Teenagers from one of Dublin's disadvantaged areas brought patients from St Loman's psychiatric hospital in Dublin for a carriage ride around Phoenix Park yesterday, accompanied by a Garda motorcycle escort.
The youths from the Gallans town/Cherry Orchard area are part of COLT, a joint Eastern Health Board/Garda project which aims to use the boys' passion for horses to entice them to complete their education. They are currently looking for a site for stables and educational activities in north Kildare.
According to Ms Teresa Mooney, acting chief nursing officer at St Loman's, the boys, aged 12-16, are at risk of leaving school early, of getting into trouble with the law and of experiencing mental disorders in the future.
Horses are their "major passion", she said. The health board, Garda and schools are convinced that the only hope of getting involved with them is through their horses.
Last year the group went on a "horse marathon" of over 60 miles through the Dublin and Wicklow mountains to raise funds for medical treatment for two local children. One had his face disfigured when a petrol bomb hit him during the Hallowe'en night riots in 1995. The other had her legs crushed by a stolen car in 1996.
If the project can find a home in north Kildare it will be staffed by a vocational teacher, a youth worker, an expert in horses and a manager. The young people in the project will be brought there every day.
Yesterday, the owners of carriages which serve the tourist trade in the city centre loaned their vehicles for the occasion.