Wheelchair access.

Pony Access has a new website, http://www.ponyaxes.com. Please go there for up to date information. Thank you. Simon.

 

Wheelchairs give their users massive freedom on lots of surfaces. Soft sand, tidal mud, shingle, rock, scrub, heather, tussocky grassland and in the sea are not the surfaces that wheelchair designers concentrated on. Pony Access allows users to take their wheelchairs across these surfaces.

Pony Access uses the iBex Saddlechariot to take wheelchair users to all those places that wheelchairs can’t reach.

Videos of some of the places that Pony Access can take you and your wheelchair.

Exmouth beach is my favourite stamping ground. Here is a novice having her first go pony drawn, first go on the beach.

Pencarrow gardens, Bodmin, Cornwall. Obama, touring the gardens, racing Lady St.Aubyn on her Tramper. The iBex is set up for those who don’t have a seat of their own in these shots. It takes two minutes to swap from wheelchair to seat.

The South West Coastal path from Pyne’s Farm, Budleigh Salterton to Brandy Head.

The iBex doesn’t need to go this fast. Obama just wanted to play.

Porth Kidney Beach. Cornwall.  For a place that sounds like a depressing medical condition, this is a stunningly beautiful beach. White sand, crystal water, total magic. And now, totally accessible to wheelchairs.

I will be back. So will Obama.

Davidstow Common, a WWII aerodrome, joining Bodmin moor. Access from Treworra self catering cottages along a beautiful old track.

Copperhouse Creek, tidal mudflats in the centre of Hayle, are a haven for birders, and with Pony Access, now accessible to wheelchairs users, depending of course, on the state of the tide.

Budleigh Salterton Beach. The shingle is tough by any standards, but now, wheelchair accessible.

Widemouth Bay in Cornwall is stunning, sand dunes, rocks, surf and sand, but the access routes are across soft sand with large stones. Not the sort of surface anyone wants to push a wheelchair on. But Obama will pull one all day, quite happily. At 6:30 we come down the dunes from the South west Coastal Path to the beach, but not knowing the route, take it gently. next time we’ll do it fast.

Cruising from Belstone on Dartmoor is great. Obama certainly thinks so, so most of this video was shot at excessive speed. We can do sensible, but the only way to check safety is to try stupid. This is trying stupid.

Nicole and Collin came over from Australia, to stay with Bex, my crash test dummy, who lent her name, and a lot of time testing, to the iBex. A trip to Exmouth estuary looked like a fun idea, so with Kate and Paige, we all managed to get out on the saltings, and do a little exploring before heading back for civilisation and fish and chips.

The Maer in Exmouth has an amazing variety of surfaces for testing pony drawn wheelchair enabled vehicles, and I like to be silly on the Maer. This video was shot with an early, and much less stable iBex. The modern chassis is stiffer and with tougher tyres with stiffer sidewalls, it handles rough terrain a lot better. But the old version coped OK.

To contact Pony Access call Simon Mulholland on 07510 736518

or email ponyaccess@gmail.com

To find out how we do all this, go to How we do it.