Forest RDA Chair’s report
Forest RDA has had yet another busy year: We have gained a number of excellent new volunteers, and now have a great team, who all bring different skills, from horsemanship to sign language to cake making. Our coaches continue to provide their valuable and comprehensive volunteer training program before lessons start, and Kerry and Philippa are progressing well towards completing their training.
We were extremely sorry to learn of the unexpected death of our rider Ellie recently. I think that both we and her family and friends were comforted by the fact that she had spent her final afternoon having a lovely time at the RDA Easter egg hunt.
Our riders continue to grow (quite literally!), meaning that those little children who rode our tiny ponies a couple of years ago now need to move on to much bigger steeds. Severnvale have been extremely accommodating and after proper assessment, 2 more of their horses, Dream ad Barney, have joined our equestrian team. The review and reorganisation of riders and groups, allowing groups of similar abilities to ride and interact together, has been very successful and is ongoing.
We have been very fortunate with fundraising this year, starting by securing a grant from the Sedbury Trust which has funded a new large mounting block, allowing some of our more disabled riders to continue riding with us as they can more easily access the mounting block with extra assistants. We have also received several significant donations from private individuals, especially the Masons this year, and these have helped with running costs, are paying for lessons for one rider, have funded a new cochlear implant compatible hat for Alice, and have given the riders a free ride each term. Fundraising and promotion of Forest RDA will continue over the summer at local village fetes and a bandstand collection.
Thank you to everyone who has helped over the past year – from the volunteers, coaches, riders, parents and carers, but especially to Severnvale Equestrian and their fantastic horses and ponies!
Dr Fiona Davis
Chair - Forest RDA
4/6/25
FOREST RIDING FOR THE DISABLED ASSOCIATION INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST MARCH 2025
| Income | Expenditure | |
|---|---|---|
| Grants | £0.00 Membership |
£200.00 |
| Donations | £2,900.00 Insurance |
£488.69 |
| Easy Fundraising | £104.32 Travel |
£2,379.16 |
| Gift Aid | £0.00 Publicity |
£0.00 |
| Charity Boxes | £32.36 Group Expenses |
£392.55 |
| Travel Donation | £1,366.36 DBS |
£15.85 |
| Fund Raising Events | £1,001.30 Subsidies |
£0.00 |
| Competition entries | £0.00 Equipment |
£1,588.35 |
| Goods Sales | £39.60 Competitions |
£0.00 |
| Subsidies | £0.00 Training |
£0.00 |
| Sedbury Trust | £0.00 Holiday grant |
£0.00 |
| Thriving Communities | £0.00 Wages |
£1,702.50 |
|---|---|---|
| Forest lottery | £630.00 Thank -you Gifts |
£45.00 |
| Net Loss for year | £793.97 Xmas Rosettes |
£55.81 |
| £6,867.91 | £6,867.91 |