Unsung Heroes: 'Horse-mad' mum on riding mission

Lisa Messenger has helped Riding for the Disabled for 20 years. Photo / Kenny Rodger

When Lisa Messenger was about 15, she saw an advertisement in the local paper asking for volunteers for Riding for the Disabled.

"It sounded perfect. I had just started a community service class at school [Northcote College], and I was really enjoying it. And I had been horse-mad since I was a kid."

More than 20 years later, Ms Messenger is still giving her time to disabled people, mainly children, by encouraging them to come riding.

"Horse riding is one of the best exercises for disabled people. It is the only exercise that facilitates walking, by using different groups of muscles. It also helps improve mobility, motor skills, confidence and co-ordination.

"And it is great for those with cystic fibrosis. We lay the people across the horse's back, and the gentle motion of the walk helps to get rid of a lot of fluid on the lungs."

Ms Messenger spends every Saturday morning during the school term working with Riding for the Disabled (RDA) in Greenhithe.

As well as being the chief instructor, she does hours of paperwork each week, much of it applications for grants to keep the organisation going.

Horses are expensive to buy and maintain, and good RDA steeds are hard to come by.

"We have to close down the RDA in the third term of the school year because the weather makes riding impossible for the kids. We would love to have an indoor arena as well, and we're working towards it - lots and lots of cake stalls."

As well as working with RDA, Ms Messenger raises her two children on her own, and battles health problems.

Last year she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, but a hysterectomy and chemotherapy seem to have done the trick, she thinks.

"You can't give in to things. I just keep getting up and doing it, although I had to give up being head instructor while I wasn't well."

She was nominated for the Herald's Unsung Community Heroes series by her friend, Lisa Stowers.

"Lisa Messenger is a really low-key sort of person, not the sort to blow her own trumpet. But she's there every weekend, making possible what was impossible for some of these kids."

* Nominations for unsung heroes have closed