Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Horsing around helped South African dressage star walk
WHEN a 16-year-old girl gave birth to a premature baby at 27 weeks in the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in October 1998, she brought into the world a daughter who would grow up to be extraordinary.
Today 18- year- old Tasmin “Tammy” Mbatsha, who has had Andrew and Glenda Bouwer as her foster parents since she was 4 months old, is South Africa’s first black Paralympian dressage rider. And next week she will travel to Belgium for the 2016 Rio Olympics qualifiers.
But Mbatsha and the Bouwers have had a tough journey too. When Mbatsha was 6 months old she started suffering from stiff limbs and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, which severely affected her legs.
Doctors said she would never walk.
Her foster parents, however, believed equine therapy would help. This involves using riding and working with horses to pro- mote physical, occupational and emotional growth.
It has proved successful for some people suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, autism, cerebral palsy and developmental delays.
“When she was younger, her interaction with horses seemed to heal her. She would hold on to the horse’s reins and later she started to walk,” Glenda Bouwer said.
“Horse riding reprogrammed her muscles. It opened up her legs, worked and stretched her thigh muscles.”
Mbatsha said: “It is crazy to think that a horse can help a disabled person walk.”
Disabled People South Africa spokesman Olwethu Sipuka said interaction with horses did not help everyone, but for some it has enormous benefits.
“If interacting with horses did help (Mbatsha) learn how to walk, it is an individual phenomenon although there is no science that says physical disability can be healed by contact with horses.
“As a child grows and becomes stronger their bones also strengthen and she could have eventually been able to walk.”
Mbatsha grew up around horses and started riding when she was 12.
The Bouwers lived on a farm in Benoni, then moved to another 10 years ago in Centurion.
Mbatsha, who is in matric, is a member of Dressage SA, an organisation recognised by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.
Excelling in the sport has earned her the SA dressage championship, riding her horse Waterside Queen of the Nile. In May she won the Nissan Easter festival’s individual championship.
At her foster parent’s farm at Mnandi this week, Mbatsha staggered towards Diamond Pepper, her other horse, for training.
After being helped up by her brother Jethro, she settled in and her horse trotted away.