ABOUT US

When I retired from work in 2010 I wanted a volunteering role that combined animals and people. I looked on the Do It web site and found a local RDA and became a volunteer. Ann-Marie joined this group a little bit later. Whilst volunteering at this venue Ann-Marie also achieved her life long ambition, at the second attempt, to own her own horse, and Woody came into her life. Ann-Marie grew up in South Africa, and as a small child heard that there was a pony for sale locally for 100 Rand. She knew where to find the money, she had lots in her Monopoly game. Realising just how much Ann-Marie wanted a pony, the lady at the stables was very kind and said that although she couldn't take the pony away for that amount of money, she was very welcome to come and see him any time she wanted.
Ann-Mrue and I became Trustees of this group and in 2013 we wanted to expand the group so that we could accommodate more disabled children and adult riders with more severe disabilities. We had limited resources at our current venue, so it also meant looking for another venue with a larger choice of horses and ponies. We put our proposal to the other Trustees and Ann-Marie was asked to investigate possibilities. Ann-Marie visited various local riding establishments and we settled on Shedfield Riding School to join us in this enterprise. Unfortunately when we reported back to the other Trustees they preferred to keep the group as it was rather than to look to expand.
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Anne Coney the then Southern Regional representative of the RDA encouraged Ann-Marie and me carry on with our plans by starting a new group. Anne felt that there was a need in the area for this style of group, and it didn’t conflict with the aims of our previous group. Philippa Lester the Manager at Shedfield Riding School was also keen for this to go ahead, so we embarked on this rather daunting but exciting journey to set up an RDA from scratch.
Ann Marie and I spent several months volunteering at Suzanne Stratford’s RDA Group at Broadlands, Medstead, as they had the type of RDA sessions we were interested in. In the Spring of 2014, we started completing all the paperwork, looking for volunteers, and getting ready to start our new venture at Shedfield. Suzanne Stratford, RDA County Coach and very experienced at running her own RDA was appointed as our Mentor for this new group. At our first meeting we voted on the committee and Fiona Reardon and Philippa Lester joined us as Trustees of the group. In August our RDA membership was granted and Shedfield Riding School also became an RDA Accessability Centre. We started our group with no funds whatsoever, so we spent the summer running various Tombola Stalls to try and raise enough money to purchase a mounting block, as this was the first essential to us starting as a group. Luckily we found somebody kind enough to make one for us, and we had enough money to pay for materials.
We ended the year amazingly. We were given £3,500 from the Fareham Mayor’s Charity, we became a charity of the month at the local Waitrose store, we received a £1,500 Councillor Grant from Cllr Sean Woodward for equipment and further donations. We are now in the process of buying both safety and other equipment including games, riding equipment, and also a video camera. The video camera will enable any of our riders who want to compete in the RDA Dressage Anywhere competition to have their dressage test recorded and uploaded on line for judging.
Now that our income for the year has exceeded £5,000 we have been able to apply to the Charity Commission for Registered Charity Status which we hope to achieve during March 2015.
2014 was a very exciting year for us and we hope 2015 will be even better. A big thank you to our lovely benefactors, volunteers and riders who have made all this possible.
Shirley Harris - Chairman Shedfield RDA
SHEDFIELD RDA
