We’ve had a busy time of it lately what with our annual fun dog show, the continuation of our Silver Hour sessions and a Pony Angel party for our pony sponsors.
The weather wasn’t kind to us for the dog show. Typical! After months of beautiful weather the one day we wanted it to be warm and sunny – it wasn’t! But what’s a bit of rain when you are in the middle of a lovefest of dogs! There were so many different breeds all coming to show off their waggiest tale, appealing eyes, musical sits and quickest biscuit eater and despite the rain no one was really bothered about getting wet. The Cranwell Bloodhounds made a visit and what a bundle of fun they all were. Bouncing around their pen desperate to be fussed over. Three made an audacious escape under the pen and led the whipper-in a merry dance until they were finally corralled and marched back to whence they came. Despite this naughtiness their spirits were not dampened and they continued looking for the weak spots in the pen fencing!
Our Silver Hour is continuing whilst the weather is still good. It has been a really successful venture with visitors coming every week to spend time with our horses and ponies. Many of them have built up bonds with particular ones and it is quite touching to see the effect just being with an equine can have upon an individual. Babette our intrepid 98 yr. old rider has also been coming quite regularly and as well as a ride around the arena she now includes a bit of grooming in her visit and last week gave Fudge’s tail a bit of a trim as she considered it was too long!
In between all this activity fits my weekly riding lesson. I didn’t begin riding with Kesteven RiDeAbility until three years ago at the grand age of 59 having not sat on a horse since my University days and even then it was only pony trekking. I don’t recall ever having a lesson; it was just “Sue, get on and get going”. Oh the fearlessness of youth! Of course, this didn’t really count as real riding so with Kesteven RiDeAbility my lifelong ambition to learn to ride properly was made possible.
I think I lucked out when I discovered Kesteven RiDeAbility as Karen, our head coach, is a fantastic teacher with a wealth of patience. Just as well really as with all my physical difficulties learning to ride has been quite a challenge but then that’s what RDA is all about – what you can do not what you can’t. A few dressage competitions later (and rosettes!) and we are now moving into the more complex areas such as turning on the forehand, figures of eight in trot across the diagonals and around the corners and quickening up the trot around the arena and in circles. With my wonky spine this can be a challenge to my balance but so far so good! I am hoping to do another competition later in the year taking in some of these new techniques. Rio my little Dales pony is such a sweetie. He is so willing even though with me on board (only having one leg and the said wonky spine) he has had to learn my strange way of signalling. RDA ponies are so amazing. Their resilience and versatility are incredible which makes learning to ride as a disabled person much more possible. It’s still not easy but then if it was those small achievements you make wouldn’t be worth so much would they?
Talking of our ponies. As with all RDA centres we have to raise funds to pay for their upkeep as well as the additional costs of shoeing and any vets bills. Not cheap! Whilst we run fundraising activities throughout the year to do this we also have people who sponsor our ponies on a monthly basis; we call them our Pony Angels. This past weekend we held a party to thank them. Our two ponies Rio and Fudge, looking their magnificent best, gave a demonstration to music in the arena which was a great way to get the party going. As the music rang out they “danced” to the song “Happy”. Emily who rides Fudge and is very accomplished worked the dance with Karen on Rio. Afterwards our Angels were introduced to them both and were able to find out more about what they do as RDA ponies as well as giving them both a lot of fussing and petting; This made Rio’s day as in order of preference his favourite pastimes are eating, being fussed and sleeping; work comes a long way down the list. He was in his element!
Lots of lovely home-made cakes and tea and coffee were on offer and it didn’t seem long before we were saying goodbye to everyone. It was nice to meet some of our Pony Angels and be able to thank them for supporting us.
As the weather begins to cool I’m looking forward to getting more out of my lessons now that I am better able. Our last fundraiser until January is at the end of this month when we are holding a Ceilidh. I’ll tell you how we do next month.
Kesteven RiDeAbility. Sue’s Blog. Sept. 2018. www.kestevenrda.co.uk
