39 Windsor Avenue

Merton Abbey

LONDON

SW19 2RR

020 8543 5300

Charity No. 1008028

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Rainbow Rides

We seem to be going through a phase of finding something that was a great success in one year and thankfully still having the energy, enthusiasm, resources and opportunity to do it all over again twelve months later !

RAINBOW RIDES is a brilliant example.

Jess, one of the Farm’s former staff, found a riding yard in 2005 that was a little way down the M4.

It was begun by one man (Keith) over a decade ago who bought an old horse ‘Grey Boy’ to save him from being destroyed.  From there, Keith just bought more and more as they "would have been doomed" otherwise!  He set up Rainbow Rides "to offer the joy of horse riding to every child we can, no matter what their background or needs”.  Since then, they have had groups of children from all walks of life including groups from as far away as the Chernobyl who were affected by the disaster there.

We are very lucky to have a mature, experienced, hard-working and reliable bunch of volunteers at Deen City Farm that give up a weekend day to help us out.  Okay, sure, these youngsters get training and the chance to learn and care for the horses that they love but we do appreciate what they do for us (and for all those clients that they lead).

As a gesture to recognise this, those volunteers who qualify (through regular attendance during the summer holidays) get the chance to go to Rainbow Rides.  And you don’t have to be an experienced rider to get the chance.

Rainbow Rides don’t charge charities for the privilege (though the Farm makes a donation in support) because they don’t want to exclude anyone. On the day, they appreciate a helping hand to muck out the horses and do odd jobs around the place and our volunteers learned how other stables (& toilet facilities!) function as a result.

We took two groups by minibus  (one on Saturday and one on Sunday) and these two groups were split down further so we had four groups of five.

I took the Saturday mob and happily waved half of them off shortly after getting there when they went on their forest hack.  Those that weren’t riding helped groom and muck out the ponies that didn’t go out.

The owner told us that the children around there don’t know how lucky they are: “All they’d need to do is help out in the morning and they could go riding through 20 miles of woodland in the afternoon, but they can’t be bothered”.  I know that our volunteers would jump at the chance.  We can’t reward volunteers with anything that has an overt value - certainly not a free lesson - because it is forbidden by Merton’s byelaws.

After a very filling lunch (thanks Cat!), the groups swapped over… and with most of the chores done, there was time for a game of spoof for a few of us that resulted in a forfeit for the losers to hold their hands in a slime filled pond (see picture).

On their return, the groups combined to ‘hay-up’ and ‘poo-pick’ before we all headed home to the concrete jungle that surrounds Deen City Farm.  It was a wonderful day and a wonderful chance for me to give up a day of my spare time to bring a smile to the faces of so many that give up a day of their time each week to help the Farm.

Ben Cheetham

Project Manager