BBC Rickshaw Challenge meets Watershed RDA!

Ben and Maisie were lucky enough to meet with Harry and Matt from BBC The One Show's Rickshaw Challenge while they were about in the locality having a break from cycling!

The One Show's Rickshaw Challenge is back with six inspiring young people taking on a gruelling 423 mile cycle to change children's lives from 9-16 November.

We had a fabulous open day on Sunday 2nd of September! 

We had a fabulous Open Day on Sunday 2nd September.

Adam Henson, of Cotswold Farm, came and cut the ribbon to officially open our new mess room. We were most grateful for the time he spent with us, for all the things he “cut” and presented, for all the photos he had taken and for chatting to a lot of people.

Over 200 people came to the Opening and as well as being served delicious teas and cakes in the mess room they were able to see our new stables, yard and outdoor classroom and were able to chat to our riders, volunteers and the ponies.

Arabella and Natalie, 2 of our younger riders, mounted Ben and Misty to give us a slick dressage demonstration to “You’ll never Walk Alone” .

Di Green, an International Para Dressage rider then spoke very movingly about how she started riding again at The Watershed after an horrific riding accident left her with trauma induced multiple sclerosis. Whilst she was speaking Leone Brown, her trainer from Danewood Dressage, warmed up Di’s magnificent grey mare Winnie.

We then watched Di mount Winnie which many of the audience found inspirational as Winnie and Di have to trust each other implicitly as Di’s leg is lifted over the saddle for her to get on- she needed help from 3 people to achieve mounting. Leone then explained how she trains Winnie (and Di!) – clicks tell Winnie what Di wants her to do and because Di can’t use her legs she uses 2 long dressage whips. Di also uses her weight to indicate to Winnie how she should move. In addition Di has looped reins as she has limited feeling in her hands. Leone asked Di to demonstrate many of her dressage moves and then Di showed us one of her superbly accurate walk tests to music.

The Open Day was not a fund raising activity but even so we raised over a £1000. A lot of people helped by doing an extraordinary amount of things from making cakes, to washing horses, to running around the arena to make sure the dressage demo would fit the music, to cutting the grass, washing the windows, publicising the event, painting faces, selling things, knocking over skittles, running the raffle, stalls and chocolate tombola – and more and more and more!!!

WOW! WOW! WOW!

“You cannot be serious!”

We now have a new extended stable yard, a new roof on the tack rooms, a new row of four stables and a new outdoor classroom.

Enormous thanks to some really special and generous donors who have allowed us to do this project in our summer holidays – it will be ready for use at the beginning of the Autumn Term. THANK YOU to them.

Also a huge thank you to Oakley Stables www.oakleystables.co.uk who did this job quickly, efficiently, with no fuss and who couldn’t have been more helpful.

DO COME AND VISIT US ON SUNDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER AT OUR OPEN DAY – OR ANY TIME THAT YOU ARE PASSING – THE KETTLE IS ALWAYS ON!

OUR FULLY KITTED OUT NEW MESS ROOM!

We are so excited to share with you our new mess room has finally been kitted out. We absolutely love our new facilities. It would be great to see you all for a chat, coffee and biscuits so please do come along. 

A huge amount of thanks go to everyone who donated, granted and gave generously to the project – too numerous to name now although we will be thanking them again in the near future.

Many thanks must also go to our Trustees and to our particularly hard working Fund Raising Committee.