In June we welcomed volunteers from SES Water’s Give A Day scheme, where employees are given a day off each year to volunteer for a local charity. Our gallery in the indoor school, where the children are fitted with boots and wait to mount, gets fairly heavy wear and was in dire need of a spruce up. We provided the brushes and paint and the lovely ladies from SES Water set to. Most of the paint went on the walls and ceiling, but we hope the team were wearing their oldest clothes. The gallery now looks fantastic and we are very grateful to the volunteers and to SES Water for giving them the day off.
Dengie Horse Feeds are the leading manufacturer of fibre-based horse feeds, and Royal Warrant Holders to the late Queen Elizabeth II. Last year they were voted the UK’s favourite fibre based horse feed, having topped the 2023 National Equestrian Survey.
Through our contacts at the RWHA, Dengie very kindly donated to us £300 of vouchers for their feeds. Our ponies who work so hard for us deserve the very best, and have been enjoying their premium nosh. Even little Star might grow a bit! Thank you Dengie.
We now have the funds to buy a new pony following receipt of the most generous donation from the Gatwick Airport Community Trust. GACT have donated £3,500 towards our pony fund – all we have to do now is find a pony! Our RDA ponies are very special and it can be hard to find a pony with just the right temperament and of the right size. We are actively looking and hope to be able to report back soon with news of success. In the meantime we are very grateful to GACT for their grant which topped up our pony fund to £10,100.
Our friends at Lingfield Park Racecourse were kind enough to let us collect money at their Race Day on Friday 5th April. It was a very chilly blustery day, but racegoers were kind enough to put their hands in their pockets and put £433 in total into our buckets. Our patron, Dame Judi Dench, was in attendance to present a prize to a race winner and support our cause. Thank you to Judi, to our bucket collectors and to Steph for the photos.
The Sussex Wanderers MG Car Club enjoy monthly outings during the summer months, and each time their generous members put money into a pot to donate to us. In 2023 they excelled themselves, raising a fantastic £2,150 for us, which with £518 Gift Aid we can reclaim makes a total of £2,668 for our funds. We really appreciate their support and wish them well for happy outings in 2024.
