## SHIFFORD CARRIAGE DRIVING GROUP RDA 

## CHARITY NUMBER 1208637 

## TRUSTEES REPORT FOR FIRST FINANCIAL PERIOD 

## 12TH JUNE 2024 TO 30 TH NOVEMBER 2025 

Since registration as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 12[th] June 2024 the group has made considerable progress towards becoming established at its new driving venue in Charney Bassett.  At that venue we are kindly hosted by the Godfrey family. 

During the summer of 2024 the venue was assessed by the Riding for Disabled Association as being suitable for RDA Carriage Driving Activities. The two existing ponies were also assessed as suitable for use at the venue. 

The group meets to provide pleasure drives to participants on village roads and off road tracks at the venue, on Wednesday mornings from April to October inclusive, weather dependant 

## Partcipants 

We were able to begin carriage driving with our 5 regular participants in August 2024. Between that date and the end of October 2025 we have delivered 131 individual participant sessions.  We have a waiting list for the 2026 driving season. 

## Volunteers 

We started the year with 2 coaches, 2 trainee coaches and 4 other volunteers. During the course of the year we were able to recruit 3 more volunteers. However, by the end of the year the 2 trainee coaches stepped back for personal reasons. We are actively looking to recruit more volunteers. 

## Coaches 

In June 2025, one of our new volunteers qualified as a coach.  We now have 3 carriage driving coaches 

## Equines 

The group owned pony moved to new accommodation in May 2024.  She is transported to the driving venue on driving days. In January 2025 group funds were used to purchase a mobile field shelter and store for her paddock. She was selected as the RDA Equine of the Year for 2025 and in July 2025 volunteers attended the RDA National Championships at Hartpury to collect her award. 

The 2 other equines used by the group are owned by our Chair and are loaned to the group on driving days.  Group funds are used to pay for their shoeing expenses.  The elder of these equines had to take a break from driving in the late spring of 2025 due to lameness. It is hoped that he will be fit to resume driving in the 2026 season.  The younger of these 



equines passed his RDA assessment in June 2025 and now pulls the 4 wheeled carriage. Therefore, the group now has 3 qualified driving ponies. 

## Fundraising 

In September 2025 our Chair and the younger of her equines (who is a ride and drive) completed the Abingdon RDA Sponsored Ride at Blenheim accompanied by another volunteer on her horse.  Together they raised over £1300 for the group.  Volunteers have commenced giving talks to local interest and community groups and which are also producing donations 

## Other 

In March 2025 the CEO and the Finance Director of RDA UK visited the group. They met with participants and volunteers and enjoyed a carriage drive.  A meeting was then held with group trustees to discuss a historic legacy received by the group and in respect of which it was unclear as to whether the intended beneficiary should be the Shifford Group or RDA UK. The matter was resolved by the group making a donation from those legacy funds to RDA UK.  RDA UK agreed that the donation would be applied towards the development of a carriage driving coaching pathway and practical carriage driving training for the benefit of the association generally. 

## Forward plans for 2026 

Abingdon RDA has kindly agreed to allow the group to use its indoor arena over the winter of 2025/26 for the purpose of familiarising and training the ponies to work with carriages in a ménage and in an indoor environment. It is hoped that this will ultimately lead to the group being able to provide additional activities to participants in the form of driving obstacles, cones and dressage tests. 

The group is also working towards being able to extend activities to long distance driving on the private roads of a local farming estate and to hold an annual picnic drive. 

The trustees are grateful to all of our wonderful volunteers for their time and effort in helping to develop the group. 

The trustees who served for this financial year are:- 

Mrs D Godfrey 

Mrs A Hook 

Mrs C Jessop 

This trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees at the first AGM held on 17[th] February 2026 

D Godfrey                                                                         17[th] February 2026 

....................................................                                   ....................................... 

Mrs D Godfrey Chair.                                                      Dated 



|**Shifford Carriage Driving Group**||**No**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Riding for the Disabled**<br>**Receipts and payments**<br>**For the period**<br>**from**<br>**01-Jun-24**<br>**To**||**30-Nov-25**<br>**1074303**<br>**accounts**||**CC16a**<br>**2022**|




## **Section A Receipts and payments** 

|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest      £**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest      £**|**Restricte**<br>**d funds**<br>**to the**<br>**nearest £**|**Restricte**<br>**d funds**<br>**to the**<br>**nearest £**|**Endowm**<br>**ent funds**<br>**to the**<br>**nearest £**|**Endowm**<br>**ent funds**<br>**to the**<br>**nearest £**|**Total funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**<br>**to the nearest £**|**Last year**<br>**to the**<br>**nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|Grant Coach Training|**165**||||**-**||**165**||**-**|
|RDA Funds|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|Donations Participants|**1,055**||**-**||**-**||**1,055**||**1,191**|
|Donations other|**475**||**-**||**-**||**475**||**827**|
|Fundraising|**1,388**||**-**||**-**||**1,388**||**-**|
|Miscellaneous Income|**462**||**-**||**-**||**462**||**456**|
|Reinvested Dividends|**2,464**||**-**||**-**||**2,464**||**1,418**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Subtotal_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**6,009**||**-**||**-**||**6,009**||**3,892**|
|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**<br>**(see table).**||||||||||
|**Sale of Investments**|**20,500**||||||||**6,000**|
||**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**20,500**||||||||**6,000**|
|**_Total receipts_**<br>**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||||||**9,892**|
|||||||||||
|<br>Field Rent/ Livery|**4,500**||**-**||**-**||**4,500**||**900**|
|PonyHire|**2,600**||||||**2,600**||**-**|
|Feed Merchant|**36**||**-**||**-**||**36**||**491**|
|Hay/Bedding|**367**||**-**||**-**||**367**||**1,461**|
|Farrier|**995**||**-**||**-**||**995**||**1,188**|
|Vet/Dentist|**56**||**-**||**-**||**56**||**595**|
|Transport Ponies|**293**||||||**293**||**89**|
|Coach Training|**165**||||||**165**||**-**|
|RDA Fees|**923**||||||**923**||**639**|
|Insurance Trailer|**112**||**-**||**-**||**112**||**168**|
|Insurance Pony|**665**||||||**665**||**459**|
|Fundraising costs|||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|Miscellaneous|**1,489**||||||**1,489**||**1,038**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**12,201**||**-**||**-**||**12,201**||**7,028**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**<br>**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||
|<br>Reinvestment of earnings|**2,464**||||||||**1,418**|
|<br>Purchase of Assets|**5,500**|||||||||
|Transfer to National Office|**10,000**|||||||||
|Accruals|||||||||**-              761**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**17,964**||||||||**657**|





||**_Total payments_**|**30,165**||**-**|||**-**||**30,165**||**7,685**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**|**-                  3,656**||**-**|||**-**||**-                  3,656**||**2,207**||
|**A5**|**Transfers between funds**|||**-**||**-**|||||**-**||
|**A6**|**Cash funds last year end**|**6,211**||**-**||**-**|||**6,211**||**2,207**||
||**_Cash funds this year end_**|**2,555**||**-**|||**-**||**2,555**||**4,414**||



## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** 

|**Categories**<br>**B2 Other monetary assets**<br>**B5 Liabilities**<br>Signed by one or two trustees on<br>behalf of all the trustees<br>**B3 Investment assets**<br>**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**<br>Barclays Current Account<br>Cash in hand<br>**_Total cash funds_**<br>(agree balances with receipts and<br>payments account(s))<br>**Details**|**Details**<br>Barclays Current Account<br>Cash in hand<br>**_Total cash funds_**<br>(agree balances with receipts and<br>payments account(s))<br>**Details**|**Unrestric**<br>**ted funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Unrestric**<br>**ted funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Endowme**<br>**nt funds**<br>**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||**2,251**||**-**||**-**|
||||**304**||**-**||**-**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||**2,555**||**-**||**-**|
||||||||OK|
||||||||**Endowme**<br>**nt funds**<br>**to nearest £**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**Details**||**Fund to**<br>**which asset**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current**<br>**value**|
||Investment Fund Units||||**-**||**33,367**|
||Property Fund||||**-**||**31,622**|
||**Details**||**Fund to**<br>**which**||**Amount due**<br>**(optional)**||**When due**<br>**(optional)**|
||||||**-**|||
||Signature||Print Name<br>Catherine Jessop|||||
||||||||Date of<br>approval|
||||Catherine Jessop||||17-Feb-26|
|||||||||