The Congress took place in Toronto (CAN) in 1988 and was particularly geared towards the emphasis of scientific research and its results.
Hippotherapy was in the forefront.
The promising start of RDI had started to come to a halt. The donors of funds demanded charity status. However the work needed on the constitution, which would have allowed this, was not successful. Numerous wishes and expectations had been sent in, but no useful framework for a constitution. The suggestion to the member organizations of setting up a British charity did not find the necessary approval. Further donations failed to materialize. The urgent requests caused the Deutsche Kuratorium fur Therapeutisches Reiten (Hoffmann, Kluwer, Riesser, Wolf) and the Association Nationale Belge de Therapie par Equitation (Nuyttens) to each produce a draft constitution. These were sent out and discussed in detail at the delegate’s meeting in Toronto (1988), shortened and passed.
The executive board was voted in according to this constitution.
President: Dorothee Ames (Can)
General Secretary: Jane Wykeham-Musgrave (GB)
Treasurer: Ad van Vliet (NL)
Committee Members: Charlotte von Arbin (S), Valerie Poplawski (AUS)
The constitution now had to be checked according to international law and the international charitable status prepared. An International Council meeting was called by the president, since the written international agreement had not been achieved, to take place in London on 15. September, 1990.
The delegates asked a small task force, after careful discussions, to prepare the constitution for international agreement.