RDA Deeside

14/08/2024

If anyone out there is looking to volunteer for a charity, RDA Deeside Group would love to welcome you! Please get in touch if you’d like any more information or if you’d like an application form🐴

14/08/2024

Little Peanut has been learning all about head collars this week. She is so confident she wasn't bothered in the slightest and will happily let her groom put on and take off her head collar. 🥰

14/08/2024

18/06/2024

Opal had her first little rider on board and was good as gold. Opal is currently looking for a new home as a project pony and we think she will make a great lead rein pony! If you would like to apply for Opal please follow the link https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/rehome/profile/1489

18/06/2024

**Wanted chunky weight carrying unicorns 15hh+ for our wonderful RDA centre.

We are looking to buy or loan bomb proof weight carriers so we can retire a couple of our larger boys. Ponies must be safe, sturdy and not fussed by loud noises or movement in the saddle.
5 🌟 home in Aberdeenshire area, please share this post or PM us with any info on suitable ponies.
If you have a unicorn 🦄 in need of a job please get in touch.

18/06/2024

01/05/2024

We still have one table available for our 50th Anniversary Spring Ball on Friday 17th May at Lochter.
3 course meal and live music all evening from the fabulous Celtic Avenue for ceilidh and covers and DJ to dance the night away for a great cause.
If you would like a table please drop us a DM or email [email protected] for any booking enquiries or information.

12/04/2023

We are very proud of Liam, one of our coaches who asked a few weeks ago if he could run a careers evening both as a development opportunity for him but also because he is very keen to encourage people to consider equine careers and that young people know what equine options are available to them when they are considering subject choices and course applications.
So we will be holding the careers information evening at ARC on Friday 21st April at 6pm. Liam has organised some great presenters including a vet and a farrier, with Liam presenting on riding school coaching as a career and Sally will be there to present on the BHS career pathway opportunities and qualifications and the SRUC HNC/D in Equine studies course that ARC provide tutors and the facility for for practical units.
The evening will be informal, with each professional talking for 10 mins on how they got into their career, the qualifications they have done and what a typical day looks like. Everyone is welcome from school age to parents to those thinking of a change of career.
We are going to charge £5 entry and the money is being donated to Liams chosen charity, which is the brilliant Befriend a Child organisation who we already support with riding sessions for children who attend through the charity.
So please support Liams hard work organising the event and come along! There will be a q&a session too where the professionals take questions from the floor, but you can also provide any questions in advance by email if you’d prefer! If you’d like to attend then please email [email protected]

05/04/2023

We'd like to say a big thank you to Harbro Ltd for a very generous donation to our Sottish RDA regions 🙏

For 12 months, for every bag of Harbro horse feed sold in a Harbro store, Harbro pledged to donate 25p to the Scottish RDA regions. Thanks to the Harbro customers, an amazing £7,000 was raised. The donation will be used across Scotland to help support the work across the regions and the 2000 participants in them.

Allan Bain, Harbro Retail Director, said: “Harbro is delighted to continue supporting Riding for the Disabled Association, a charity close to the hearts of both our customers and staff. I am personally aware of how much the RDA enrich and support the lives of children and adults with physical and learning difficulties through contact with horses. Thanks must go to all of our customers who bought Harbro horse feed over the last 12 months, helping us to raise such a fantastic amount and of course to the amazing RDA volunteers."

01/03/2023

MEET THE MENTOR
Long-time coach for over 25 years, Lorna has been at several RDA groups around Scotland, including Aberdeen RDA , Moray RDA, and Gordon Riding for the Disabled.
Lorna is also an RDA Regional Coach and Regional Show Jumping Coach within the Grampian & Highland RDA region, and she is also an RDA Accessibility Mark officer for Scotland.
Lorna has first-hand experience of the amazing work our Princess Royal Coach Academy does for our coaches, having been one of the inaugural PRCA Mentees. She has since successfully achieved her RDA Advanced Coach last year, and she now joins PRCA as a mentor helping coaches in the Academy.

22/02/2023

Contact us at
[email protected]

22/02/2023

Do you have an hour (or two) to spare on Thursday mornings? RDA Deeside are looking for volunteers to join our sessions at Aberdeen Riding Club. Horse experience is not necessary, we are a fun, friendly group who enjoy assisting our riders and their families/carers enjoy the benefits of horse riding. There is always a chance for a coffee and cake too!

For more information please contact us at [email protected]

21/02/2023

We support two RDA groups at ARC (by providing discounted facilities/horses for them) and it’s brilliant to see the amazing work they do with local riders. One of the groups RDA Deeside are looking for more volunteers to help them at ARC on a Thursday morning - the sessions are coached by Liam and/or Sally and are great sessions to volunteer at. The group can use both non horsey and horsey volunteers so if you have an hour or so free in your week then drop them an email (in picture below) and let them know! So feel free to share this post if you know anyone who might be interested.

17/02/2023

RDA would like to say a huge 🙏 thank you 🙏 to GS Equestrian for a very generous donation to our charity recently. The donation will help RDA continue our lifechanging work.

GS Equestrian have been a long-time supporter of RDA, for which we are very grateful to them for 💚

06/02/2023

A bit of from our wonderful participant and volunteer Daniel.

"I have been registered blind, but I know that the horse will keep me safe. When I am riding, I can feel a lot more, like the sense of where I am and changes in the wind and atmosphere. From my personal point of view, just because you are blind or severely visually impaired it does not mean that you should give up the things that you enjoy or you love doing."

Achieve your goals with RDA - whether you want to be a participant, volunteer or coach. Join RDA today, find a group here: https://rda.org.uk/rda-groups/

07/01/2023

Why not start the New Year off with signing up to become an RDA volunteer?

Whether you want to utilise your looking for a challenge, to develop your CV, or learn new skills. Volunteering at RDA can take so many different forms - from being a side-walker in a riding session to becoming a Coach. There are so many rewarding voluntary positions you could do at RDA.

Sign up today ➡️ https://rda.org.uk/volunteer/

22/12/2022

🐴🎄🍰❤️🐴🍰🎄❤️🐴🍰🎄❤️🐴🎄🍰❤️🐴🎄🍰❤️

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all from RDA Deeside!

We are looking forwards to resuming our sessions at ARC in 2023. If you are interested in volunteering for our fun, friendly group please contact us at [email protected] - no horsey experience required and we always have cake!

🐴🎄🍰❤️🍰🎄🐴❤️🎄🍰🐴❤️🎄🍰🐴❤️🍰🐴🎄🍰❤️

23/11/2022

We are always looking for ways to make horses more accessible to everyone at ARC and last year we were asked if we would provide a facility for RDA Deeside, so they could restart their sessions post Covid. We already provide a facility and horses for ARC Hippotherapy : SCIO a member group of RDA so it seemed a good fit to welcome Deeside RDA as well.
Earlier this year Deeside RDA found themselves without a coach and struggling to find one. Our staff team are all BHS qualified coaches and Accessibility Mark coaches, but whilst we can coach disabled riders who book through our centre, we can’t coach RDA groups at our centre, using our horses as our staff team aren’t RDA coaches. So we contacted RDA and worked out how our staff could be fast tracked through the RDA coaching qualification.
Sally, Martin, Laura and Liam then took part in some training sessions towards the qualification and then last week, Sally and Liam did their practical assessment and passed, so we can now help Deeside RDA by providing coaches in addition to a facility and horses/ponies.
It’s been quite a bit of work to get the training organised and the practical assessment done, but it’s great that we can now help an RDA group to keep delivering their valuable services.
So a big well done to all our staff and in particular Liam (Sally doesn’t like her pic taken!). A good example of how ARC can use our base to support different organisations and charities to make horses more accessible.