Staff at Tauranga Riding for Disabled are baffled as to why someone would ram their gates.

Manager Elisha Olds says both the horse paddock gate and the main entrance gate were rammed by a car.

She says both gates at the facility in Welcome Bay were forced open and left open.

'We are of course upset about the incident and baffled as to why anyone would risk our horses welfare, not to mention the risk if they had got out onto the road.”

Elisha says no horses were stolen or injured.

'The paddock the horses were in was left wide open and luckily the five horses in the paddock stayed in there.”

She says the neighbours heard whistling around midnight, but she's not sure what their intentions were.

The organisation is now working on getting surveillance in various paddocks around the property to protect our horses.

According to the website, Riding for the Disabled programmes are designed to develop and nurture confidence, independence and well-being and provide life skills through professionally supervised therapeutic horse riding and interaction with horses.