It was a bright spring morning in Aberdeen, as my car trundled along the tree-lined lanes towards the Tillyoch Equestrian Centre. I was on my way to visit the Aberdeen group of the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA). This fantastic charity supports adults and children with disabilities to build skills and confidence through horse-back riding and carriage driving (read all about the RDA here).
I was particularly excited for this visit, because this wasn’t my first experience of working with the RDA. I’d volunteered with an Australian branch of the organisation as a teenager, but ten years on and half a world away, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
The Aberdeen RDA volunteers turned out to be a lovely, supportive group, who quickly reaffirmed my positive memories of the charity. I was welcomed warmly to their Friday morning session to experience a taste of life as a volunteer. After the ride was finished and we’d warmed our hands on cups of tea, a number of volunteers hung back to chat about their experiences, and the impact that volunteering had had on them.
Kat: Volunteers from the RDA seem to come from all walks of life. Tell me, how did you first get involved with the RDA?
Doreen: One of my neighbours was a secretary of the RDA, so that got me interested in the first place. When I had to have my own horse put down, I had good contacts for helping out with other people’s horses, and that’s what got me started. I just loved it so much.
Anja: I’ve been doing it for a long time as well, I used to ride but I don’t any more. I was watching my daughter ride one day, and [a friend] told me that they were really short of people at the RDA, and I didn’t have a clue what the RDA was! So I said, well, I could try. So I came along. I love horses, and I like to interact with people, especially kids.
Some volunteers have had a quite a lot of horse experience before coming to the RDA- do you think that’s necessary to enjoy the role?
Alice: Not for me. I knew another volunteer who said that they were short of people to help. I said I could come but I’ve never ridden a horse. She said “you don’t need to be able to ride horses”. So I came along and enjoyed it. I’ll always be a side walker because I’m not horsey, and I don’t fancy leading a pony. But it’s a nice group and its friendly.
Betty: I’ve ridden horses but don’t own horses. I just wondered what I could do when I was fully retired, so I joined the RDA.
It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, its so enjoyable for the children.
Betty
Muriel: Well I was introduced through another volunteer. We rode together in the [United] States, and then when we came back, she had a friend who volunteered so I came as well. I ride but not well, and I like working with the horses. I was also an occupational therapist, so I was interested in helping the children. So that’s why I came along, and it is a nice group of women. Its worthwhile staying.
Margaret: I saw an advert in the local [newspaper] actually. I like horses but I don’t ride them. I was also in the health service so its a nice way to meet up with other children, disabled children. It’s just the enjoyment of coming and seeing everyone.
Laura: I had a friend who was part of the group, so I joined. We get so much from it, because we get some horsey-time, but also we get some time with the kids.
Muriel: Its a great way to meet up with your friends as well. Otherwise we all go our separate ways and don’t actually get to see each other much.
What kind of tasks are you responsible for performing each session as volunteers?
Laura: Hillary is the coordinator, so she communicates with the schools so we know which riders are coming, and ensures we have enough volunteers for each session. But the rest of us, we do everything! We all aim to be here before the session starts, we go to the shed, get the equipment out, set up, we just do whatever is needed to be ready when the kids arrive.
We work together, and we tack up the horses, we pick up poop, and make sure the toys are round-about the place. So there’s a job for everybody.
Angela
Doreen: And I make toys!
Muriel: She does, [she makes] the knitted toys for the kids! And Doreen fundraises as well.
Angela: Yes, we all join in the fundraising too.
What sort of fundraising do you do for the RDA?
Muriel: We’re one of the Co-op [supermarket’s] charities at the moment. If you’re a member of the Co-op, you can adopt us as your charity [when you shop], then the money raised goes to us. Otherwise we’ve had a race night, and a bingo night. There was a big raffle too. Doreen knits toys and sells them.
Angela: And we do bag packing at the supermarkets.
Murial: We’ve also have had some sponsorship by companies- our pony Sammy, was sponsored by Apache, and Teddy by an accounting group. So we’re always on the lookout for companies who want to sponsor something.
Can you tell me a little bit about your horses and ponies, and how they came to be a part of the RDA?
Anja: At the previous location, we used to hire some of the regular riding school horses. Then we started buying our own ponies, so at this new site we can use our own horses.
Muriel: Sammy was a horse that hadn’t been handled much as he’s still fairly young. So there was a wee bit of training with him, getting him used to being led. Elsa used to be a companion for a racehorse, we think she used to be the calming influence on the racehorse as she has such a calm nature. That’s why she sometimes thinks she needs to gallop around the arena. And we have Teddy as well.
What kind of training did you need to undertake to become a volunteer?
Muriel: We do in-house training. We have training days for volunteers before the start of the sessions, and you need to be ‘signed off’ that you’ve completed the training. You have to shadow another volunteer to begin with, then once you’re managing to do that okay, you then get your turn at side walking (walking alongside a rider to assist with balance and safety). If you’re interested in horses, you can get your turn at leading as well. All our volunteers have to have their PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) certification. So everybody is police checked too.
Laura: We have a green training card that we get signed off as we do the training. We’ll get signed off for different tasks, like side-walking, or leading the ponies.
Angela: Then there’s the first aid training, quite a lot of us are first aid trained now.
Muriel: [The training] also involves advice of what to wear and when we start. And people can be given different roles within the group.
Are there any skills or personal qualities that you think people need to have before they come to volunteer at the RDA?
Alice: Patience
Doreen: Be reasonably fit. There’s quite a lot of running around sometimes with the ponies.
Muriel: You need some people skills as well. But there are jobs for everyone.
Do you feel like you’ve made an impact on the lives of the riders and the horses by volunteering here?
All: Yes!
Alice: The children really get a kick out of it, you know? You can see that the children are all excited to come. Sometimes they can’t express themselves well. Sometimes you can tell, when a child first comes they can be really upset and nervous around the horses, then you see two months later when they get on the horse and they’re so happy.
Physically it makes such a difference. One little girl today had no core strength and the more she comes, the more the core strength will be built.
Laura
Muriel: Even if they’re just sitting on a horse and walking around the arena, [the children are] using their core and they’re stretching. And a lot of the time, the children might be non-verbal, and you see them beginning to respond to what you’re saying and becoming happier. And some of them really do calm down once they get on the horse. Just the movement of the horses as they walk around can be quite calming. And then they start trotting…
Alice: They all love trotting!
Anja: You would think trotting might be quite scary, but they get such a smile on their face with the trotting.
Do you think that becoming a volunteer has had a positive impact on you?
Doreen: Well I really enjoy the company.
Anja: And sometimes we have a little group who wants to go for a cup of coffee as well.
We wouldn’t last as long as we have if we hadn’t all become friends.
Anja
Doreen: For myself, when I started coming back to the RDA after my husband died, it was really good to get back to my usual routine. Coming here, and having the children and horses and the other volunteers around, it just helped a lot.
Murial: Its something I do for myself, and we enjoy being with the horses as well. We go up once a week to the horses too, just to groom them and spend time with them. To give some love to the horses. So that’s something else that I give and I enjoy.
Alice: Well you get the satisfaction of helping, and its always a nice atmosphere. I have a disabled child myself, and so I feel like I could use some of the things I learned from that with the children here. Plus you feel like you’re giving something back.
Fantastic answers, and thanks for sharing some of your stories! The final question is, what would you say to potential volunteers who where thinking of coming along?
Muriel: I’d say, come along, have a look and see if its something you’d like to do.
Margaret: Its all about what we do. And its so rewarding.
You get a lot more from it than just being in the arena watching the children- just the company and the friendship. And the opportunity to smell like a horse [all laugh].
Muriel
Further Information
A huge thanks to the volunteer team at Aberdeen RDA for sharing their experiences with the RDA.
If you’ve been inspired by this interview and would like to know more about the RDA, check out the organisation profile [link] with all the details you need, or head to the RDA website or Facebook page to find your local group.
Want to read interviews with volunteers from other UK-based charities? Check out the Volunteer Page to find other opportunities to volunteer with animals.
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