since 1972
Adult's Ride - Abbotts Ann and Frenches Farm
Ride Leader: Penny Wilkins
Coaches: Sarah Oldham/ Maureen Wood/ Barry Curd
Riders: from a variety of settings​
The ride is held on Mondays from 1pm-2pm at Monxton from April – October and Frenches Farm, Little London from October – March
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The adult group had 31 sessions during the year, despite having to cancel four due to rain. We have a steady core of six riders, one of whom has been with us for over 20 years!!!! She doesn’t “ride” because she won’t hold the reins, but she really, really enjoys it — you can tell by how hard she screeches!!! —- and the horse’s movement is very good for her muscles. Three other riders joined us during the year but for various reasons didn’t stay with us for very long. Five of the riders had a wonderful time at Fun Day at Binley. And there were big smiles from Georgie when she won the handy pony trophy.
We did our summer sessions at Five Acres in Monxton thanks to Fiona Gready, and in the winter at Frenches Farm in Little London courtesy of Anna and Charlie White.
Christmas Fun - December 2023
The Adult Ride had lots of fun at their Special Christmas seeing in December
The Rachel Plumbe Cup
John-James (J-J) from the Adult group was awarded the RDA Rachel Plumbe cup.
Rachel Plumbe was an RDA volunteer for over 30 years and the cup is awarded annually in her memory. The Award recognizes outstanding progress or improvement in difficult circumstances. Groups from across the South were invited to nominate a rider whom they thought would be worthy of this Award.
Andover RDA nominated J-J who, despite being blind, only riding once a fortnight and being coached in a group situation, has made huge progress due to his positive outlook and ‘can do’ approach to everything. His answer to anything he is asked to do is ‘I’ll give it a go’ or ‘I’ll try’.
He is indeed a worthy winner – congratulations!
Boots
And, GREAT NEWS, after a long search to find Danny's replacement we finally found Boots, or to give him his posh name, Best of Both. He was certainly thrown in at the deep end as his first session, just six days after arriving from West Sussex, was a Handy Pony competition, won by a very thrilled Simona Parish, which we ran to replace this year's cancelled Fun Day. He behaved impeccably and didn't put a hoof wrong!!!
