February Newsletter 2025

Hi Everyone and welcome to Februarys newsletter! We thought Cyrus could be the picture for this month as he is very pleased to be back in work and doing some lessons after quite a lengthy time off with a foot abscess and then an unfortunate case of swelling in his “male region” due to him standing in with a foot abscess. He is very relieved to report that both his foot and his more sensitive area are back to normal now! He also managed to cut his eye (in his stable!) one morning when he was waiting to be turned out – so he is a perfect example this month of how much horses like to try to injure themselves or get strange conditions and test our equine health knowledge!

EASTER PONY STARS

Sorry we are a bit late getting info out for the Easter Pony Stars – we’ve been a bit pushed on yards with the weather recently.

Below are the dates that we will be running Pony Stars courses in the holidays – bookings will open for them on Monday 10^th February at 10.00am.

The “riding option” of Pony Stars (both weeks) runs from 10a.m – 2p.m and includes an hours riding lesson and costs £225. The non riding Pony Stars (both courses) runs from 10a.m – 12p.m and costs £35 per day. If any participants don’t yet have a Pony Stars pack for the appropriate level, then the pack costs £25 in addition (pack includes good book, stickers, bag e.t.c.)

Dartmoor Dazzlers – Mon 31^st March – Thurs 3^rd April (inclusive). This level is for new participants to Pony Stars, those who are working through Dartmoor Dazzlers and stable management and for riders from beginner to starting to canter.

Welshie Wizzers –  Mon 7^th April – Thurs 10^th April (inclusive) This level is for participants who have completed Dartmoor Dazzlers and are signed off through it and are riding independently in canter.

We take 6 children on the Dartmoor Dazzlers ridden course and unlimited on the grooming only section and we take 8 children on the Welshie Wizzers course as our priority is as always that the children get plenty of support both on the ground and in the riding lessons, so do please be aware that these spaces do fill up quickly and you would be advised to try to make a booking as close to 10.00a.m as possible on the Monday.

NEWSLETTER/SOCIAL MEDIA

A reminder this month that we have a sign up option to receive our newsletter meaning you get it delivered electronically directly to your email when it is sent out. If you would like to access the newsletter this way then go to our website and click on “sign up to our newsletter”. We only ever send out the monthly newsletter – no marketing or promotional information so you are safe from junk emails with us!

We also have a closed Facebook page for members (or parents of younger riders) which we use to advertise lesson cancellation slots which have become available or to update on weather/lesson cancellations at this time of year. If you would like to join the group then if you search for “ARC members page” on Facebook and send a request to join – you are asked a couple of security questions initially and then your request to join will be sent to us to approve. It’s a great way to keep up to date with things if you use Facebook.

OFF TO IRELAND!

Sally is off to Cavan performance sales in Ireland at the end of February to hunt for a new school horse. We have provisionally purchased a new pony which you will hopefully be able to read about on our Facebook page soon, but we are going to Ireland to look for a more educated/bigger horse. Going to Cavan sales is always a great experience, but Sally needs eyes in the back of her head both to view/assess all the horses but also to ensure they are the right type for the riding school so don’t be surprised if you see her looking a little “tired” when she returns at the end of February!

EMAIL COMMS

We are always happy to receive email communications for our members about bookings/lesson payments/lesson queries, but do please be aware that Ali is off Friday-Sunday each week and we are closed on a Friday, so do please be aware that if you need to contact us on a Friday or over weekend about a lesson at the weekend, we often won’t see the email until Monday. Ali’s emails are set up with an auto response detailing this and advising to call if your query is regarding a lesson/something urgent over weekend – so please where possible in this situation give us a ring and leave a message on the answering machine which means we will get the message. As a general rule, emails are best for bookings in advance and requests more than 48 hours away/less urgent – if your query is more urgent then do please give us a ring.

CHANGING LIVES THROUGH HORSES

Our Changing Lives provision is growing really well with another new school now looking to start a weekly group session. The programme is working really well with the participants that we have enrolled on it with great development in their key skills being noted and the young people finding real benefit from the programme and developing their confidence well. We have also been able to use some of the homework that we get the young people to do to provide their school with some examples of written work towards literacy qualifications so it has all been really positive.

The Changing Lives through Horses is a programme designed to engage young people who are at risk of disengaging (or already disengaged) with Education – it is a structured educational programme delivered by our coaches who have done additional training to coach the course and whilst we can work directly with schools to take referrals, we can also take private referrals from parents or other referring organisations so if you would like to ask anything about the Changing Lives programme then just get in touch with Sally.

WELCOME TINO!

We have recently purchased a new pony for the riding school – “Tino” is a 14h.h. piebald 14 year old cob gelding who’s “fancy” name is Valentino, but he will be called Tino for short as he’s used to this name. We met Tino when we posted on our public page that we were looking for riding school horses and ponies and Tinos owner got in touch to tell us about him. Tino has a lot of experience – he has been owned by the same family for five years and was their first pony, then was on loan to another young rider as their first pony for last couple of years. He has previously been in a riding school environment and worked with another Scottish RDA group so he certainly has the right CV to be a valued member of the team at ARC and work with our beginner/novice and therapy riders.

Tino arrived on Tuesday this week and went into a wee isolation field as is our biosecurity policy. He had a guttural pouch flush on Wednesday (to check he isn’t a strangles carrier) and the results came back as negative so he will now have a quiet couple of weeks settling into ARC and doing a little bit of work with Sophie before appearing in some lessons with you guys.

Tinos owner was keen for him to come to ARC as it’s fairly widely known that our horses are very valued members of our team who not only have the best of healthcare, but also have a home for life at ARC once they have joined the team which gave his owners peace of mind that he would have a good secure knowledgeable home. Welcome to the team Tino – we’re all really looking forward to getting to know you!