July Newsletter 2025

Hi Everyone and welcome to the July newsletter! We can’t believe it’s July already and that’s the kids on summer holidays – but hopefully some nice sunshine and good weather for them whilst they are off!

PONY STARS

Our Pony Stars ridden groups are all full for the summer holidays, but we still have some availability on the grooming only sessions from 10.00a.m – 12.00p.m on the weeks that the Pony Stars are on so if you are still looking for some fun activities in the holidays, then drop reception an email or pop in and ask Ali what availability there is. We also still have some space on our Leadership Awards course which runs from 11^th – 14^th August inclusive from 10.00a.m – 2.00p.m and is a non-ridden course aimed at participants aged between 12 and 18, which covers all sorts of great key skills for that age group – communication, teamwork and confidence – it’s a great way for that age group to build their confidence and meet new pals at the yard, so if you have a young person in that age group who might like a summer activity then again just ask at reception.

COACHING4ALL

A huge thank you to all our members who kindly volunteered to be guinea pig riders for our recent Coaching4All training days. Coaching4All is an inclusive coaching qualification for coaches who are already qualified and working with riders but want to increase their knowledge and skills coaching underrepresented groups. Sally and Martin were the course tutors for the course and covered a huge range of topics from different equipment coaches can use to make sessions more accessible, through to horse selection and the most important part of all – communication. It was lovely to work with a group of five engaged coaches for the two days – which included our very own Sophie!

PRICE REVIEW

As advised in previous newsletters, we have carried out our price review and will be implementing an increase on some sessions from 1^st August 2025. We work really hard to keep riding lesson prices as low as possible, but as everyone will be aware, the cost of everything is still creeping up and this includes supplies and services we need to keep our horses in such good condition. The main things that we are seeing price increases on this year (many above 10%) are:

• Vets fees
• Insurance
• Sundry items (stationary/hand towels and soap e.t.c)
• Payroll – we have seen a big increase to our payroll figures this year due to the increase in Employers National Insurance contributions and the increase in National Minimum Wage, which has a knock-on effect across all our salary bands.

As ARC is a not-for-profit club, our task is to ensure our pricing covers our costs and that we have a small surplus some years to reinvest back into the club for equipment/horses e.t.c.

So, the increases as of 1^st August will be:

Group lessons – an increase of £3 on a group lesson.

Private lessons – we are capping peak time private lessons with no increase this year.

Off peak private lessons will be increased by £2 per lesson – off peak is before 4p.m Mon – Thursday

Simulator lessons – increase of £3 per session.

Walkies – increase of £3 per session.

We are pleased to have been able to keep our increases below 10% for those services that we have had to implement a price increase for and as you are aware, we have not increased membership prices for over 4 years now. As with previous increases we are extending block booking card expiry dates to 6 months during July which means that any regular group lesson rider can take advantage of the discounted rate of block booking cards by buying more block booking sessions before 1^st August at the old prices.

For those of you who are paying week to week, please remember that we offer block booking cards and standing order payment methods, which provide a range of discounts depending on type of prepayment – so if you are paying week to week, it may well be worth considering a different type of payment method to benefit from the saving with that.

If anyone has any questions around pricing, you are always welcome to drop Sally an email or catch her on the yard – Sally is responsible for income/cost control at ARC so she is always happy to answer any questions you may have.

HORSE SEARCH!

The search for horses both for the school and for some of our members goes on! Sally visited Cavan last month for the performance sales, but unfortunately whilst there were lots of nice horses there, the prices for the types that we need were very high and would have meant far too much risk with club funds to make the purchases at a sale. It’s a very challenging time to be trying to find horses at the moment – whilst we’re happy to pay market value for horses and ponies both for the school and for our members, we do need these horses to be sound and happy and able to pass a vet check for their heart and eyes (school) and a 2 or 5 stage vetting for our members. We are looking for everything from small ponies through to bigger weight carrying horses and we offer a lovely home for life with the best of care – so if anyone knows of any horses for sale feel free to let us know!

THANK YOU!

A big thank you to two groups of members this newsletter! Firstly, to our younger members who all kindly volunteered to come and help with the pony rides for our landlords BBQ/fun day – you were all a brilliant help and made the day really fun for the young people who were enjoying the rides – what a brilliant group of young members, that we are all very proud of (and we’re sure your parents are too!).

Secondly to our members who have volunteered to do some driving for Project Mario to ensure the young people can get to ARC for their sessions – Befriend a Child are in close contact with us and we have pushed the start date by a couple of weeks to ensure the charity can get all the PVG details back in before the first session starts but we are all really looking forward to it – so a big thank you for helping out with what we’re sure will be a brilliant opportunity for these young people.