Thank you to all members of RDA for working together to continue to provide the best possible experience for our participants.

This year 5,000 endeavour awards have been given out by groups to their riders, carriage drivers and vaulters. These awards focus on each participant’s needs and achievements and are just one example of RDA focusing on ‘what people want’.

This approach has been used when reviewing the coaching pathway to come up with a plan reflecting what coaches want to take RDA into the future as leaders in our field.

We are excited about the plans for our National Training Centre at Lowlands and now that we own the site and have planning permission, it is great to see progress being made on fundraising and on getting the building project underway next year with plans to complete in spring 2019.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting fundraising efforts. It was brilliant to have support in all parts of the UK for the Big Ride project and to feel the unity of purpose across RDA for our plans.

I am delighted to report another strong year for support given to existing RDA groups. This has included:
200 workshops being delivered to 1,400 volunteers on
governance, safeguarding, customer service and disability awareness;
we are also expanding e-learning options.
On the coaching front there were, 18 National training days and countless regional and county training days;

Groups need funds. I am pleased to report that RDA National has given groups a total of £190,000 in grants to help them help even more disabled children and adults and provide them with the best possible experience.

Focussing on helping new groups is showing results and it is pleasing to have 20 new groups currently attending workshops and in the process of setting up, and 7 new groups that have joined our 474 groups in the UK in the last year.

Our participants have once again achieved great things. Proficienty tests have been updated this year, so that riders can continue to be rewarded for their achievements.

The standard continues to go up at our 3 day National Championships. It was exciting to see support for the showing classes in their first year so great that the classes were split for initial judging.

Many congratulations to the para dressage team, who with new faces representing GB retained their 100% gold record. It was heartening to hear Suzanna Hext say in our RDA magazine after winning 3 gold medals that
‘Being part of your local RDA brings exciting opportunities to compete in the future.
Dreams really do come true.’

What we do in our RDA works. Therapy is provided through horses. We see improvements in our participants’ and their families’ lives, but of course we need to measure the impact so that we can tell others about this. RDA’s outcomes tracker is now widely used in the UK and in 8 other countries including Australia and the USA.

We have a lot to look forward to in RDA and are currently asking for ideas on how best to celebrate RDA’s 50th year in 2019!

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers at group, county, regional and national level and to our excellent staff at National Office and to everyone who has helped RDA over the past year.

Sam Orde, Chairman, RDA UK