ANIMALS have been known to have a positive impact on the lives of children with special needs. Lords House Farm, in Rishton, uses this ethos to help children with behavioural and physical difficultiesl.

Richard Newton looked at the centre and discovered what it has to offer after it received £6,000 from the Gannett Foundation set up by the company that owns the Lancashire Evening Telegraph...

PETER is six-years-old and autistic. He visits Lords House Farm every Saturday to ride and look after the ponies.

His mum Julie, 35, who lives in Haslingden, said she has seen a vast improvement since he started coming in March.

She said: "He absolutely loves it, he really looks forward to coming. But the improvement we have seen in his balance has been remarkable. Because he has autism, he finds this difficult, but since he started riding this has come on tremendously, he can even skip now.

"His confidence has gone way up too. He has been in mainstream school and there he is one of the bottom ones. Because of this he has low confidence, but when he is at Lords House it goes way up.

"It's really good for us as well because we meet other parents in similar positions and we can have a chat.

"The workers there are also wonderful, they do not raise their voices or lose their temper and they understand about autism and do not look at you as though you can't control your child.

"Peter has also learned the concept of waiting when the ponies are being prepared for riding, which autistic children find very difficult to do."

Lords House Farm, in Wilpshire Road, Rishton, is a charitable organisation that provides animal therapy for children with special needs. But since Mary Walker started the centre in 1993 it has expanded well beyond this single service.

Manager Mrs Walker, said: "Animal therapy is a great way to reach children with behavioural and physical disabilities, but this is not all we do and we help a great many other people including the elderly, disadvantaged children and others through the youth offending team."

Lords House also offers full and part-time courses in horticulture, animal care and husbandry in conjunction with Accrington and Rossendale College, and is a UK online centre offering IT tuition.

The farm is set in a 30 acre site containing farm buildings, accommodation, offices, stables and a small wildlife reserve. It was created in the former Harper Clough Quarry, better known as Star Delph, and has a three million-year-old fossilised tree root that has led to the area being named a site of specific scientific interest protected by English Nature.

It now has 24 horses and a number of other animals ranging from rabbits to parrots and even llamas.

With these resources it is also able to offer holidays for disadvantaged children from urban backgrounds so that they can experience the countryside and see animals they may not have the opportunity to see.

The charity has a turnover of a quarter of a million pounds a year and receives funding from a variety of sources including BBC Children in Need and the European Social Fund. Through its partnership with Accrington and Rossendale College, it also gets money from the government via Lancashire Learning and Schools Council.

It receives money from the Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire Children's Fund to help socially disadvantaged and excluded children aged five to 13 and from the government set up Connexions to help 13 to 19-year-olds.

It also gets money to help with a number of projects including £6,000 from the Gannett Foundation, a charity set up by Gannett, the parent company of Newsquest, the media group that owns the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

The centre received the money to buy a number a gypsy caravans to offer children the chance of camping out under he stars in an authentic gypsy caravan site.

For information on the centre log on to www.lordshousefarm.co.uk or call 01254 877400.