Group Organiser’s report for AGM 2024-5
This has been an unusual year to say the least. Much has been achieved and there is a lot to celebrate. It has been a difficult year in many ways , not least due to the current strangles crisis, of which more later, but also due to the loss of several key volunteers .
We had a very successful Hartpury, winning the usual impressive number of rosettes. Congratulation to Naomi for winning her class championship again, the second year running.
Bovelle Hamelton was presented with the President’s Award by Princess Anne at Hartpury. A fitting end to Bovell’s RDA career of over 30 years service. The Group finally completed the process of Incorporation on May 19[th] . We are now Omagh RDA Ltd, our Trustees have become Directors. It has been a long complicated process, but will give us the benefit of protecting our directors in the event of legal challenge.
After reopening in September, we found ourselves with more participants than ever. We have been riding 6 days/week. We started two groups of ASDAN educational programmes. Omagh High School’s Monday Group, (8) had nearly completed the Animal Care – independent Living programme. The Saturday group have started the Transition Challenge, (10).
We welcomed several new young volunteers, who have been instrumental in keeping sessions going.
Our Christmas Carol concert was very successful, with the choir growing thanks to more singers from local choirs joining us. We thank our choir director Stanley Matthews, and Claire Sharkey for their enthusiasm and hard work.
This performance became part of our Cross Community activities. Thanks to Mary Magee for engaging with the council to enable us to access funding through their Crosscommunity programme.
We held a very successful Quiz Night in March at the Village Inn in Killyclogher. We have continued to work with Claire McGonigal to gain access to her programme using the mechanical horse to benefit our riders.
We were lucky to have Clive Milkins again available to give our riders tuition as a visiting coach.
We congratulate Leona Carson on her epic trip to South America where she raised our flag and £1000 for the group.
Events were dramatically interrupted by the outbreak of the highly infectious equine disease Strangles. This closed the centre immediately it was detected and strict quarantine and infection control brought in. Three horses have been affected and are now fortunately recovering well.
The directors would like to thank the small quarantine crew, who have cared for the horses, cleaned and disinfected so well, no other horses have been infected. It has been a huge commitment.
We have negotiated a pass for our riders to go to Hartpury without doing the Regional qualifiers, as a result of, the outbreak. We will have to have any horse potentially travelling to the Championships tested for strangles prior to travelling. We will remain closed for at least another month.
This financial implications of this closure are serious for the Group. We have lost at least three months income. We will need to look for funding and plan fund raising initiatives to recover from this closure.
We would like to thank Blue Frog/Boyds Bedding for their continued support in providing bedding for the horses. We would also like to thank Omagh High School for their fundraising efforts on our behalf and Coote engineering for their generous donations. Finally thank you to our volunteers, riders and families for their hard work in running the Group and in fund raising.