since 1972
Binley, Thursday morning
Ride Leader: Alex Hanbury-Williams
Coach: Mary Childs
Riders The Mark Way School and one independent rider
Thursday during term time. 11am-12
Autumn Term 2024: Stoke
Tuesday 11.00-12.00
Summer Term 2025: Binley
Thursday 11.00-12.00
Last Autumn Term we achieved a first ever for the Mark Way Children’s Ride and two of our riders gained their Grade 3 Proficiency Tests in both Horse Riding and Horse Care. Indeed, one of the riders, Kim, gained almost full marks for both tests and Jayden passed the tests with very high marks. It was a delight to see all the children blossom and as always Jules made the sessions great fun. Seeing these children mastering rising trot and riding off the lead rein was really rewarding for all of us. We are very sorry to be losing Jules to Portugal and so grateful to her for all her brilliant coaching over the past years.
In the Summer Term we moved this ride to Binley as Mary very kindly stepped in to coach and she already coaches in Binley on a Thursday. We had 2 new children plus Faith who had begun with us in the Autumn term and Jaxon who joined us from the Golden Ride. In spite of missing quite a few sessions due to the school having staffing issues, they all did very well and we hope to achieve their Grade 2 certificates in the Autumn term. It was especially rewarding to see Faith riding with so much more confidence. When she first started she was reluctant to even come near the mounting block.
Thank you to our wonderful volunteers and ponies for giving these children such a special opportunity.
Binley, Thursday afternoon
Ride Leader: Elizabeth Maclay
Coach: Mary Childs
Riders from Wolverdene Special School, Andover
Thursday during term time. 1.15pm
We have had fifteen mounted sessions this academic year – could have been more if Easter had been earlier - and one at the beginning of each term to fit hats and boots and learn about what will happen and give the mounting bloc a try out. This helps to make the actual mounting the pony the next week a bit less scary! Seventeen different children from Wolverdene Special School rode from years 5 and 6. Seven were awarded their grade 1 riding and one Grade 2. We have decided that a child must have had three lessons before receiving a certificate as they meet all the criteria on day one – but that rather misses the point of the awards. Mary and I take turns to coach which works well as we each bring different ideas and approaches. We both concentrate on the children learning and using lots of new vocabulary - parts of tack, points of the pony etc. One day having asked what the pony’s feet are called she wondered if anyone knew what they were made of. Up shot a hand ‘ keratin like my hair and nails’! wow! I think the helpers learned something new too! We were both assessed by Paige from Broadlands which was a better experience than I was expecting and are both good for another 3 years!
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Autumn Term
Several sessions we were down to 4 riders because of the loading challenges with Teddy from Frenches Farm who is the most perfect RDA pony when here but too much of a trial to get him. We rely heavily on Smarties and Linford and Ice and Toby – now 25 but loves his job as much as ever. Mary introduced horseball exercises which the ponies mostly accepted. It is very easy to keep on doing the same things as we know they work but as the children are new to us each term everything we do is new to them. By the last session all trotted very adequately and we had a good term.
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Summer Term
Up to five ponies with the addition of perfect new Clover and many thanks to Mary for sourcing him. 4 grey and one bay - now a challenge for children to guess who is who. I long to have 6 again and so 2 teams of three or three pairs but will go on hoping. Four children came very regularly and the fifth slotted in from the Autumn term. They all made great progress and were fun to coach. The highlight is always the Fun Day where they can show off all they have learned and I was very proud of them all. Thanks to Mary for finding another pony so that there were 6 riders and they rode and concentrated so very well. One of their very experienced leaders scored 10 for her leading in the Handy Pony and her rider came out on top. Just shows how important it is to be a good leader!
At the Leavers’ Assembly – 19 of them this year of whom 12 had ridden with us – there were excellent presentations of what the child had done during his years at Wolverdene and glad to say ponies were featured quite regularly. I make colourful certificates for each rider with photo of them on a pony and a garish rosette to go with them. Several parents came up to say thank you for the experiences we give their child.
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As ever I am so grateful for my cheerful and dependable helpers who turn out whatever the weather (and we certainly did have a couple of very wet days) who care so much for these vulnerable children and give them the best hour of the week! I am also very grateful to the essential ponies – Clover, Smarties, Linford, Ice and ever young Toby.