Rider and Volunteer Surveys
At the end of 2024 we conducted our surveys of riders and volunteers to get first-hand feedback on what they think of our service, how we stack up against past surveys results and how we can improve.
The good news is that we have glowing comments from both audiences as well as very constructive input on ways to improve.
Rider Survey
Here are some of the comments from Riders or their Carers.
We are back for the 2nd year and very grateful for the hard work of the RDA team.
They are amazing team. My children rave about it to everyone.
The quality of the environment, horses, staff and volunteers, and the activities is wonderful.
Wonderful and kind staff. Horse was matched to rider. My son loved it.
The quality of the environment, horses, staff and volunteers, and the activities is wonderful.
On top of this the benefits to Riders that their carers commented on include
Multiple benefits including emotional, physical, psychological and social.
Positive Impact seen at home and at school.
Builds confidence, autonomy, empathy, understanding of others and pride in participation.
Takes pleasure from being outdoors, sitting tall and being with the horse.
Calming influence, provides pleasure and reduces anxiety.
Builds physical core strength, balance, co-ordination, speech and interacting with others that have challenges.
Increases ability to follow instructions
Volunteer Survey
And comments from some of our Volunteers
RDA North Shore is the most rewarding experience for anyone who has the time, energy and opportunity to participate. Keep up the good work.
Excited about changes to 3 rides per day providing more time to spend on the tasks, riders and horses.
Positive about new arena and horse stalls
We have a wonderful facility and our horses, and their wellbeing is fantastically looked after.
The team are friendly, supportive and working towards the same goals. They willingly support each other to get the work done. The concept of running four rides with no planned breaks increases the pressure on staff and volunteers and the atmosphere can change as the morning progresses. Some are noticeably tired.
The introduction of breaks between rides will be a major improvement with a flow on effect to improve the value for riders and their carers.
Overall, our surveys highlight that we have again mainly increased satisfaction and fulfilment among our riders and volunteers, year on year. We have a few small areas we can improve on and will work on these. You can view this year’s results in each key area plotted against previous surveys below.
