Sadly we announce that the Trust is winding up. The lack of certainty of our lease, lack of support to find a new Council lease, lack of volunteers and funding have all meant that it is untenable to continue operating this much needed and loved service.
We've been making huge strides forward in upgrading our facilities, thanks largely to grants and donations. After installing our mounting ramp in Jan, we have now fully fenced our arena, and improved access for our clients (and safety for our team) by upgrading the surface of our parking area, and paths.
All these improvements help us to focus more on providing the very best service for our clients, without distractions from inadequate infrastructure or conditions that concern our clients, or compromise safety.
Over the summer break we've been incredibly busy, and one of our greatest achievements has been fundraising for, and then building our new accessible mounting ramp.
Thanks to all involved, this is a huge leap forward for us all.
2016 has been our most challenging, and successful year yet. The demand for our services is huge, and we always have waiting lists. Our last 6 months have brought us a number of fantastic new additions to our team, both human and horses.
Our new head coach Maria, has been a driving force in enhancing our programmes, and through them our clients achievements.
Miniature horses and ponies make excellent connections with many of our clients. They aren't overwhelming, yet still have all the characteristics of horses that create those very special connections with those who are non-verbal, in particular.
Our littlest mini, Summer, has been donated to us, and is already melting the hearts of volunteers, and clients alike. As a bonus she is rideable for our very small clients.
Nutmeg aka Meg, is our newest arrival. At 15.2hh she is one of our larger horses, capable of taking our larger customers, or helping our Special Olympics riders with their lessons.
Nutmeg is our oldest horse, but she has plenty of life left in her yet. She has worked in a trekking company, and at a riding school and is a lovely girl who has seen plenty of life - and is pretty much bombproof.
We've been looking for a new big horse for our adult riders for a while, and it seems we have hit the jackpot.
June is a big, 13 year old Percheron x mare with a kind, gentle personality. She likes to greet everyone who arrives, and settled in so well on her arrival we put her through her formal assessment immediately. She passed with flying colours, a real achievement having only been introduced to a new environment a couple of hours earlier. We are now looking forward to introducing her to our clients.
We're always looking for those perfect horses and ponies, that are suited to the type of work we do. If you can help out with a donation, we appreciate it. We also have corporate sponsorship options available.
We're very pleased to announce the appointment of our new Head Coach, Maria Cooper.
Equestrian 4 Everyone founder, Kay, has been filling in as head coach for most of this year, and has now decided to move on. We received a number of excellent applications from highly qualified coaches, but Maria stood out, and will be starting on the 13th Sept 2016.
About Maria
Maria comes to us with a lifetime love of horses, and has been riding and caring for horses since childhood. She has many years experience in Therapeutic Riding, and loves the possibilities for empowerment and independence that being with horses can bring.
Whilst living and working in America, Maria trained as an instructor with PATHintl (the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International), and worked as an Instructor, equine manager and volunteer with a dedicated therapy organisation serving both children and adults with disabilities (Gallop NYC).
Just in time for the worst rain of the winter so far, our new arena surface was delivered. Although we didn't manage to raise enough money to construct a new arena, we have managed to fund works to create a much improved working area.
New drainage, contouring the existing area to help water flow off the surface, and new cushionride surface to help keep the mud at bay, and allow us to work through the winter months.
E4E is so proud of our success stories over the few years that we have been operating. We have been updating our main website to ensure that all our funders and supporters can understand what we do and how we all improve the lives of those we serve.
You can read our success stories here >> http://www.equestrian4everyone.com/success-stories.html
