provincial co-ordinator for Special Olympics South Africa said it is not the first time the organisation has been to Shumbashaba for their equestrian events.
“Today is about celebrating the riders that we do have because equestrian doesn’t have mass participation, we only have the two provinces here today. Other provinces like the Western Cape have but they are so far. Travel for them would be very expensive as they would have to bring their own horses and transport which is why we have a small number of riders,” he said.
Sharon Boyce is part of Shumbashaba alongside her mother, Dr Ruth. She said that there are three pillars at the NPO, namely sports and recreation, youth development and mental health. Shumbashaba had fallen into one of the pillars at the NPO which brought them to the event.
“Our focus is on working with vulnerable people alongside working with communities to bring hope. Special Olympics fits in our sports and recreation space, and we run programmes during the week where we teach people with special needs to ride.
Boyce added that Dainfern community members also had a hand in the event at the equestrian centre’s event alongside Shumbashaba and Special Olympics. “Dainfern Connect was created by a group of mothers and youth in the community due to their concern about mental health and suicide. From a mental health perspective, I am involved with Dainfern Connect as a psychologist and we had a number of volunteers from the Dainfern community,” she said.
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