A young rider with learning difficulties has won a dream opportunity to further her education at a pioneering centre which uses horses to teach life skills.

Seventeen-year-old Anna Prosser will head to the New Forest next month to begin her three-year course at The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy, with the help of funding from Education Bradford.

The £50,000-a-year centre aims to give greater independence and opportunities in life to 16 to 25-year-olds with special needs or disabilities, basing all the learning around horsemanship.

A member of Otley and District Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA), Anna, of Ilkley, has competed successfully at national level in RDA dressage, on her family’s horse, Murphy.

Anna is on the autistic spectrum, is motor and verbally dyspraxic, has sensory integration disorder, and has learning difficulties. She attended All Saints C of E Primary School in Ilkley, learning to read and write with the help of a classroom support helper, and has since attended Prince Henry’s Grammar School Otley, and Braithwaite School, Keighley.

Now her parents, Jon and Nina, of St Margaret’s Terrace, Ilkley, believe The Fortune Centre will harness her enthus-iasm and use it to develop essential life skills, enhance her personal development, and build her self confidence and self esteem.

The centre weaves education and personal development into a busy daily routine of riding, caring for the horses, and learning about horse care.

Students can improve their numeracy, for example by weighing out the quantities of feed for the horses, while riding, and being away from the family, increases their independence and confidence, essential for working and living an independent life in future.

Activities such as vaulting – a team sport not unlike gymnastics on horseback – encourage teamwork and co-ordination.

Mr and Mrs Prosser said: “We have held the view for some time that Anna should be as independent as possible in the future. We believe she should be able to make a useful contribution rather than be a burden if she is given the opportunity to grow and develop independence.”

Riding and horse care is recognised as therapeutic and beneficial for people with learning difficulties.

Although Nina rode as a girl, it was Anna who asked, back in 2001, if she could learn to ride. She joined Otley RDA, starting out at Acrecliffe Equestrian Centre with two helpers on either side of the horse.

She has since progressed to riding solo, competing in both RDA and open equestrian competitions. Last year she won the regional RDA dressage final and went on to be placed third at the national cham-pionships.

This year she again won the regional final with a remarkable 88 per cent score, and won the freestyle dressage competition at the 2009 nationals, for her age group and in the open category.

Mr and Mrs Prosser say she has often sought refuge and solace in her own horse, Murphy, when experiencing severe emotional difficulties.

The regime at The Fortune Centre is intensive. As well as the structured routine of daily horse care chores, students are expected to run a mile every morning. Televisions and Internet access is also forbidden in students’ own rooms, although they can have access in communal areas, and watch news programmes.

To gain a place at The Fortune Centre, Anna and her family visited it last year, where she was assessed by the staff. They studied her riding and interest in horses, as well as her learning needs. She was invited back on a week-long assessment in March.

Her confidence is said to have grown over just those seven days.

Anna later said: “On the first night I cried because I was homesick and on the last night I cried because I didn’t want to come home.”

Murphy will not be joining Anna at the centre, which has around 20 of its own horses for students to ride, care for, and form bonds with.

Education Bradford has agreed to fund the first two years of Anna’s course.