Introduction
The Unicorn Centre, a registered charity, is a purpose built riding for the disabled facility which offers riding therapy and learning and training opportunities for disabled adults and children from the Tees Valley area each week and has received support from the Together Fund to continue and grow their activities post covid.
What happened?
During Covid the Centre maintained contact with its main client group of participants, however despite this some have been reluctant to return to their previous levels of riding post Covid. The added economic pressure families are feeling with the cost of living crisis means that those who perhaps rode every week previously are now only riding once a fortnight. Therefore, the Centre needed to attract more riders to maintain its previous levels of income.
The Together Fund award enabled the Centre to recruit more volunteers and schedule more introductory sessions to bring forward new clients – both disabled and non-disabled young people and adults who ultimately begin to ride.
Having a large pool of volunteers who could help throughout the week enables the Centre to accept individual as well as school group bookings to ride and also support the activities to encourage new riders.
Volunteering is at the heart of all the RDA activities and the Together Fund award bridged a significant gap in finances. As the programme of activities expands the centre will then be able to use future income to increase the number and range of riding lessons.
Who was involved?
The target audience are residents of the Tees Valley and they work with local councils and voluntary organisations to raise the profile of the Centre and volunteering. There are two distinct categories of volunteers – young people (usually college or university students) and older people who have an interest in working with clients and/or horses. They work with schools taking on young people embarking on their Duke of Edinburgh award and Teesside University through Voluntees. The older volunteers are recruited through a range of redeployment schemes or through partner organisations or local events which promote volunteering opportunities.
When?
Long term programme of weekly classes etc
Where?
The Unicorn Centre in Hemlington offers state-of-the-art facilities including indoor and outdoor arenas with dust free surfaces and galleried viewing. The indoor arena has a unique mounting area and hoist for disabled riders and a judge's box. A hearing loop system has been installed. With over 20 acres of grazing and access to many miles of bridleways without requiring road access, the Centre is unique in the North East. The volunteers and clients are drawn from all areas of the Tees Valley however, the majority of the current volunteers are drawn from Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland.
How?
The Together Fund award supported the centre to recruit new volunteers to assist in the delivery of a range of activity which leads ultimately to riding lessons. The activities are based on age ranges starting from 5. They learn about the equipment used to look after ponies, the basics of what ponies eat and how they are looked after and then start to handle the ponies. The Tea with a pony programme is applicable to all age ranges where participants have afternoon tea meet the staff, supported volunteers and the ponies. The Centre currently offers a particular Tea with a pony programme to those suffering from dementia and their carers .
Pony care sessions teach participants the basics of looking after a pony, grooming, feeding, assembling tack and a short riding session. All these activities have the purpose of directing participants to riding.
Why?
The Centre was estabished to improve the general health and overall wellbeing of people with disabilities through the medium of horses
So?
The Unicorn Centre gives all its riders the opportunity to reach therapeutic goals and personal ambitions, to develop life skills and often to combat social isolation. Riders are also encouraged to develop a caring attitude and to connect with the specially trained horses and ponies, without whom the Centre could not deliver its valuable service.
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