# **THE ROSSWAY GROUP Riding for the Disabled Association Incorporating Carriage Driving**
**(** Registered under charity number 1188574 “the Group”)
**Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2023**
## **1. Administrative details**
The Trustees are pleased to present their annual report of Rossway Group Riding for the Disabled Association incorporating Carriage Driving (“Rossway RDA”, “the Group”), charity number 1188574 registered at Shardeloes Farm Equestrian Centre, Cherry Lane, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 0QF.
The Trustees who served during the year to 31 March 2023 were:
Irene Purse Richard Allison Vivienne Bryan Heather James Malcolm Elderfield Hazel Rymer Christopher Wilton (appointed 28 November 2022) Caroline Hunt (resigned 28 November 2022) Sarah Embleton-Smith (resigned 28 November 2022)
Hazel Rymer and Vivienne Bryan will retire by rotation at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 28 November 2023 and will seek re-election. Trustees are recruited from our group of volunteers with consideration taken of any specialist skills they may bring to this important governance role. They are invited to stand as a Trustee, will have the role and responsibilities explained to them and will be nominated and seconded at the AGM.
## **2. Structure, governance and management**
Rossway RDA is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation incorporated under its Constitution dated 16 March 2020.
## **3. Objectives and activities**
Rossway RDA was incorporated to promote the objects of The Riding for The Disabled Association incorporating Carriage Driving, a national charity registered under charity number 244108, by providing disabled people with the opportunity to ride and or carriage drive to benefit their health and well-being in the vicinities of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.
In accordance with the guidelines as per above, Rossway RDA’s aim is to give children and adults who have physical or cognitive difficulties the opportunity to learn to ride in a fun, safe and relaxed way. The Group upholds the strict guidelines as laid down in the Constitution and the Trustees are satisfied that the Group provides a useful public benefit and operates in accordance with the objectives.
## **4. Achievements and performance**
To support our riders, the Group has a team of around 20 regular volunteers who include six qualified coaches and two coaches in training. Volunteers and coaches receive training at least annually, and coaches complete annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and are reassessed every three years. All coaches and, where appropriate, volunteers keep up to date with required training including safeguarding, first aid and are DBS checked. Rossway RDA currently has 17 individual riders plus a group of five riders from a local secondary school that caters for children with severe and multiple learning difficulties riding each week. Other groups attend special sessions where more support can be given than in the weekly class lessons. Groups supported by a local charity for vulnerable and marginalised adults enjoy stable management type sessions and we have held sessions for non-riders where gymkhana games, leading the ponies from a wheelchair, provide much needed therapy and pleasure.
To accommodate the growing waiting list of riders, it was decided to increase the number of available ponies through purchase and where possible loan agreements. The Fundraising Committee have secured significant grants and donations for the purchase of and for the ongoing vet costs of the existing and new ponies.
There have been some changes to our horses over the past year. Hector was purchased in 2022 and was a great asset for some of our riders. However, in May 2023, we exchanged him for Pippin, a larger seven-yearold bay cob mare and this has been a huge success, bringing additional income from her sharer and offering more flexibility for our riders. Pippin is suitable for slightly larger riders than Hector but is small enough for children too. In August 2023 we acquired Darcy, a seven-year-old black cob mare who is also sturdy enough for our larger riders. We will be taking a smaller pony on loan, Katy May, in the autumn. These new ponies will provide the flexibility to offer more riders the opportunity to learn and gradually they will take over the duties of the older ponies once they retire. Our oldest, Coco, shows no signs of needing to do that just yet however. We now have a good range of ponies to accommodate both children and adults. Our horses are Diesel, Darcy & Pippin for the larger
riders and Molly, Coco, Hetty & Katy May are the ponies for our smaller riders. The last four of these are the oldest of our herd. We are also fortunate to have access to two other horses, Bazz and Bella when needed.
Acquiring more horses means we can look to reduce our waiting list and we will be moving towards six riders per lesson where it is appropriate. This is where we are fortunate to have good coaching numbers as we can allocate two per lesson. RDA nationally is extremely popular and referrals from GPs and physiotherapists are becoming more common. Waiting lists can be very long, which is discouraging for those in need. Rossway RDA aims to help as many children and adults as possible through riding and stable management sessions.
To acknowledge donors publicly and so that new volunteers and riders can find out more about Rossway RDA and apply online, we have developed a new website. A pre-release version will be available to view after the AGM.
## **5. Financial review**
**Current account balance at 31 March 2023: £4,731 (31 March 2022: £1,527) Savings account balance at 31 March 2023: £ 22,247 (31 March 2022: £12,085)**
The Trustees’ reserves policy is to retain sufficient funds to meet significant vet fees and to purchase new horses as the current ones are retired. To support this policy, the Fundraising Committee have raised funds which have reversed the losses made in recent years and enabled the Group to purchase another pony in 2023. The target for the Fundraising Committee is to raise £6,000-£8,000 per annum which, with increased rider income, will enable the Group to continue to meet its objectives.
## **To be signed on behalf of the Trustees:**
## **Hazel Rymer and Vivienne Bryan**
## **28[th] January 2024**
||**The Rossway Group Riding for the Disabled Association Inc**|**The Rossway Group Riding for the Disabled Association Inc**|**The Rossway Group Riding for the Disabled Association Inc**|**The Rossway Group Riding for the Disabled Association Inc**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period from**|1-Apr-22|**To**|||
|||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|**to the nearest £**
**A1 Receipts**
Donations
**11,726**
Ride money
**8,125**
Bank interest
**263**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,114**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 20,114**
**A3 Payments**
Hire of facilities
**4,359**
Tack
**50**
Vet fees
**1,080**
RDA insurance
**460**
Ponyinsurance
**384**
New horse
**-**
Sundries
**415**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ 6,748**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total payments_ 6,748**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 13,366**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**13,612**
**_Cash funds this year end_ 26,978**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||**to the nearest £**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**11,726**
**8,125**
**263**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**20,114**|**2,123**|
||||||**4,304**|
||||||**7**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**6,434**|
|||||||
|||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**||
||||||**-**|
||||||**-**|
|||||||
|||**-**|**-**|**20,114**|**6,434**|
|||||||
|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**4,359**
**50**
**1,080**
**460**
**384**
**-**
**415**
**-**
**-**
**6,748**|**3,632**|
||||||**43**|
||||||**4,148**|
||||||**366**|
||||||**288**|
||||||**5,000**|
||||||**71**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**13,548**|
|||||||
|||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**||
|||||||
||||||**-**|
|||||||
|||**-**|**-**|**6,748**|**13,548**|
|||||||
|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**13,366**
**-**
**13,612**
**26,978**|**- 7,114**|
||||||**-**|
||||||**13,612**|
||||||**6,498**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|**Details**
Current account
Deposit account
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature
Richard Allison
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**4,731**
**-**
**22,247**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**26,978**
**-**
OK
OK
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Richard Allison
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||Richard Allison|Richard Allison|1/2/2024|
|||||