Marlborough Riding for the Disabled

06/03/2025

Forrest Wines - thank you for your choosing Marlborough Riding for the Disabled for February's promotional wine - $5 for each 6 pack of Brigid Sauvignon Blanc sold has kindly been donated to help us cover our costs of horse care.
This promotion raised a fantastic amount of $1,080.
Thank you to the team at Forrest Wines for choosing us, and thank you Allison who works at Forrest Wines but also volunteers for us twice a week - you are an amazing member of our team and our community.

Also, thank you to all that bought this lovely wine and supported this initiative.

What bouquet do you think Sundance can smell? Cheeky boy seemed to want a try!


Forrest Wines

03/03/2025

Thank you once again Balcairn Stockfoods, another delivery of our horse's favourite minerals, you are an amazing supporter, and we really appreciate your generosity.
Thanks Joy White for collecting for us - and thanks from the horses on Friday, who just love your treatments.

03/03/2025

Celebrations are in order.
Roslein Wilkes has been a part of Marlborough Riding for the Disabled for 30 years this month.
Over the years so many people and horses have benefited from her commitment.
A summary of her years involved was published in lasts week Blenheim Sun - worth a read - page 8
https://issuu.com/blenheimsun/docs/26_february_2025_the_blenheim_sun

Having afternoon tea in the sun, some of Roslein's collegues from over the years met up yesterday to share some lovely stories.
On behalf of all those you have helped, taught, mentored - thank you Roslein.😘

24/02/2025

Only one week to go...
Stock up your cabinet with this lovely Marlborough Sav Blanc - $5.00 will be donated to Marlborough Riding for the Disabled for each 6-pack purchased.

Forrest Wines - thank you for your support, we are all truly grateful.

"Beautifully styled and elegantly fragrant, the wine shows crunchy apple, white flesh peach, feijoa, and green rockmelon aromas on the nose, leading to a flavoursome palate that's light and refreshing. Charming and inviting with juicy fruit intensity, offering delightful drinking."93 points, 5 stars...

20/02/2025

Another amazing local company we need to recognise as being awesome.
Last week when Caythorpe Caythorpe Hay & Multipack donated our hay, Renwick Transport Ltd helped them out with the transportation - Had a lovely call from Jax to let me know that that there will be NO CHARGE for this job - Thank you team!
We work with Renwick Transport Ltd every year to get our hay in the sheds, and without fail they are the most professional, efficient and super happy people to work with.

13/02/2025

It’s that day of the year when everyone is out buying flowers for the one they love..
We have three very pretty bouquets for sale at our roadside bin
$25
100% proceeds back to RDA
brighten up your day or someone else’s and help people in our community

10/02/2025

First day of lessons for 2025, so great to see our riders back in the saddle.
We are still looking for volunteers to help us out with horse care and help leading and side-walking in the classes.
Do you have a few hours to spare each week during the school terms? We need help - Mon to Fri.
Some really good reasons volunteering could be right for you:
* Provides you with a sense of purpose
* Provides a sense of community
* Help to enable others to reach their goals.
* Meet new friends
* Learn new skills or share your skills
* Brings fun into your life - be happy!

Please contact us if you would like to learn more

31/01/2025

Do you feel like stocking up on some beautiful Marlborough wines?
Forrest Wines have chosen us to be their charity for a month - for every case of Brigid Sauvignon Blanc bought they will donate $5 to RDA

Use this link to buy:
https://www.forrest.co.nz/products/2022-brigid-sauvignon-blanc-6-bottles?variant=43952444866733

A little bit about their wine/campagin:

Brigid Sauvignon Blanc – A Wine That Gives Back
Enjoy our award-winning 2022 Brigid Sauvignon Blanc, available for $59 per 6-pack. This celebrated wine—winner of the 2024 Trophy for New Zealand Wine of the Year and Double Gold at the Women's Wine and Spirits Awards—is back by popular demand after many requests for its return.
And once again, every sip gives back. We’re proud to this time be supporting Marlborough Riding for Disabled, an organisation dedicated to providing life-changing equine therapy to people with physical, intellectual, and emotional challenges. For these riders, the opportunity to engage with horses, build confidence, and develop independence can make an enormous difference to their quality of life.
To continue offering these valuable services, Marlborough Riding for Disabled relies on skilled coaches and the care of their specially trained horses. However, there’s often a financial gap between the actual cost of a lesson and what students can afford to pay.
$5 from every case sold will help bridge this gap, ensuring more riders can access these transformative lessons. Every purchase supports Marlborough Riding for Disabled in delivering their life-changing programs, helping more people in our community develop confidence, strength, and independence that equine therapy provides.

Forrest Wines - thank you for your support

29/01/2025

We have had a great start to our 2025 Fundraising year.
Thank you to the SBS Bank team who kindly donated $250 to help us to help our riders.😀
Vinyl in the Vines NZ chose Marlborough Riding for the Disabled as their chosen charity for their last event at Lawson's Dry Hills Wines - thank you to all those attended and made a donation - you raised $213
And then there was the Waterlea Races - we were once asked to help out on the gates for their recent race meeting - meeting and greeting and watching out for any runaway horses. Thank you to all who attended and put some money in our buckets. We are very appreciative of being given this opportunity. We do need alot of volunteers to cover the two days, and we would really like to thank all of them, including those from
Rotary Blenheim South Vetlife and those who our committee member Dave convinced to give up your time. We received an amazing $3,802 - amazing effort.
We try to keep our riders fees as affordable as possible and there is a large gap between what it costs per session for each rider and the fee paid - so fundraising is an integral part of what we do, and we could not do this without our community being so supportive - big gratitude to all.

13/01/2025

We are still looking for some volunteers to help us out on Friday and Sunday at the Waterlea races
This is a huge fundraiser for us. Fundraising helps us to keep our riders fees affordable but we do need genourous and kind hearted people to give us some of their time to help.
If we can get enough people should be able to arrange 4 hour shifts throughout the day.
Need to be 16years and over
If you know someone who may be interested please share this in

Help us to help our riders.

Please contact Jo for more details - [email protected]

Volunteer Marlborough - YOUTH
Volunteer Marlborough

08/01/2025

05/01/2025

Trust all our friends of Marlborough Riding for the Disabled have had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

We need your help, please - we have been asked by Marlborough Racing Club to once again help out on the gates/parking at their upcoming race meeting on 17th and 19th January.
Are you able to volunteer some hours? You do not need to be a signed up volunteer to do this one off event.

On Friday 17th, it is an afternoon/evening meet and on the Sunday, 19th it is a day meeting. Times are confirmed closer to the dates when the entries are finalised.
The more people we can get the shorter shifts people will need to do - many hands make light work.
We have done this the last few years and it is alot of fun and is our best fundraising opportunity of the year.
Please email Jo if you are interested. [email protected]
Thank you!

21/12/2024

Been a busy couple of weeks. Highlight would be our year end prize presentation and party - congratulations to all of our riders who achieved so much throughout 2024 and especially to those who received trophies. Thank you Prisma Print for the very generous discount for the printing our RDA rider certificates!
We are now on holiday until mid January - including our horse/pony team.
Thank you so much to all of the lovely people that have welcomed our horse team this week to their properties for the next three weeks, for a very well deserved break.

Would also like to thank you to HR Engineering who did some alterations to our float which has made a huge difference and made it more user friendly.
And Brianfm thank you - we could not have got the horses out in better style - a very generous offer to let us have your truck for the week!

Merry Christmas & see you in 2025!

12/12/2024

It was with sadness that we said goodbye to the beloved Rusty as he was retired from his MRDA work.
Rusty joined MRDA in 2019 and has helped many of our riders - helping them to become stronger, build confidence, self-esteem, independence and more.
He has always been the perfect gentleman, a kind paddock mate and a fun horse to hack around the property and down the river. He has competed in Special Olympics New Zealand events and helped his riders achieve great results.
We were very privileged to have Rusty who we leased from Suz Lloyd - thank you Suz for entrusting us to care for your very special boy - enjoy your time with him - we will no doubt be waving to him over the fence.

We would like to also thank Marlborough Lines Ltd who have sponsored Rusty since 2019 - this sponsorship contributes towards the annual horse care costs for which we are very grateful. They have kindly agreed to transfer their horse sponsorship to our lovely pony Forest.

11/12/2024

We are holding our popular 'Half Day Pony Experience' and 45minute Private Lessons on Tuesday 28th January and Thursday 30th (2025) 🎉🐴
The Half day experience is best suited for those aged 6yrs-15yrs. For those whom are younger than 6yrs old, please enquire for an alternative option.
If we receive a huge demand, we will also open up additional dates.
Book now to avoid missing out!
Please note: Our holiday programmes are an opportunity for children who wouldn't normally have the opportunity, or do not qualify to ride at RDA- unfortunately they are not suitable for our RDA riders.

11/12/2024

Looking for Christmas gift ideas?
Don't forget...we do gift vouchers for our school holiday programmes!

They make the perfect gift for any horse loving child (or adult!)
🐴🎁

05/12/2024

Abit of fun to say thank you last night Lawson's Dry Hills Wines.
We depend upon our community so much to be able to do what we do for those living in the Marlborough region with a disability or experiencing challenges in their lives.
Volunteers are invaluable to us, we have approximately 30 active volunteers at any one time. They assist us maintaining the property, horse care, and of course with the rider programmes by coaching, leading and side-walking in the classes.
Local businesses and individuals are also a vital part of how we can stay sustainable, and with their generosity through horse sponsorship, arena advertising and donations we can endeavour to keep our fees as low as possible for our riders.

Congratulations to Charis Forman who received our Volunteer of the Year award. Charis joined us in March 2023 and comes two days a week. She has learnt alot over this time and is a very competent and enthusiastic member of our team.
A Special Award was given to Allan Kay - Allan has been volunteering two days a week since 2016. Sadly for us, he has decided to 'retire' to spend more time with family. He is going to be very missed by all - including our horse team. We honoured him by giving him a MRDA Life Membership. Secretly hoping he will miss us too and occasionally come and say hi.

Also want to thank those who donated items for our food platters, made us look pretty swanky!
Rood Food Manaaki Cranky Goat Ltd

Thank you to those who joined us.