Children grab a brush to paint "their" World Champion foal
Piece of art will be raffled off in aid of therapeutic riding

They eagerly grabbed a brush, tried out every possible colour - and in fact many blobs of paint landed on their own shirts. It doesn't matter, thought the children who were recently allowed to paint an "art" foal at the "Lohner Hof Riding and Therapy Centre e.V." in Eschweiler. Sponsored by the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. (ALRV), the "Förderkreis Behindertensport e.V" (Association for Disabled Sports) and by the "German Curatorship for Therapeutic Riding e.V." (DKThR), this is a charity partnership initiated especially for the World Equestrian Games 2006 in Aachen, when approx. 500,000 guests are expected to visit the ALRV show grounds from August 20th - September 3rd.
And one of the visitors will be able to win the "art" foal - he simply has to buy the winning raffle ticket from either the DKThR or the Westdeutsche Rundfunk booth. The proceeds will be donated to the Children Support Fund of the DKThR. "Supporting therapeutic riding has been one of the matters that lies close to our hearts for years and it is also part of a range of different charitable projects we work on," explains ALRV President, Klaus Pavel. "These include collecting money during our competitions or spontaneously buying a pony for a therapy group. We simply want to help those who haven't had much luck so far in their lives." It is proven that horses have a positive effect on people. "Restoring harmony, soothing, preventing, renewing zest for life, helping to develop personalities, reinforcing the trust in oneself and others - such therapy successes achieved by therapeutic riding have been long since proven," says Sacha Eckjans, DKThR General Director.
Aged between six and fifteen, the girls and boys from the four therapy centres "Reiten im Abenteuer Land" (Riding in Adventure Land), Aachen; the Centre for Therapeutic Riding, Stollberg, "Reithalle Rattenhaus" (Rattenhaus Riding School), Eynatten-Raeren; and from the "Lohner Hof", Eschweiler, definitely had a lot of fun while decorating the horse with flowers, butterflies or birds. Previously the artist Werner Melech had painted the head of the foal in the seven WEG colours - each colour stands for a different discipline: show-jumping, dressage, eventing, driving, endurance riding, vaulting and reining. And the piece of art will also be eternalised with the signatures of celebrities including the Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel and all of the World Champions during the World Equestrian Games.

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