Within each RDA Group there will be a team of volunteers working together to make sure all of our participants have the best experience possible when they attend a riding session. The person responsible for leading each session is the coach. RDA has invested a lot of time creating its current pathway, making sure each coach who becomes qualified has up to date knowledge to help them support each participant, horse and valuable team members throughout each stage of becoming a coach. We also try to support each coach with lifelong learning and continued professional development.
Most RDA Coaches begin volunteering within an RDA Group. We ask all our volunteers to register and complete a record of the basic tasks they have been signed off to do in their Green Card. This means that they are competent to carry out those signed off tasks unsupervised and are therefor insured to do so.
There are two volunteer modules on our e-learning page that are available for all volunteers to complete; Disability Awareness and Equine Knowledge. For coaches, these are compulsory. There are also two practical volunteer modules available to all but compulsory for coaches; Mounting/Dismounting and Preparing and Assisting RDA Sessions. Once these are complete a prospective coach must attend a Pre-Coach Training Session before being registered on the RDA Database as a Coach in Training.
If you have external qualifications within the equestrian or therapy world, you may be exempt from some modules. To check which modules you may be exempt from, please see the below document:
Exemptions for Coach Certificate Flow Chart
External Qualifications Guidelines
Coaching Pathway
The full RDA Coaching pathway can be seen here: RDA Coaching Pathway
The individual flow charts of how to become a Coach in Training, Group/Coach Certificate holder or Group Coach to Coach Certificate holder can be found below:
Coach in Training to Coach Flow Chart
Group Coach to Coach Flowchart
Coach Drop in Session at the RDA Champs
RDA Coaches drop-in session at the 2024 RDA Championships. (3)
