My name is Radu, I’m a Senior Consultant working in Investor Support in the Berlin office. I joined the firm a few years ago after completing my business studies degree, and today I spend most of my time on due diligence work (CDDs, ODDs) and value creation projects.

Earlier this year, however, I had the opportunity to step out of the consulting world for a while. Through our Social Fellowship program, I spent three months volunteering at SARDA (South African Riding for the Disabled Association) in Cape Town. What awaited me there was an experience that was very different from my everyday work, but just as meaningful.

Why I chose this fellowship

Horses have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Romania, where my father runs a horse ranch, and I learned to ride when I was still a child. My stepmother also worked with therapeutic riding in Bucharest, helping children with disabilities through equine therapy. Back then, I sometimes helped around the stables, but I had never experienced this work in such an intensive and structured way.

When I discovered that SARDA offers riding therapy to children with disabilities from Cape Town’s townships, it immediately resonated with me. It felt like a rare opportunity to combine something personal from my childhood with a meaningful social impact.

Life at SARDA: Therapy on horseback

At SARDA, our daily routine revolved around therapy lessons for children with special needs. Each day we ran around six sessions with school classes, usually with five children per group.

Each child rode a horse with the support of two volunteers: one person leading the horse and another “sidewalker” walking next to the child, helping with balance and following the therapy instructor’s guidance. The instructor would design specific exercises depending on each child’s abilities – from simple posture adjustments to coordination games or stretching movements.

What amazed me most was the diversity of the children we worked with. Some had physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, while others had developmental or cognitive conditions. Despite their differences, the joy on their faces when sitting on the horse was universal.

Horse riding therapy has a remarkable physical effect. The movement of the horse mimics the natural walking rhythm of a human body. For children who struggle to walk, their muscles and posture begin to absorb this movement. Many therapists explain that after riding regularly, some children experience improvements in balance, posture, and walking ability.

Seeing these small but meaningful changes week by week was incredibly rewarding.

A special project: Training a new therapy horse

Besides supporting therapy sessions, I also had the opportunity to work closely with one of the horses. Many of SARDA’s horses arrive as donations and are not always fully trained for therapy work.

One of them, a 20-year-old Quarter Horse, had never been properly trained for riding therapy. At first he was hesitant about riders and unsure how to respond to basic leg and rein signals.

Over the weeks, I worked with him regularly to build trust and gradually introduce structured training. Step by step he began to respond calmly to cues and accept riders comfortably. By the end of my stay, he was ready to start participating in therapy lessons.

It was a special moment for me to see a horse – even at that age – learn something new and become part of a program that supports children.

Living in the “Rainbow Nation”

Outside the ranch, life in Cape Town was just as memorable. South Africa is often called the “Rainbow Nation,” and it truly feels like a place where cultures, landscapes, and people come together in a unique way.

I lived in the neighborhood of Newlands, close to the mountains and vineyards of Constantia, where the SARDA ranch is located. After work, I often spent time along the coast – walking in Sea Point, watching sunsets in Camps Bay, or playing padel in the evening.

I also explored the incredible nature around the city: hiking up Table Mountain and Lion’s Head, visiting the vineyards in Constantia and Stellenbosch, and even going on a safari where I saw all of the Big Five – including a lion resting just a few meters away from our vehicle.

Of course, no South African experience would be complete without a traditional braai, the local style of barbecue, which quickly became one of my favorite social traditions.

Lessons beyond consulting

Working with children with disabilities was a completely new experience for me. It taught me something that is sometimes easy to forget in our structured consulting environment: progress does not always happen through large strategic steps, but often through small moments of encouragement, patience, and trust.

Many of the children we worked with faced challenges that most of us cannot imagine. Yet they showed incredible resilience, curiosity, and joy. Sometimes the biggest success of a therapy session was simply seeing a child relax, smile, or sit upright with confidence on the horse.

It reminded me that impact is not always measured in KPIs or presentations – sometimes it is visible in a child laughing while riding a horse for the first time.

Coming home – and continuing the journey

Before I left, the SARDA team even connected me with a therapeutic riding center in Berlin-Karlshorst that invited me to volunteer in the future. I hope to stay involved and continue supporting riding therapy whenever possible.

I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Social Fellowship program and for the inspiring people I met along the way – the children, the volunteers, the therapists, and the horses who made this experience unforgettable.

Sometimes stepping away from our daily routines allows us to reconnect with what really matters. For me, those three months in Cape Town were exactly that.