Chairman’s report
Chairman’s report – December 3[rd] 2025
Firstly, a warm welcome to you all and thank you for coming today.
A lot has happened during the past 14 months since our last AGM, and sadly I have to report that during that time we have lost 4 of our longstanding participants – Neil Wyshall, Anne Dunham, Christopher Amery and very recently David Harries. All four had been with the group for many years.
We have had two changes to our Trustee Group – Anne Oliver has retired as Treasurer, Anne has been looking after the groups’ accounts for over 10 years and has done marvellous job keeping our finances under control and doing the annual accounts for which we are very grateful. Thank you Anne.
Pat Putland has also retired. Pat has driven with the group for many, many years and has been our Participant Representative for a long time. Pat has now decided that getting to and from Lockeridge is too difficult for her, but I would like to thank her for her excellent input into the group, both from her knowledge of all things equine and from a Disabled person’s point of view.
Our main activity during the last year has been focused on our endeavours to find a new horse.
Rubie, who came from Ireland, and arrived in a very sorry state – emaciated and distressed, whether as a result of her difficult journey from Ireland with the storms or from maltreatment at the hands of the dealer we will never know. We looked after her and cared for her over the winter but it was agreed that she was too traumatised to be considered suitable for RDA. We were very fortunate in that a home was found for her locally with Lissie and Mark (who are joining us for lunch today) and now she has been sold to a mother and son who are enjoying riding her.
Reinette went to the Blue Cross in Burford in March and, as far as we know, has been re-homed as a companion horse.
Drummer had a wonderful year of retirement in Lockeridge, being extremely well cared for by volunteers and his expenses being covered by monies put into his Pension Account, managed very efficiently by Gus, Maggie and Trish. Very many thanks to everyone who contributed to this fund. Drummer has now gone to the Blue Cross and is hopefully having a happy time.
Donny continues to be a star and being our only horse at present has plenty of work – Tuesday and Thursday with our participants, and weekend drives with the Whips who are also training several volunteers who would like to become Whips.
Our new horse, Johnny, came in June and has been in training at Grayswood since then. He is coming on really well and all our Whips have been down to have training sessions with him under Sam and Roger’s instruction. There has been some ‘discussion’ as to when he can be used with participants. RDA National Office having re-written their carriage driving Manual in September of this year have changed the minimum age for driving horses from 5 to 6. Johnny being 5 when we bought him in June – the information on the RDA website then was that the minimum age was 5. There has also been some discussion as to the correct birth date for horses – thoroughbreds always have a birth date of Jan. 1[st] and so do horses in the
northern hemisphere, but National Office don’t seem to agree with this. However, the trustees have decided to bring Johnny to Lockeridge in January and continue his training there, and once he has been assessed successfully we will be able to take on more participants.
At this point I would like to express my thanks, on behalf of everyone, to Sam, Roger and Modris from Grayswood. They have all been incredibly helpful and supportive to the group over the past year, helping us to buy a horse, training Johnny and the whips, and giving training and harnessing lessons to our volunteers. We all very much appreciate their knowledge and support. Thank you.
Chrissie has given you a very comprehensive report on our finances and fundraising. The group is in a reasonably healthy position financially at present but we do need to keep up our fundraising.
We have been very fortunate in being joined by several new helpers this year and we are immensely grateful to them and all our volunteers who give so much time, thought and expertise to the group.
Finally I would just like to thank everyone for their contribution to the group – from caring for the horses and liaising with the Lampards, organising the driving on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekend rota, for help with the setting up of the website and keeping it up to date, for help with fundraising, and here I would particularly like to thank the 12 volunteers who gamely hosted the bridge day – not one of them knowing anything about the game of bridge, but who smiled gallantly through all the hiccups - for the making of tea and coffee and providing cakes and biscuits, for the chauffeuring of participants, poo-picking, keeping the yard tidy, mending and caring for the harnesses and carriages, fencing etc. etc. I could go on and on, but would just like to say a big thank you to you all.
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