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HOOFPRINT

Hello Hoofprint Readers!

I wanted to take a moment to

welcome you to the new

Hoofprint newsletter. You

may have noticed that this

issue looks a bit different, but

we all thought it was time for

a little redesign. New year,

new Hoofprint! I hope you all

like the changes, and happy

reading!

- Ashley Hodson

Meet Our New Ponies!

Just before Christmas we said goodbye to Charlie. He has been loaned to a small riding school in Cambridge and has settled in quite nicely, and has even been doing some jumping! His departure, and that of George earlier in the year, left space for two new ponies to join us!

Jim Bob

Jim Bob, the cob, was born in 2000 and came to us here at Gaddesden on loan just before Christmas. Standing at 15.3hh he is by far our tallest pony, which is wonderful news as he will be able to comfortably shoulder the weight of some of our taller, older riders! A gentle giant, he is a good all-rounder, having competed in all Pony Club activities and even doing some Cross-Country jumping! He is now ready to enjoy a slightly quieter life here with us and we are very happy to have him!

Blue Blue is a grey Connemara, born in 1998 and measuring in at 14.2hh. He has kindly been loaned to us by a lovely family who used him as a bit of an all-rounder and confidence builder, which makes him a perfect fit for us here at Gaddesden! He loves finding big bits of mud to roll around in when he’s out in the field and is certainly keeping all our volunteers busy trying to keep him clean and tidy!

www.gaddesdenplacerda.org.uk February 2018

In This Issue

• Ponies and Riders

• News

• Behind the Scenes

• Fundraising and

Thanks

• Dates for Your Diary

Left to right: Jim Bob & Blue

Registered Charity Number 1140330

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Vaulting Nativity Play When Margaret Morgan, then Chairman of the RDA Vaulting Committee suggest-ed we organise a Nativity Play with our vaulters I think I gave her the same look I had back from the rest of the team when I suggested it to them! After our trip to

the RDA National Championships in July, our plan had been to build some new freestyle routines, adding some trickier moves the vaulters had seen others per-form. They had watched intently from the gallery and whispered “I can do that!”

So, come September, the vaulters spent the first half-term learning their new moves while the rest of us tried to figure out how to get the Nativity story and Christmas carols melded into a Vaulting performance. Margaret sent us a CD of

her own group’s Nativity play and we started to think “Yes, we can do that!”

Chris sourced various pieces of Christmas music, Karen roped in a friend to help

with costumes and the parents offered to do refreshments and run a raffle to help

raise money towards our next competition. Soon all roles were assigned. It took a

while to convince Codey the Vaulting pony that the remarkably lifelike sheep stat-

ues, sourced by Val, were not real! Laura agreed to be “Elf and Safety” in a very

fetching green costume and Trevor offered to be our Santa surprise at the end,

riding in on Angus. Parents and Alice, (Grace’s sister) were asked to play support-

ing roles as innkeepers and Bethlehem residents. Our teenage gymnast volun-

teers, Charlotte, Maya and Lucy were angels. Chris was both Narrator and Herod,

and Louise was our lunger and the Star in the East. The real stars of the show

were Jack (Joseph and the Myrrh King), Grace (Mary), Skye (Shepherd), Abi

(Shepherd) and Ellis (Roman soldier and Gold King). We had six traditional carols

linked by narrative to tell the Christmas story and Vaulters did their freestyle rou-

tines to the carol corresponding to their role.

Despite some very cold rehearsal sessions the vaulters all worked hard and put in

good performances. Santa presented them with a rosette and small gift and gave

out some treats to all the children in the audience. The raffle made £155 which will

come in useful for our entries to the RDA Photographic Vaulting Competition in

March. I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the Nativity Play and came to

support us. The lovely comments received from members of the audience on the

night and afterwards by email were much appreciated.

- Christina Grieve

Christmas Party! This year the Volunteer Christ-

mas party was scheduled for the

12th of December. Unfortunate-

ly, the great British weather had

other plans, and the day before it

was due to take place, we got an

enormous dump of snow! The

party was rescheduled for the

30th of January and went off

without a hitch, with everyone

getting into the Christmas spirit!

Games were played, prizes won

and food eaten. All was Merry

and Bright!

A big thanks goes out to Karen

Gosen for organising the games

and to Margaret Keith for pro-

curing all the lovely food!

Getting to know each other!

Christmas Vaulting Nativity Play Photo by Emma Beer

Registered Charity Number 1140330

A bit about Margaret

Margaret Keith has been at Gaddesden Place RDA

since 2011. Having grown up around horses in Scot-

land, she has carried a lifelong passion for them. She

passed that love on to her daughter, whose pony, Ki-

wi, was eventually generously donated to the RDA in

2000.

Margaret has been a teacher all her life and has also

spent a period of time teaching children with special

educational needs.

With all of this passion and experience it seems inevi-

table that she would end up becoming an instructor

here at Gaddesden, where she can mix her love for

horses with her passion for teaching, and know that

she is truly making a difference to our riders’ lives.

Behind the Scenes: Being a Coach

Being a coach is challenging and demanding but on the other hand, the satisfaction and the fun more than compensate for

any demands.

It is challenging because a key factor which is uppermost in a coach’s mind is safety. Keeping an eye on horses, riders and

volunteers at the same time can be quite tricky and at times you need to have eyes in the back of your head. A coach needs

to have a degree of horse knowledge as we have to be aware of their well being and their moods as things can change in a

minute. Is Bramble feeling bolshy; is Toto really poorly or is he having us on; is Blue sound and is Jimbob anxious about

something new? How they behave affects the riders and the volunteers and the coach has to be aware of potential problems

but also when things are going well.

Another challenge is creating lessons that allow the rider to make progress. That involves having an extensive knowledge of

the different disabilities and how that disability affects that rider. We need to understand how the horse can benefit each rider.

Put all of that into the mixing bowl (after all I am a baker) and then hopefully a lesson can be created which allows the rider to

progress either physically, emotionally or cognitively and sometimes all of the above.

A key part of the progress being made by the rider is facilitated by the volunteers and a good coach will use the volunteers

productively. After all, they are the ones beside the rider and working with the rider. However, all of our volunteers vary in

their horse knowledge and their other skills, so at times the coach is supporting and helping them to attain the satisfaction of

helping a rider.

Those are some of the challenges facing a coach and it all sounds rather daunting. However, it is totally outweighed by the

satisfaction gained when a rider does make progress. The feeling that together, we have made a difference to that rider and

the family’s lives. Sometimes that improvement is the strengthening of the core muscles; sometimes it is overcoming a fear;

learning a new social skill or helping their language or self-confidence. Helping others makes all of us feel good and seeing a

rider achieve makes it all worthwhile.

Last but not least, there is the fun, the community spirit which helps create a strong bond. The silly statements and jokes that

we can all laugh at (usually at my expense), and the shared nonsense which brightens up even the coldest day at Gaddesden.

Being part of the community and playing a role within it has been inspirational over the years. Seeing riders and their families

coping with huge physical and emotional problems means that the satisfaction and fun totally outweigh any problems from the

challenges and the demands.

So, if I have not put you off and you think that you would like to be a coach, have a chat with an existing coach. We are al-ways looking for coaches.

- Margaret Keith

Margaret and Bramble

Registered Charity Number 1140330

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Fundraising and Thanks

It was a busy festive season fundraising - with very generous support from the local community. We had two very successful collection days at Sainsbury's Apsley raising over £1,500. We were overwhelmed with shop-pers’ generosity and how in the hectic run up to Christmas they found time to stop, talk and donate to Gaddesden Place RDA. As Sainsbury's Apsley charity of the year we are hoping to run another event at the store in March. A first for Gaddesden was being invited to take part in the Rotary's San-ta's sleigh collection. Hemel Rotary bought the sleigh a couple of years ago and have been lovingly restoring it. This year it went out on twenty-two collection evenings around Hemel and the surrounding areas support-ing a different charity on each route. Gaddesden RDA were allocated the first route and supplied six collectors and a Santa. We had a wonderful reaction from residents and some very excited children. The money col-lected from all the routes were then shared amongst all the charities and we received a cheque for £410! Thank you to all at Hemel Rotary for or-ganising such a successful event. Huge thanks to Sue and Stuart Hutchison who organised a raffle and auc-tion at the Lodge of True Aim and The Gade Valley Boxing Day clay pi-geon shoot. They raised an incredible total of £5,800. We would like to thank them for all their hard work and months of planning, and also the generosity of the shoot and all at RDA who bought raffle tickets and helped with his amazing fundraising total. We are very grateful to the Masonic Charitable Foundation who, towards the end of last year, presented us with an incredible £6000 grant. Thank you all for voting for us and for your continued support of us here at Gaddesden Place RDA. Can you Help? Our golf day on the 5

th of October will be our biggest fundraiser this year

and a key part of its success is the evening auction. If you have any con-tacts that may be able to donate an experience or auction prize then please contact Karen on 07973 566002 or karen@gaddesdenplacerda.org.uk

Dog Walk

On the 1st of October this year we held our Sponsored Dog Walk on the Ashridge Estate. Walkers could choose between a 6 mile route around the estate or a 1 mile wheelchair friendly route. In typical British fashion the weather was grey, and the ground was muddy, however this didn’t put off our love-ly walkers and their dogs, and we had over 50 entrants!

Libet, Cathy and Ashley held down the fort in the Gaddesden tent, waving the walkers off as they started, and welcoming them back at the end with cups of coffee, tea, and pastries. The very muddy dog-gies were given a lovely goody bag, generously sponsored by TC Feeds, which went down a treat (no pun intended), and everyone received a lovely blue rosette to remember the event by! The grand total raised from the event was over £4400, which is a phenome-nal result.

We are so grateful to everyone who participated and helped raise funds for us; as well as to every-one who helped to organise the event and who helped out on the day itself. It couldn’t have been done without you! Overall it was a wonderful day and, as can be seen from the photos, everybody was all smiles and happy waggy tails!

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Hemel Rotary Santa Sleigh

Registered Charity Number 1140330

Muddy doggies at the finish line!

Dates for the Diary

Save the Date!

Open Day

17th June 2018 (More details to follow)

Term Dates

Spring term

6th January - 29th March

Half term

12th - 19th February inc.

Events

Charity Golf Day

5th October 2018

Barn Dance

10th November 2018

Contact Us

Mail: Gaddesden Place

RDA Briden's Camp,

Hemel Hempstead, HP2

6EX

Tel: 01442 246 924

Visit us on the web at

www.gaddesdenplacerda.

org.uk

Registered Charity Number 1140330