We are absolutely delighted to receive a gift of a small pony for our smallest riders. The search for a large pony to buy goes on, with nearly sufficient funds raised, but our smaller ponies are getting older too and the gift of Sanny is a boost.
Sue Arrowsmith, of Sunant Native Pony Stud was looking for a good home for her daughters’ pony which they had outgrown. A chance conversation led her to us, and Bronheulog Royal Samsara arrived at Little Brook in early April. She is a 12 year old Welsh Sec B liver chestnut mare and stands at 12.2 hands. Sanny is also narrow, which makes her perfect for our littlest riders, some of whom have hip dysplasia. She has a lovely temperament and will be working with our riders when term starts again on 20th April.
We are enormously grateful to Sue, who breeds Standard and Miniature Shetlands and Fell and Welsh Section B ponies at her Stud in Lincolnshire.
We are delighted to have been awarded a grant of £3000 towards our annual insurance costs from the Peter Harrison Foundation Community Fund. Based in Reigate, the Foundation was endowed by Peter Harrison KGCN CBE (1937-2021) with the aim of providing opportunities for children and young people with disabilities, helping disabled and disadvantaged young people through sport and providing education to disadvantaged young people.
The grant was facilitated by the Community Fund for Surrey, and we are grateful for their support.
We were delighted to welcome three members of the Sussex Wanderers MG Car Club to the riding sessions this morning where they were able to watch our riders in action. The Club organises 10 ‘drive-outs’ for its members each year, and at each one they pass the pint mug to collect donations for us. This year they raised £2,500 and presented us with the cheque this morning. Another £50 had been donated directly so with gift aid, the total benefit to our funds is £3,187.50. We are very grateful to Ursula who used to be a volunteer for us and who has organised the runs with her late husband for many years, to Andrew, who is about to take over the organisation, and of course to all the members who so kindly dig deep in their pockets every month for us.
We are delighted to have received a grant of £1,500 from the Tandridge Community Foundation towards the cost of a new pony. We sadly lost one of our ponies last year, and are fundraising to buy another larger pony to carry our bigger riders. Tandridge Community Foundation runs the Tandridge Together Lottery, which holds a weekly draw on a Saturday. 60% of each ticket goes to good causes and tickets can be purchased by clicking HERE.
The Foundation arranged for BBC South East to film one of our riding sessions and the short film went out on Friday 30th January on the South East News, at lunchtime and in the evening. Following this we were delighted to receive many donations via our website, totalling an additional £2,254, all of which will go to the pony fund.
We are very grateful to the Tandridge Community Foundation for their support.
MFS Investment Management (UK) have donated a most generous £5,000 to our funds to enable us to continue to help the many children who ride with us each year. We are very grateful to them for their support.
