A charity that helps disabled people of all ages through therapeutic horse riding sessions has issued an urgent appeal for the public to help them continue their valuable service.
The West Lothian Riding for Disabled Association (RDA) has launched a fundraising bid raise £25,000 for a new outdoor arena.
The charity desperately needs to find the cash before next month to allow them to continue to provide their wide range og therapeutic riding sessions to people with physical and emotional or learning disabilities.
So far, just shy of £4000 has been raised of the £25,000 goal
Carol Lamb, of RDA, explained: “Our season runs from April to October each year as we only have an outdoor area.
“Unfortunately, time and weather have taken their toll on our outdoor arena and this now needs to be completely replaced to allow us to provide this valuable service to our community.
“To ensure we can open and operate from April we need to remove the current arena surface and dispose of this sustainably, remove all bars from the existing fence, dig in a new drainage system, place a layer of gravel, regrade and level the surface, place a membrane and filtration layer, replace all kickboards around the arena, concrete in new fence posts, and place eight inches of top surface
“All of this including labour will cost in the region of £20,000.
“Our charity is completely self-funded and we rely on public donations to keep going.
“We appreciate every donation, however small.
Carol continued: “Thank you to everyone who has already donated to our fundraising campaign.
“We still have a long way to go to reach our target .
“It’s vital that we replace the arena surface, we have stretched it’s use as far as we can and it needs replaced so we can continue to provide therapeutic riding sessions.
“We appreciate every penny donated as it’s what you can do that counts!”
West Lothian RDA is one of just 500 groups across the UK who provide therapeutic riding sessions for adults and young people with physical and/or learning difficulties.
They provide therapy, fitness, skills development and opportunities for achievement to disabled people.
The charity offers the “simple pleasure of working with horses”, from the freedom of movement, gaining confidence and building relationships to receiving life-enhancing therapy or achieving individual goals.
Participants benefit from improvements in muscle strength, balance and motor skills in an outdoor environment.
To donate visit here
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