Henderson RDA

Welcome back to Term 4 everyone !

Many thanks to Cathy Voyce, Sandra Lilo, Lynne Radford, Felicity Mead and all the others who spent many hours paddling about in muddy paddocks feeding out hay and generally caring for our horses during the winter months. Thanks also to our team of ‘horse care girls’ who are mentioned later in the newsletter.

A big welcome to all our new riders and volunteers. We hope that you enjoy your time with us.

We also have two new ponies on the team kindly lent by Pony Club members. They are: Susie – thank you Sylvia and Anna Stringfellow for lending us your beautiful grey mare. She is already very popular. And thanks also to Katherine and Ngaio Balfour for lending us Decima, another lovely mare of liver chestnut colour with a white stripe on her face. More about the two new horses in the next newsletter.

We are very excited to be adding an extra ride on Monday mornings. This will increase the number of children we help from thirty to thirty six a week.

Many thanks to Head Coach Pia for planning all of this and juggling everything around to make it work. Pia has had a very busy winter despite not coaching at Henderson. She has been busy volunteering at Totara Park and Ambury Park to increase her knowledge and skills. Pia is a huge asset to our group and tireless in her efforts to provide structured therapy, learning and fun for our children. You do a wonderful job Pia!

Many thanks also to the committee and all the volunteers who spent so much time during Term 3

contributing to our planning sessions. We now have a clearer idea about what we want to achieve for the rest of the year and in 2010. We are all time pressured and some planning and time management will make us a more focused and efficient group with the aim of always offering a better service to our children.

Riding Dates

We started riding on Monday 12 October and our last riding date will be 8 December.

A Night at the Gallops

On Saturday 31 October we held our fundraiser A Night at the Gallops. A huge thank you to The Lions Club of Blockhouse Bay - Lynfield and Henderson who organised the night for us. Lions Club members Alan & Barbara Gray, grandparents of Aimee Gray initiated the evening.

The evening was a great success and lots of fun. It was a horse racing game where the punters could bid for horses and back them at the TAB. The nights’ racing was followed by a lovely supper with plenty of delicious smoked chicken kindly donated by Tegel. Cherie Vazey and her friend Diane worked hard all afternoon preparing the food. Thank you so much ladies!

Also, a HUGE thank you to all the sponsors of the evening. We encourage you to support these businesses as they have supported our RDA so generously.

• Tegel
• NRM Feed
• Music Education Centre Henderson
• Premier Plastics
• Cadbury
• Westield St Lukes
• Barfoot & Thompson Blockhouse Bay
• Premier Plastics
• Morrisons Florist
• Mike Reardon Dentist (The Oral Care Company)
• Bricklane Restaurant & Bar
• Henkel Sellotape New Lynn
• For Blossoms
• Gray’s Print & Copy

We would also like to thank the Blockhouse Bay Community Centre, Mal MacElvana and all the RDA volunteers. Thanks to all our volunteers who supplied raffle prizes and food for the supper.

Also a huge thank you to everyone who came along and lost money on the horses! That will teach you to gamble….

It was a fun night and we raised a fantastic $4538 which will go towards our covered arena project.

Girls looking after ponies

Here are the girls and mums who look after and ride our ponies through our Pony Care scheme.

They are mums at the back Vicki, Kim and Veena.

Girls - Aleah (11 yrs), Indejah (11yrs) and Marissa (10yrs).

The girls have been looking after our ponies for a year already and are ready and excited about doing another year. So when the RDA rallies are over, this group of dedicated, young ladies come down to Pony Club to feed, groom and keep the ponies fit for us. All girls were beginners when they started and their confidence and skills have grown. The three girls will be working towards their C Certificate in riding during this summer season with Pony Club.

Mum Kim says that she knew little about horses when she started but “I love them now and I find it very therapeutic coming down here in the fresh air”.

Many thanks to all of you for taking such good care of our beloved ponies and your willingness to learn and work with us. It was lovely to see you supporting our fundraiser as well.

Infratil Awards

We were delighted to be nominated for an Infratil Award at the recent Waitakere Council Awards. The event recognises the contribution of community. Sharon Davies of Waitakere City Council nominated us and collected the award on our behalf. Unfortunately, our invitation to the event was lost in the post so we missed the evening! Many thanks Sharon and Penny for nominating us and your ongoing support.

Covered Arena Project

Henderson RDA would like to announce that we have, after much debate and consideration decided not to build our covered arena at the Henderson Valley Pony Club. The Covered Arena project was initiated seven years ago and negotiations about its position and use has been going on ever since.

We have decided that it is time to find our own permanent home as we intend to further grow our service for the children of West Auckland.

It is our intention to apply for grants to obtain a piece of land on which to establish a West Auckland Centre for Riding Therapy and build the covered arena there. This process may take a couple of years and there are no guarantees that we will gain the funds. This is an ambitious goal for us, but we want to give it a go. In the meantime we are delighted to be staying at HVPC and continuing offering our service as usual from there. Watch this space – we’ll keep you posted on progress.

Gull

In August our fantastic treasurer Shirley Furneaux applied for a Gull Community Grant to buy our horses some new covers. Gull very generously donated us five winter and five summer covers with a value of over $1500. Covers are important to keep our horses fly free in the summer and clean and mud free in the winter. They help to keep them happy and healthy. So a huge thank you to Gull. Below is a photo of Kaimani modeling a new cover with children Arun & Rachel from Arahanui school presenting Lynn Ellis of Gull with a thank you card.

Photo courtesy of Justin Latiff of the Western Leader.

Lee Benson

– Rider’s Representative

For those of you who don’t know Lee Benson she is now our Rider’s Representative. She will be coming around to introduce herself and get to know you better. Lee attends our committee meetings so if you want anything raised please see Lee. We are here to help and love to hear your feedback.

RDA Auckland Regional Games 2009

These were held at Te Papa in Brookby on 20 September. All seven Auckland region RDA groups were represented. This was a wonderful day where our children had the opportunity to ride in a different environment (a fantastic covered arena) and participate in some fun events with children from all over Auckland. The events included an obstacle course, egg and spoon race, cone race and tack identification game. dressage event, mini trail ride, and a fun water carrying game.

The children joined in with lots of enthusiasm. It was challenging for many of them, the arena was huge, they were riding unfamiliar horses and it was extremely busy. So well done to Ashley, Aimee, Audrey, Stefanie and Jack who took part in a long but rewarding day. All the children came home with ribbons.

A big thank you to our volunteers Pia, Bob, Cathy, Erika, Lynne and Glynnis who were up at the crack of dawn to get over to Brookby and help with the day, which didn’t finish till past 4pm.

Volunteer Bob said “It was a really busy, happy day. The unknown competitions really stretched the kids. It brought out their competitive streaks!.”

Ashley’s grandma Pat said “We thought it was a fantastic day. It was great for Ashley’s confidence and riding is doing her the world of good.”

Air NZ Volunteers

We have been lucky to have the company of some lovely volunteers from Air New Zealand this term. Many thanks to Air New Zealand and Joanne Schaffoener for organising the placements. We are very grateful to Gary, Andy, Arianna and Chris the volunteers who helped get the horses ready, side walked and willingly did various other jobs. Gary struggled with our photocopier and lack of paper, and then kindly took the work back to the office to get it copied. It was returned with a new pack of paper!

Andy kindly took on the role of courier after the rally and delivered our promotional stand to South Auckland for us! Thanks Andy – that probably saved us at least $50.

Gary said, “Many thanks for the great opportunity, meeting the kids and horses and supporting the volunteers. It’s been a great morning, although Norma’s scones are looking doubtful! Well done.”

The scones turned out fine as I roped in Ashley’s grandmother Pat to bake them!

Contact Details

Norma Hayward – Editor: richnorm@slingshot.co.nz or 813 3030

General Enquiries: richnorm@slingshot.co.nz or 813 3030