October Newsletter 2025
Hi everyone and welcome to the October newsletter! Hercules is the star of the newsletter this week – a new addition to the ARC team – more about him and…
Welcome to the November newsletter – where we’re apologising now as we’ll need to mention Xmas we know it seems early, but it’s definitely creeping closer!
PROJECT MARIO
The pic for this month is of the participants on Project Mario enjoying the last lesson in their course. Project Mario was a great success – it ran for eleven weeks, with young people who were referred onto the programme by Befriend a Child. The young people attended for two hours each Saturday morning and took part in horse care/management sessions, a riding session and leadership award training – all as part of our pilot project as a BHS Everyone Welcome Centre. As a pilot centre, we were tasked with working with an underrepresented group and our staff picked those from a low socio-economic household as the group they wanted to work with. A huge thank you to our members who stepped forward and volunteered to transport the young people to and from their sessions – it was hugely appreciated! Hopefully we have helped them all learn that horses can be accessible, and they are always welcome to come and visit the horses and members at ARC.
SAVE THE DATE!
We started a new group of Leadership Award participants over the Summer, and they have been attending weekly sessions since then. As part of their Bronze level award, the participants are encouraged to run a small fundraiser for a charity of their choice and our staff support them through designing their fundraiser and at the event.
So, the group have decided that they would like to run a festive fun session at ARC on Friday 19th December (likely a 5.00pm start) and they are hoping to run a hobby horse jumping competition (we will provide hobby horses), a raffle and some fun stalls/activities on the evening. The group are still at the “design” stage with it, so we will confirm activities, prices and raffle prizes in the coming weeks on our social media pages but do please try to keep an hour or so free on that date to come along for some Xmas fun and support a great group of young people with their fundraiser.
MADGE AND HERCULES
A wee update on our two new equine team members – both Hercules and Madge continue to be a pair of stars. Hercules did some work with Kaci one of our junior riders over the October holidays and has now done his first couple of group lessons and Madge continues to do some training with Sally but is happy to report she has now “found” her right canter lead which appeared to be missing in action for a while J This is quite common with young horses and with a bit of time and patience, Madge is now finding her right canter lead more often than not!
XMAS/NEW YEAR PERIOD
As normal, the riding school will be closed on 24th, 25th and 26th December and on 31st December, 1st and 2nd of January. We will go onto a skeleton staff and lesson rota from Monday 22nd December to Sunday 4th January inclusive – there will be lessons on the days we are not closed, but they may be at slightly different times as our staff get some extra time off and quite a lot of our members head off for a couple of weeks. Our skeleton lesson timetable will be available in plenty of time for you to check in with reception for your riding time over the Xmas break.
ANY WILLING VOLUNTEERS?
We have been asked by the Culter Gala committee to give some detail to our members on volunteering opportunities around the Gala. The Culter Gala committee are always very supportive of ARC and often award some funds to ARC annually from their Gala funds to support initiatives like the Changing Lives Through Horses programme.
They are looking for volunteers both for their committee and also on the day of the Gala. The Gala has been running for over 150 years and normally has an attendance of around 2,000 people. The committee meets around once a month from January in the Culter Mill Club and meetings last around 90 minutes – kept efficient and light-hearted!
On Gala day, the main volunteering required is to set out the tables and chairs around the field and then put them away at the end of the day, which takes around 2 hours in morning and then 2 hours after 5.00pm on the day – strong arms are required as they are stored in a container in the field.
If anyone has some time and is interested in volunteering either on the committee or on the day, it would be really appreciated, and you can contact Peter (Chairman, Culter Gala Team) at:
peter.brawley01@gmail.com / 07741 310243
WELL DONE SOPHIE!
A big well done this month to Sophie, who received the results from her recent BHS Stage 3 assessment and passed with flying colours and great feedback! So that’s the riding, care and lunge in the bag and now Sophie moves onto working towards her Stage 3 Coach. Well done Sophie – we’re all very proud of you!
THERAPY RIDING ASSISTANCE
Liam is looking for some help from any members who may be available on Tuesday afternoons from 3.00-3.30pm, Wednesday mornings from 11.00am-12.00pm and Wednesday afternoons from 3.30-4.00pm for some therapy riding sessions that he runs. Our therapy riding sessions are for (in this case) junior riders who have progressed through the ARC Hippotherapy group or the Deeside RDA group who are both based at ARC and have progressed onto riding with Liam in a coached session, which frees up valuable spaces in the RDA sessions for new riders.
These sessions are for half an hour and involve either leading the pony or sometimes side walking beside the rider to give them a bit more confidence/support. It’s a great way to spend a bit more time with the horses and really good fun as they are all great kids. Volunteers need to be over 14 years old, and you don’t need to be free every week – you can volunteer for the weeks that you are free. We have some great members who help out with these sessions at the moment and really enjoy it, but we need to increase the number of helpers a bit as we have a couple of riders starting a shared session. If you are able to help, then do please let Ali or Liam know.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING SESSIONS
We are going to be running a few sessions on Friday afternoons and evenings during November and December on a range of practical and theory topics which may be of interest to our members, so please see some info below:
Friday 21st November – 4.30pm-6.00pm “Lunging” – this session is suitable for both adults and junior members over 12 years old. Sally will be showing you how to fit lunge equipment and how to do the actual lunging (with everyone having a shot!). It’s also a great way to learn about how horses think and learn and how important our body language is when working with them.
Friday 28th November – 4.30pm–6.00pm “Training a Young Horse” – Sally will work with Madge both on the ground and with ridden work, explaining the foundation training of a young horse – great for anyone who is interested in how horses learn and again is open to both children and adults.
The sessions are £25 per session, or if you are attending both, the charge is £45 for both. We have gone with 4.30pm as a start time, but we are happy to push the start a little later to 5.00pm or 5.30pm – just let us know by email if you would like to come and need a later start time as we can always adjust timings to suit everyone. Sessions can be booked through reception in the usual way.
