Autumn 2017 Newsletter

It was a great summer for us here at South Bucks RDA. The horses, as well as the volunteers, get a little well-deserved break. Although our schools do not ride with us during the summer holidays, we do offer group rides to children living in the South Bucks community. This was set up in conjunction with South Bucks District Council to offer local disabled children fun activities to take part in over the summer holidays, which, as we all know, can be very difficult for families to find!

We would like to thank all the volunteers who kindly gave up their time over the summer to help run these sessions.

Also a huge than you to Helen Burt, who worked very hard over the summer fitting in as many private lessons as she could before going off to the European Championships in Sweden with Athene and her new rider, Julie Payne.

European Championships 2017 – Gothenberg, Sweden
Julie Payne, riding Athene, was a member of the GB Team that won the Team Gold Medal. She was Individual Champion and also won the Freestyle, thus winning 3 gold medals in all. A great achievement at her first notable international event.

Julie Payne Wins an Award
Congratulations to Julie Payne on Achieving the Horse and Hound Inspiration Award after winning three gold medals at the European Championships, riding Di Redfern’s Athene lindebjerg. Julie is certainly an inspiration to us all here at South Bucks RDA.

Introducing Sophie
We give a warm welcome to Sophie, who has joined the team while Hana takes her maternity leave. You have probably spotted her face around the yard but if not, be sure to introduce yourself and say hello! Gema Hall
Congratulations to Gemma Hall on passing her BHS Stage 2 Stable Management Exam in July.
Helen Burt
Congratulations to Helen Burt on passing yet another exam. Helen has now gained her RDA Coach’s Qualification.

Goodbye and Best Wishes to Susan Phipps
With a heavy heart we will be saying farewell at the end of the year to Susan, who has volunteered with rDA for over 25 years. Susan has been a true asset to us here at South Bucks RDA and has given up so much of her time to be a Volunteer Instructor currently teaming three classes of school children on a Thursday morning. Susan and her husband are retiring down to the South Coast and we would like to say a huge thank you for everything she has done for us. We wish them well as they go off to start their next chapter in life. THANK YOU Susan.

Baby News
Archie John Bucknall Congratulations to our Yard Coordinator, Hana and her partner, Pete on the safe arrival of Archie on 2nd August at 9:05pm weighing in at 7lb 12oz. He’s growing fast and so far appears to be behaving himself.
Ava Helen Younge
Congratulations to our Saturday Volunteers Emma and Colin on the safe arrival of their daughter. Ava was born on 26th July weighing a health 8lb 7oz. It’s also great to see both Colin and Emma back volunteering with us, taking it in turns to say home with Ava to ensure she doesn’t get up to any mischief!

Jo Holt – Harley’s Owner
Last year we welcomed Jo Holt and her gorgeous horse Harley to SBRDA, and already many of the riders have fallen in love with him.

Sadly, Jo passed away just before the summer after a long illness, leaving her wonderful boy Harley to continue his great work with us here at South Bucks RDA.

Jo requested that donations to our group in place of floral tributes at her funeral, raising over £1000. Jo’s constant cheeriness and humour is sorely missed on the yard but it’s still good to see her immediate family when they come to visit Harley.

Charlie Girl
The welfare and quality of life of our horses and ponies is and always will be our number one priority and sometimes hard decisions have to be made.
In September we said goodbye to our beautiful Charlie Girl, a favourite with many of our volunteers. She had given many riders years of therapy, pleasure and achievement.

Charlie Girl was a super dressage horse in her younger years and was even loaned to a Brazilian Para-rider and travelled out to Athens to compete in the 2004 Paralympics!

We thank her owner, Jo Jackson, for trusting us to love and take care of Charlie Girl. She was the boss of the field and much loved here at South Bucks RDA.

Meet Rainbow – AKA Billy
We ow a huge thank you to Allan Kauffman, former Mayor of Hillingdon, for his very generous Donation of £5,000.

Over the years, Allan has raised thousands of pounds for the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, and kindly gifted us the money to buy and train a horse for use at South Bucks RDA. After months of searching fo the right horse, Helen has found him. Romilly has done a wonderful job of helping find his feet here at his new home in Fulmer. So far, he has shown himself in nothing but a positive light, has proved very willing to learn and takes everything in his stride.

Fulmer Village Day – Fundraising
A big thank you to Theresa, Alison, Susan, Jane and Selina for manning the tombola at the Fulmer Village Day to help raise funds for South Bucks RDA. They raised £190 on the day!

We are always looking for families to help support us and run tombolas at various local events. If you feel this is something you can do, please let Gina in the office know. Also, donations of items for future tombolas would be very gratefully received.

Quiz Night Update
Team Tolmie (Theresa, Chris, Alison and Andrew) excelled themselves again and organised another fantastic quiz night to raise funds for our charity. Fun was had by all and over £700 was raised. Thank you!

New Wheels for Francis
If you haven’t met him already, let me introduce you to Francis! Francis was a rider at South Bucks RDA for many years and he now volunteers with us as and when he can. He is latest venture to support us and help raise awareness of our charity is to have his sake guards customised to raise awareness of our charity.
Thank you for all your support over the years, Francis.

More Fundraising
We would like to thank Lucca’s wonderful nan, Jeanie, who carried out a fundraising activity at Hartpury. Jeannie had a gazebo at the RDA National Championships where she did lino-printing with the children. Unfortunately, it go so windy that Jeannie had to abandon ship early, but we thank her for braving the elements for so long on our behalf.

RDA National Championships 14-16 July 2017 – RESULTS
These championships bring together all the riders who achieved the best results from the regional shows held throughout the whole of Great Britain. We are very proud of all the riders from South Bucks, some of whom were competing at the Championships for the first time.

Junior Countryside Challenge (LED) the winning score was 89.75%
5th Lucca Belshaw – Yogi 86.25%
6th Harrison Mills – Robin 85.25%
13th Rachel Shortt – Yogi 80.25%

Senior Countryside Challenge (Led) the winning score was 89.25%
3rd Pavan Patel – Yogi 84.50%

Junior Countryside Challenge (independent rider)
1st Joseph Lawrence – Robin 91.25%

Dressage Juniore Rider Grand 1 Championships
2nd Jamie Winduss – Robin

Dressage Junior Rider Grade 2 Championships
1st Jessica Phillips – Robbie

Dressage junior Freestyle Grade 1 Rider
1st Jamie Winduss – Robin

Dressage Junior Freestyle Grade 2 Rider
1st Jessica Phillips – Robbie

Musical Drill Ride DVD (led) the winning score was 93.5%
2nd “Teamwork 2017” performed by riders from Coteford Junior School who with their helpers, scored 91%

It takes a lot of preparation to get to the National Championships and again, we couldn’t do it without volunteers giving up more of their time to help get the horses and ponies ready, to help with transport and care while they are stabled at the venue in Hartpury and to help and support other riders. Here are a few of them (along with Pav’s family)..still smiling despite being on their knees at the end of the weekend, and enjoying well deserved ice-creams!

Tuesday Rides
We have not had as many children riding on a Tuesday Morning this term due to school cutbacks. However this has enabled us time to provide therapeutic riding for a young paraplegic girl, who needs a great deal of support. She is rapidly gaining in confidence. Other young riders continue to develop their skills; Socks, Forrester, Yogi and Robin are the core ponies.

Sunday Rides
We have been very short of help since deciding to open Sundays out to younger riders. We do need to get more helpers.

Katie grooming Socks

If you know anyone who has time on a Sunday morning between 10 and 12:30, please encourage them to contact Gina. Several core helpers have moved away.

The more advanced riders are beginning to include stable management into every ride, learning how to put their ponies away and make them comfortable. They will soon be on to tack cleaning too!

News from the Wednesday Group
Coteford Junior School: During the riding year September 2016 to July 2017 we have been able to provide, through riding and its associated activities, a year of progressive learning full of personal achievements for each child.

From the social skills needed when meeting Natasha Baker MBE; the RDA Creative Writing Competition, featuring Ruby Denton’s wining short story and some lovely work from teh other nine children; their achievements in teh RDA Proficiency Test in bothe Riding and Horse Care at Grades 1,2 and 3; and the fantastic results fo the Musical Drill Ride and Countryside Challenge competitions at both the RDA South Region Show and the RDA National Championships – they have had an amazing year. Our end of year tracker Assessment Guide of the process of each child also shows a marked improvement in confidence, communication, relationships and other important life skills.

Congratulations to Daniel, Hurmat, Lucca and Ollie who in their first year of riding have all achieved their Grades 1 and 2 Proficiency Tests in both Riding and Horse Care. In the second group the riders are in their second year and have been working toward their Grade 3 Proficiency Test. Congratulations to Liliana, harry, and Ruby for gaining their Grade 3 in Horse Care and to Harrison and Rachel who achieved their Grade 3 Proficiency Test in both Riding and Horse Care. They all worked so hard and richly deserve their achievement.

At our Parents’ Day the riders shoed their ability to negotiate an obstacle course based on the Countryside Challenge and the second group were also able to show progression to some trot work. Ruby was unable to travel to the Nationals Championships for the Winners Award Ceremony so her Creative Writing Award rosette and Amazon Voucher were presented to her by Di Redfern in front of her mother, other parents, visitors and helpers.

On the last day of term all riders enjoyed a hack through the woods followed by a picnic lunch ing the classroom and, after lunch, the children performed a surprise ” Coteford’s Got Talent” show. We were amazed atet eh confidence show by each of the children who performed their act in front of us all. IT was a fantastic effort where they were confident and happy to show us what they could do. It was a inspiration to watch and gave a special meaning to the term ” happiness through achievement “, which is what RDA strive to create.

“Smurf by Amy Jones, aged 6”

Thank you to Amy Jones, a Sunday rider, for this wonderful picture of Smurf. The original can be seen on the noticeboard on the Gallery.