History - Aberdeen Riding Club

1993

The Club registers as a company with Companies House. Begins as a company on paper only to take advantage of current VAT legislation. Board of directors consists of directors of profit making parent company. Sally begins work as a training student at the parent company.

1994

The Club continues to run as a company, however, membership is now offered to regular riders as a way to save if riding frequently.

1995

Membership slowly increases, although it is still not a requirement. Sally completes BHS PTT and becomes a junior instructor.

1996

The Club begins to restructure due to changes in VAT legislation. A new board of directors (including Sally) is voted on as no parent company directors are now permitted to be on the board of a non-profit making company. Although unaware of it at the time, this is the start of the Club taking on a separate identity and moving away from the parent company.

Members: 30-50

1997

The board of directors discuss the Club becoming a true non-profit making members club. This is driven fairly hard by Sally who has a huge belief in making riding more affordable for all. At this point it is still a pipe dream as the company is not financially viable and still relies heavily on the parent company to provide horses/tack and facilities.

Members: 50-70

Turnover: £120,000

1998 - 2000

The board of directors begins to develop the club mentality by offering educational club nights for members, investing heavily in staff training and drawing up future plans for the company. The year 2000 ends with Sally passing her BHS Stage 4 and being appointed Club Manager. She now works fully for the club rather than the parent company. Sally is tasked with turning around the company finances as it has been in a loss-making position since it began.

Members: 70-100

Turnover: £150,000

Assets Purchased: 2 saddles.

2003

The Club makes the monumental decision to relocate after it receives a resounding 80% agreement from its surveyed membership base. This involves moving to the new premises at Oldfold Farm, decising on the new company name of Aberdeen Riding Club and designing a new logo for the company. ARC goes on to amalgamate with a smaller existing riding school at Oldfold and successfully retains its membership base on relocation.

The Club also unveils a new management system (including health and safety policies) which is believed to be unique within the horse industry in Scotland. Sally gains her BHS Stable Managers’ qualification.

Members: 180

Turnover: £180,000

Assets Purchased: 1 arena leveller; 1 set of showjumps.

2004

The Club gains BHS “Where to Ride” approval and successfully tenders to provide the riding facility for Aberdeen College Horse Management Course. This is a great achievement for the Club as it is the first time the horse management course has changed providers since the course began.

Members: 200

Turnover: £200,000

Assets Purchased: computer; new logo; company name.

2005 - 2006

The company has a quiet 2005 settling into the new premises and is then given a golden opportunity in 2006 to secure the lease at Oldfold Farm in their own name. By the end of 2006 the Club has signed a lengthy lease, has purchased its own horses and equipment and is now truly an independent company that is in control of its own future and can start to implement many schemes to reduce the cost of riding and training.

Members: 250

Turnover: £230,000

Assets Purchased: 20 horses/ponies; 20 sets of tack; 1 tractor; 1 fuel tank; 35 outdoor rugs.

2007

The Club applies for and is granted £10000 from a sports’ trust, which is used to put in a new all-weather outdoor arena. The Club gains Pony Club, ABRS and the prestigious BHS “Where to Train” approval. This year the Club is also approached by Robert Gordon University to become a provider of their riding instruction, which is the start of a great relationship with the university.

The Club is delighted to offer to become the new facility for the Riding for the Disabled (RDA Aberdeen) group. It allows the Club the opportunity to heavily subsidise the horse hire costs to such a great charity.

Members: 300

Turnover: £240,000

Assets Purchased: New arena surface; toilet building; 3 competition level horses for staff training and advanced lessons.

2008

The Club reaches a milestone in funding the 100th exam for a student. The year the Club gains rates relief from Aberdeen City Council due to non-profit making status. The first Club foal is born (Aria). New staff caravan accommodation is sourced and the Club makes its first own haylage crop.

Members: 350

Turnover: £250,000

Assets Purchased: 2 saddles; 4 horses.

2009

The Club becomes a BHS approved livery yard as well as riding school. £3500 worth of work is carried out to field drains and drainage in the sand paddock is improved. The Club makes 200 bales of haylage. It is decided that the Club will form a members’ committee. The whole yard is repainted and some new surface is put down in the big school. The assessment system is revamped. The Club gains 75% rates relief from Aberdeen City Council.

Members: 390

Turnover: £298,000

Assets Purchased: 1 horse; 3 saddles.

2011

The Club gains “highly commended” status in the BHS inspection and an excellent report from the council inspection. The Club starts to provide some free riding/stable management for local charities and young people who benefit from it. The X-Country course is designed for use by members and “bumps” and a X-country bank are built for extra jumping schooling.

Members: 450

Turnover: £330,000

Assets Purchased: X-Country course; full set of showjumps.

2012

The Club is awarded “outstanding performance” for riding school and livery yard by the BHS. We believe we are the only riding school and livery yard combination to be awarded this honour in the North East of Scotland, possibly even throughout the whole of Scotland. The council and veterinary inspections of the club’s annual licence also notes us as “outstanding”.

Members: 450

Turnover: £330,000

Assets Purchased: New rugs for ever school horse/pony; shower bay for livery yard; 2 horses Koko and Henry; ownership of 2 livery horses – Boyo and Yogi.

2013

The Club found a new farm, negotiated and signed a new twenty-five-year lease. The Club took on ten additional livery horses and purchased four new saddles for the riding school. This year Sid receives a trophy after being voted “Animal Hero of the Year” as part of the RBS – Finding Scotland’s Real Heroes awards.

Members: 450

Turnover: £350,000

Assets Purchased: 4 saddles; 1 horse, Cracker.

2014

The Club found a new farm, negotiated and signed a new twenty-five-year lease. The Club took on ten additional livery horses and purchased four new saddles for the riding school. This year Sid receives a trophy after being voted “Animal Hero of the Year” as part of the RBS – Finding Scotland’s Real Heroes awards.

Members: 450

Turnover: £350,000

Assets Purchased: 4 saddles; 1 horse, Cracker.

2015

The Club achieves planning permission for a new facility at Nether Anguston Farm and begins fundraising in earnest. No big assets are purchased in 2015 as the Club has to finance the planning application (£21000) and associated professional fees. As part of the Club’s fundraising efforts, in December 2015, ARC hosts a “Pony Pantomime” version of Cinderella with a relocation-themed twist.

Members: 450

Turnover: £360,000

Assets Purchased: 1 horse, Tess.

2016

ARC is granted £200,000 following a lottery application but respectfully turns this down due to having new investors in the project at Nether Anguston. Later this year ground is broken at Nether Anguston Farm and building works begin for the new ARC facility. Fundraising efforts continue within the Club and ARC hosts a successful Race Night, “Strictly-Come-Prancing” dressage event and summer show. A few of our members and staff were sponsored to participate in “Glack-Attack-Halloween”, a five kilometre nightime obstacle run.

Members: 400

Turnover: £380,000

Assets Purchased: 1 horse, Betsy.

2017

The club moves to the new facility at Nether Anguston – the end result of years of hard work. This is an unprecedented move for a not for profit organization in equestrianism. The club is “highly commended” by the British Horse Society and gains its RDA Accessibility Centre Mark. Members fundraising over the last 2 years now tops £80,000 which is a remarkable achievement for a sports club. We sign our new 25 year lease with the Trades Widows Fund of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.

Members: 400

Turnover: £430,000

Assets Purchased: 3 horses – Bertha, Harry and Secret and a set of arena eventing fences.

2018

The club settles into life at the new premises at Nether Anguston and Laura becomes a Stage 3 coach. We become a BHS Assessment centre and our new website launched.

Members: 400

Turnover: £440,000

Assets Purchased: 2x new Patriot jump saddles (£1900 each), 3 new showjumps and fillers, Equipment for BHS Assessments (double bridles/bandaging equipment and some 5 point breastplates).

2019

The club has to start a wait list for the first time due to demand outweighing availability (we are very strict with limits on the work that our horses can do). We also tender to provide the practical provision for a new start up course with SRUC (HNC/D in Equine Studies) and we run several BHS assessments. We also welcomed Seth and Mario – two horses rehomed to us through the BHS “Second Chance” scheme where rescue horses at the RSPC rescue centres are rehomed into BHS riding centres.

Members: 400

Turnover £460,000

Assets purchased:

Jump for Joy arena event fences, Mr T (our lovely school horse), Brewster (our lovely school pony), Ozzy 1 and Ozzy 2 (school ponies.

2020

We start 2020 by being awarded the SRUC contract to work in partnership with the college to deliver the Equine Studies course and agree to delay the start date by 12 months to ensure the college has everything in place to run the course (good decision it turned out!)

Covid then hits the UK and we enter a very worrying time for riding schools – between lock downs and travel restrictions, we need to be very agile and diversify our income source quickly. We immediately role out Wifi capability throughout the building, enabling us to provide online training and educational sessions during lock down. Half our staff team are furloughed and the remaining half work hard throughout lockdown to care for all the horses. We then have a staggered return to the public coming on site again and take the opportunity to reduce our group lesson numbers to 6 per class (whilst keeping price the same). Between government support grants, our income diversification, a lease holiday from our generous landlords and strict cost control, we weather the storm and come through the other side of Covid, sadly not all riding schools did. We provided a 6 month membership free period for all members as a response to Covid and lockdowns.

Turnover: £450,000

Membership: 400

Assets purchased: Ricky (school horse), Chester (school dressage horse) dressage saddle (£1800)

2021

We start the unique (in the UK) course with SRUC which proves incredibly popular. Ten students are enrolled on the first year of the course and are the lucky ones who benefit from our coaches lecturing on the course for all the practical delivery and working alongside SRUC lecturers who provide the theory aspect of the course. Still recovering from Covid, there are a couple of mini lockdowns, but we are now used to them and function through them well. We put out a survey to all our members and external stakeholders to help us shape future strategy and it is a huge piece of work looking at the responses and collating it all.

Turnover: £480,000

Members: 400

New Assets purchased: New indoor arena surface.

2022

2 of our coaches (Laura and Sally) qualify in BHS Coaching4All certificate – an inclusive coaching award. We welcome Deeside RDA to our facility on a Thursday morning after they lost their previous premises. Sally and Liam qualify in RDA Group coach certificate in order that we can provide a coach for Deeside RDA. The club board implement a “price freeze”, using the surplus the club built up during 2021 to cover rapidly increasing costs. This was a bold move by club directors in the middle of a cost of living crisis, but shows our commitment to addressing economic barriers to participation.

New assets purchased: Cavaletti stands, some additional arena eventing fences and one new school saddle.

Turnover: £480,000

Membership: 400

2023

Another coach (Liam) achieves his BHS Coaching4All certificate and we start our pilot of BHS Changing Lives Through Horses programme with an individual student. The individual is a wheelchair user, so allows us to ensure we are providing a fully accessible course. For more info on Changing Lives please

visit:
https://www.bhs.org.uk/support-us/our-campaigns/changing-lives-through-horses/

The club starts the final year of the SRUC contract (2023 Summer intake) and the board starts to plan forward with more equine facilitated learning offering including BHS Leadership Awards, for 12 – 18 year olds to learn some key skills which will help them with volunteering and progressing to higher education or the workplace.

New assets purchased: Flynn.

Turnover: £490.000

Membership; 400

2024

Club develops their provision of Changing Lives Through Horses – an alternative Education provision developed by The British Horse Society, providing group sessions for three Aberdeen City Academies weekly during term time. ARC also becomes a pilot centre for the BHS Everyone Welcome programme which includes becoming a training centre for the Coaching4All inclusive coaching qualification.

A huge achievement and landmark for the club is when “Murphy” is purchased – a Racewood Grand Prix dressage and RDA simulator. The purchase of Murphy was possible due to a very kind donation from a member family and support from our landlords – The Trades Widows Fund of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen. After staff training, Murphy is rolled out to club members for lessons in September and then to wider groups in October including local equine professionals being trained in how to use Murphy to enable them to hire him to deliver sessions for their own participants.

New Assets Purchased: Murphy (simulator), a new field roller and several new bridles.

Members: 400

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