June Newsletter 2025

Hi Everyone, and welcome to the June newsletter – we thought it was only fitting to have Dan’s picture in this month’s newsletter to mark the passing of a complete legend. Dan was the oldest pony at Anguston (in his 40s) and was a brilliant school pony who was part of our team since 2003 – one of the first ponies Sally bought when ARC started up as a standalone company. Dan had been semi-retired for a couple of years due to his age and then fully retired for the last couple of months having a lovely relaxing time in the field with Dixie. We had noticed Dan getting stiffer and lying down more over a weekend in May, so we made the decision to put him to sleep in a planned euthanasia on a nice sunny day – a dignified end for a brilliant pony, which is what we always wanted for him. Dan will be so sadly missed by us all, but what a legacy he leaves having touched so many people either through teaching them to ride or just generally being a lovely, gentle pony who they could come and meet and feed carrots to. Thank you and RIP Dan!

SUMMER ACTIVITIES

We are looking forward to some great stuff on in the summer holidays! We still have a limited amount of riding spaces on our Dartmoor Dazzlers course (7^th – 10^th July inclusive) and some spaces on Welshie Wizzers (14^th – 17^th July inclusive and 4^th – 7^th August inclusive).

We are also looking forward to running a Leadership awards course on 11^th – 14^th August inclusive which is a non-ridden course aimed at 12–18 year olds – the course works through an award booklet (bronze) and looks at confidence, team work, communication and safe online practice e.t.c – it’s a great course, delivered by our coaches which provides the young people with some great key skills and is also very relevant on entry level C.V.s if they are applying for part time jobs when at school or applying for uni/college. It’s also a great way for the young people to meet and make new friends in a safe environment at the yard so if you are interested in this course then just ask at reception.

MEMBERSHIP FEES

A big thank you to all our members who have renewed their membership during May and returned membership forms to Ali in reception – you make our job much easier by being nice and organised with your forms!

For those who have still to complete their membership renewal, the 31^st May was the cut-off date for the discounted rate for pre-payment so the full fee of £130 (single) and £240 (family) now applies. Please remember that memberships expired on 31^st May so for anyone who has not renewed yet, we need this done prior to your next session. Many thanks!

COUNTRY WAYS

As our members are aware, ARC members are offered a 10% discount at Country Ways stores – previously ARC members have just had to advise that they are members to receive their discount, but Country Ways are changing their policy now and you need to show a card to receive your discount. Ali has now been given cards from Country Ways for those who want one – so do please visit reception to collect a card which you can then either take a photo of on your phone or keep the hard copy for when you visit the store. Cards are only available to paid up Full Members so please do ensure your membership and forms are up to date before requesting your card.

COACHING4ALL

We had a great first training day at ARC working with a group of engaged local coaches (including our very own Sophie!) with Sally and Martin delivering training (through practical sessions) for how the coaches can ensure their sessions are really inclusive for everyone and working with a range of participants with a range of support needs. A huge thank you to all the participants who volunteered their time to “guinea pig” for us and we are really looking forward to the next day of the training in June.

CONGRATULATIONS SOPHIE!

A big fat well done to our team member Sophie who sat and passed her Stage 2 Coach assessment last month. Sophie worked really hard towards her assessment, and we’re delighted with her results – we had applied an extra bit of pressure to poor Sophie as we enrolled her on her Coaching4All assessment (for which the Stage 2 Coach was a pre-requisite J ) but we had faith in Sophie! So, Sophie will now start taking some walkies and working towards her Stage 3 assessment. Sophie is also currently working on her case studies for her Coaching4All qualification, so she is being helped by a couple of very kind members who are taking part in her case study sessions – many thanks to them too!

PRICE REVIEW

We will be doing a lesson price review during June as we look at the year ahead and how costs were over the last 12 months and set lesson fees to ensure that we can continue to provide great sessions for everyone. It may seem like we mention it a lot, but we are always really keen to ensure our members are aware of why we have to implement price increases for sessions and what drives them. Everyone is aware that costs for most things continue to increase quite dramatically – we all see it in our weekly shops, our household bills and everything else.

It is the same for a business and in particular a small one – like ARC. As a not for profit club, any surplus that we make during the financial year is always reinvested/retained within the club assets – there are no shareholders/owners taking dividends out of the company. 2024 – 2025 has seen some fairly hefty cost increases for us which include but are not exhaustive of:

Employee costs – the rise in Employer National Insurance and the reduction in threshold for it has increased our payroll costs substantially since April 2025.

There was also an increase to the National Minimum wage – whilst that doesn’t hugely affect our permanent staff salary bill, there was an 18% increase to the NMW for 16 – 18 year olds and we always try to support younger people by giving them a short shift/late night if they are looking for a part time job around school/uni, so that has led to quite a large increase in cost too.

Our other costs like vet bills, bedding, feed are all up considerably this year – pretty much on a par with what our members will be seeing in their own private purchases, so these things all drive the need for us to review pricing for August each year to ensure the club is still covering it’s anticipated costs. We will keep our members updated as always and advise with plenty of warning of any price increase on any service.