Pretoria - Neither of them have ever been on an aeroplane, or even out of South Africa.
Now Themba Sibiya and Maria Matlala will soon be flying half way around the world to participate in the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Sibiya, 18, from Diepsloot, and Matlala, 24, from Tembisa, were born intellectually disabled and into poverty. Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that when they first mounted a horse on January 29, 2013, they’d be jetting off on July 20 to participate in an international sporting event.
They were introduced to horse riding through the Shumbashaba Horses Helping People programme. Based in Dainfern Valley north of Joburg, Shumbashaba developed therapeutic riding as a way of helping people restore a sense of self-worth and purpose.
More than 2 000 people have been through its programmes, mostly from the neighbouring Diepsloot township.
The opportunity to progress from riding as a therapy to riding as a sport was presented when Shumbashaba and the Gauteng branch of Special Olympics SA (Sosa) co-hosted several Unified Sports days offering four different sporting events – equestrian, bocce (ball sport like bowls), soccer and volleyball – to men and women both with and without disabilities.
As a result, Sosa was granted a quota of two riders, one male and one female, to join the South African team of 66 athletes going to compete in this year’s Special Olympics. Sibiya and Matlala were selected at a Special Olympics SA Equestrian Advancement event held at Shumbashaba last year.
The two riders will join the more than 7 000 Special Olympics athletes from 170 nations who will compete in 21 Olympic-type sports. The prospect is nothing short of daunting for them. Catching the two for a practice ride at Shumbashaba recently, it was clear that this journey of a lifetime would be exciting, but overwhelming too.
Sibiya and Matlala attend the Bona Lesedi daycare centre for people with disabilities, one of the organisations that Shumbashaba engages to offer vulnerable children a chance to join their riding programme. Sibiya lives with his mother and 10-year-old sister, while Matlala lives with her older sister. Her mother died when she was a baby and her father lives in Hammanskraal. She has to catch two taxis daily to get to Bona Lesedi daycare centre.
To prepare the two for this adventure of a lifetime, they have had “training camps” with Sosa, one to “get them used to being around lots of other people” and the other to “get them used to the idea of an aeroplane”, says Zanele Ngwenya, Sosa marketing and communications officer.
At the Special Olympic Games, they will compete with other riders who have intellectual disabilities, in assisted riding events. “They have advanced to being able to trot. This is about the experience of participation, of feeling uplifted and having a sense of purpose, not about competition,” said coach Renae Erasmus.
They will also need to get used to being on horses other than those they’ve ridden at Shumbashaba. “At the last Special Olympics, about 200 horses were loaned for the event, and each horse had several different riders during the event,” Erasmus says.
Throughoutr the years, horse riding has increasingly been regarded as a means of social upliftment, offering an opportunity to develop physical fitness, improve motor skills, heighten self-confidence and grow a more positive self-image.
Since they began riding, Sibiya and Matlala have come for their riding session once a week on Wednesdays. As their confidence grows, they will advance to cantering their horses.
But that’s for when they return. For now, the focus is just on getting to Los Angeles.
Pretoria News