Our first week back was a volunteer’s only week. This allowed us to run in-house training for all, practising key skills and techniques, refreshing seasoned volunteers and upskilling new ones. 

We all enjoyed time with our wonderful crew of equines, smartening them up, and brushing off any cobwebs in the training department after their summer holidays. It was great to meet up with old friends, make new ones, and catch up with the post-holiday news. 

When our riders joined us the following week, we were all ready and able to confidently start them on their individual riding programmes. We are planning on running these sessions at the beginning of every term because the better trained our volunteers are, the more confident they feel fulfilling their roles, and the better the outcomes for our riders.

Our riders all have an individual goal-based programme they work to each week.

We have adjusted our timetable to allow for full pre-ride briefing and post-ride debriefing sessions. We all join in these sessions, discussing the riders’ goals and ways to facilitate meeting them, volunteers have a significant input, and I am regularly able to add more ideas to my toolbox of techniques thanks to their observations and ideas. By including everyone in these sessions, I feel people are feeling more invested in the rider outcomes, while also feeling supported and empowered in their roles here at NSRDA.

We are always keen for more volunteers to join us. You don’t need to have previous horse or child experience, there are roles to fill from paddock maintenance, equipment construction and crafting, horse care, rider support, general tidying etc. If you feel you have something to offer, please contact us by email initially at info@northshorerda.org

Happy riding.

Judith Finch

Coach NSRDA