rdasouthscotland | National Office Update

03 February 2022

National Office Update

Dear RDA UK volunteers and staff,

Apologies for the delay in getting this out.

This week we bid farewell to our Head of Operations Anna Hall. I’m sure you will join me in wishing her all the best in her new role as Chief Executive of the Hurlingham Polo Association.

Volunteers Needed for Hartpury National Championships

If you would like to apply to volunteer at the Championships (15th-17th July) please fill in the form by Friday 4th March: https://www.myrda.org.uk/runningyourgroup/national-championships/event-volunteering/#

If you have any questions, please contact Fiona,fharris@rda.org.uk, or Faye, fmckenning@rda.org.uk. Once the closing date has passed we will be in touch with you regarding your booking and role. We are looking forward to seeing you!

Have you Owned an Ex-Racehorse?

If you know of anybody who currently has or previously had an ex-racehorse in their group could you email ebayliss@rda.org.uk. We would be interested to hear about any experiences of this.

Save the Date: Exploring Equine Facilitated Therapy Domains – Monday 28th March 2022 at The National Training Centre.

Rhona Harkness from Equine Facilitated Occupational Therapy will be leading the morning session in demonstrating sensory exercises using therapeutic riding and groundwork. The afternoon will feature a combined approach of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy in hippotherapy sessions and exploring the benefits of this combination - with Sarah Doyle and Irma Prins.

Booking information will be available shortly on the MyRDA Events page and an upcoming newsletter.

RDA Hat Tags

We will be having a new colour hat tag for 2022. These are currently on order and will be sent to Regional Organisers once they arrive. Protective headwear constitutes a hat which meets one of the following standards:

British PAS 015: 1998 or 2011 provided they are BSI Kitemarked or Inspec IC marked

European VG1 provided it is BSI Kitemarked or Inspec IC marked

EN1384-2017 provided it has another accepted standard from this list which is BSI Kitemarked or Inspec IC marked

American ASTM F1163: 2004a or 04a onwards provided they are SEI marked

RDA Participant Group

Please can we ask you once again to spread the word about our Facebook group for RDA participants over the age of 16. It is a great safe place for them to share the opinions on things happening within RDA. It is also a good place to meet and chat to other participants within RDA.

Link to FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4432304536889065/

Weekly Webinars

Tonight: Learnings from COVID/Lockdown and How the Elisabeth Curtis Group is Moving Forward (Thurs 3rd Feb 2022)

Victoria Liston and Kyle Palmer from the Elisabeth Curtis group will be sharing their Groups growth, the barriers they have faced and how they have overcome them during and after the COVID pandemic. The webinar will incorporate the Groups initiatives and activities and attitude to further group development.

Next week: Tess Fordham talks Groundwork (Thursday 10th February 2022)

Tess Fordham is the RDA Regional Vet for Edinburgh and Borders and is on a current working group that are exploring Groundwork Certification for volunteers who don’t want to commit to the Coaching Qualification Pathway. Tess has delivered several training Zooms for coaches over the past year to demonstrate ‘parking’ a horse, ensuring they don’t move a muscle when it comes to mounting and dismounting. Tess will be demonstrating some of these training techniques as well as providing some advice on helping volunteers lead horses and ponies efficiently whilst warming them up for and during a session.

Offers & Discounts for RDA Groups

We’ve launched a new page on MyRDA to share some discounts from our corporate partners with our RDA Community. We’ll be updating this list with new partnerships and hope to have even more offers available soon. These can be found here: https://www.myrda.org.uk/runningyourgroup/offers-discounts-for-rda-groups/#

If you have any queries, or know of any businesses who would be interested in sharing a discount with groups, please contact Clare Prysbet oncprysbet@rda.org.uk

Get Yourself Active: Your Story

Get Yourself Active are asking for submissions of disabled people’s stories of getting themselves fit or organisations who help get disabled people’s fit. The project aims to inspire other disabled people to get fit and boost their confidence. Follow this link to find out more and submit a story:

http://www.getyourselfactive.org/stories/

Best wishes,

Brigitta Falcini

Communications Coordinator

Riding for the Disabled Association